Sales can be the most important growth engine for your small business. However, simply hiring a sales team won’t mean guaranteed growth.
Before hiring a team, you want to build a sales strategy that will help your new hires understand your sales process and capitalize on lead opportunities.
Here’s our four-step guide on how you can effectively get started selling your product or service.
1. Build Your Sales Strategy
Your sales strategy will define your product(s) or service(s) while also making it clear to your sales team how and where they’re likely to generate sales.
For example, you might have a product that sells well in person but not so great online. For these products or services, you want to consider how customers learn about your business and how they engage with your deliverables. You’ll likely follow up with the question, “is there room for this product or service to generate more leads by either lowering its cost, making it more accessible to customers or bolstering the deliverable?”
Next, define the promotions that work well for your product or service — ask yourself questions like, “do coupons work for attracting customers?” and “are the promotions well placed?”
Lastly, research and explore exactly what your customers want and what they expect from your business. Here are a few suggestions:
- Create a short survey on google docs for customers to fill out.
- Gather data through google analytics or various other sources related to your market and industry
- Reach out to your customers on the phone and try to understand what they need from you.
- Follow up after a sale to make sure they’re happy with their purchase.
- Hire market research specialists.
2. Create Your Elevator Pitch
Once you’ve completed these four steps and have done the research, it’s time to revisit and refine your marketing and promotion efforts.
Create an elevator pitch that tells potential customers exactly who you are, what you do and what someone will get out of your product or service.
Be relevant in your messaging and provide an example of why you’re relevant to your customers. If you fail to communicate why you are relevant, they’re likely to tune out during your sales pitch and you’ll miss out on a sale, even if you have the perfect product for the right customer. Be sure to be clear and concise with your pitch, making sure your message gets across efficiently and effectively.
3. Refine Your Delivery
Once you’ve got your messaging squared away, you’re ready to reach out and get feedback from customers– read reviews and listen to what your customers have to say.
You’ll likely want to imagine yourself in your customer’s shoes when refining your sales funnel. When you can understand the pain points your customers face when considering your product, you’ll likely find the perfect messaging to convert leads into paying customers.
4. Hire a Sales Team
At this point, you’ve mastered your sales strategy and process. You’re now ready to hire someone to take over the sales part of your business so you can focus on management and scaling. Make sure you have a clear and concise guide for the salesperson to follow, setting realistic goals for your team to meet.
It’s also important for any growing business to rely on its team members to contribute to the growth of the company, allowing the business owner to focus on the aspects of the business that are most important to scale.
As your business takes on more customers and generates even more sales, you’ll want to be prepared for your company’s growth. Use our step-by-step guide to get your sales campaigns off the ground and in front of your customers.
