Sales and marketing are essential to any business, big or small. We know that much. But not every small business owner knows about the sales process, and how each part links together to attract customers, and keep them. Not every small business will have a dedicated sales person, but making sure all of your employees know the importance of each of the sales skills below can ensure you stay in business, and ultimately grow. It is also important that you hire the right sales talent.
1. Business Skills
These are the foundation skills essential to any business person, and apply particularly to small business owners as they and their employees have to embody their business as a whole. The message they convey to their potential customers about their business at this stage can be make or break. Every member of your organisation carries your brand, so make sure time with customers counts. Dress the part. Practice your handshake. And most of all, know your product.
2. Customer Contact
So you have positioned your business perfectly in the market, and have started to generate interest with customers. Their experience with your company will greatly influence how much return business you deserve. Afterall, there are no second chances at first impressions. So be sure to engage your customers in conversation, to find out what their needs are, and how your product can fulfil their requirements. Often, this only means having to listen more than talk. Be sure to use the 5W’s – What, Why, When, Where, Who – to get the most information out of them, so you can move on to the next step…
3. Engaging the Customer
This is when you take all the information your customer has given you, and engage them with your product. It is the ideal opportunity to really hook them, but can be detrimental if not handled correctly. Aspects to keep in mind are knowledge of the competition, testing or challenging assumptions and keeping up with industry standards. We live in the Age of Information, and very often the customer knows more than the salesperson, so being able to overcome these obstacles will not only impress the customer, but ensure repeat business and reputation remain intact.
4. Information and Activity Management
Often overlooked, these seemingly tedious administration activities can be crucial to your new business. Writing up your business plan, setting goals and objectives, and your sales targets, projections and reports need to be closely monitored and updated to keep the business focussed. Maintaining an organised work ethic among you and your staff will keep your business moving forward, with steady growth. Besides, nothing more embarrassing than promising a customer a quote, then letting it get lost in an ocean of e-mails, right?
5. Negotiating and Closing
The home-stretch. You have come so far to get to this point, yet so many struggle to get that final nod of approval, and rake in the business. Although similar to engaging your customer, this is more about influencing your customer expectations of your product, handling their objections and negotiating and price that suits their budget. There are abundant advice blogs available about closing techniques, so research the ones that suit your personality. Just be sure that whatever promises are made are kept, as the reputation of your business is everything at this stage.