This month’s client guest post is from Fiona Flynn. Fiona is a Sales and Marketing consultant specialising in the provision of effective sales and marketing strategies for companies in the SME space, primarily in the high-tech industry where she has developed extensive expertise.
In this post, Fiona offers 5 tips to help you drive sales in your business…
As September 1st is fast approaching – there is a back to school feeling in the air – parents are busy finalising shopping trips for books, shoes, uniforms etc in preparation for the new school year.
In terms of business, September is also the start of a new Sales period. The summer is coming to a close, people are back from holiday – the next few weeks are a useful time to get into the preparation mode for a new selling term. Here are five tips that I’d like to share with you to help with driving sales over the coming months:-
Set your goals – Make a plan of action
Sit down in a quiet space – step back from your business, review the last 8/9 months and set yourself 4/5 achievable goals for the next 3months. This might be to drive a certain level of sales, sign up a number of new customers, cross- sell to existing customers. The action of thinking through and writing down your sales goals will really help you focus on your priorities. The next step is to list 3/4 actions that you will undertake to achieve these goals.
Remember the SMART principle for goals setting – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. I read a piece of research recently that said we are 5 times more likely to achieve our goals if we share them with someone else!
Revisit and reconnect with your Top customers
A worthwhile exercise is to create a spreadsheet of your customers and their level of sales orders. Too often we give attention to the customers who are the most demanding as opposed to the most profitable. Rank and prioritise your customers. I have spent the last 2/3 weeks reconnecting with my top clients to see what their priorities and plans are for the coming months. This allows me to identify new projects that I can bid for. It has also provided me with referrals to some new clients. Nothing beats getting a referral from an existing client!
Collaboration
A great way to identify warm leads is to collaborate or partner with another business who is selling different products / services to the same group of customers. You are both talking to the same people with different products – a great way to share knowledge and open up new opportunities.
Networking
Yes, the networking season is upon us again! My biggest tip on networking is to find a group that makes sense to you and your business. Are you going to meet potential customers there – will you get value from it? Do you enjoy it? Networking is not just about turning up and swapping business cards – it’s about building long term mutual relationships that add value to your business.
Do something new
Too often we are afraid to step outside of our comfort zone. However, if you think of when we had the biggest breakthroughs in our lives – learning to walk, learning to swim, drive a car, start a new business – we may have heard the “I can’t do this” voice inside our heads. It is only when we step outside our comfort zone that we really grow. I recommend that you think of something new that you could do – that would create that uncomfortable feeling initially but could really allow your business to flourish – write a blog, organise an event, networking, public speaking. Go on, try it and enjoy the experience.
I wish you all the best of luck in your preparation for the new Sales term!