Posts tagged "concepts"

Advice Sales Strategy

Ask and you shall receive

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“To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask?” Jim Rohn

You have got a sales appointment to meet the decision maker. The initiatives which you took in the last step are paying dividends. The sales pitch goes off well, there is excitement in the room and after a few words at the end of the meeting you are told they will be in touch. Feeling good about the pitch and thinking that the probability of securing the client is high, you are disappointed when there is no follow up from the client and after a while, the lead goes dead. This happened several times at the start of my journey and I always wondered what went wrong. I was really happy when I learned the answer to this conundrum.

An experienced entrepreneur I spoke to asked me whether I had been “Asking for the sale?”. Initially the question was confusing, but when I started to put the pieces together it made a lot more sense. I realised that whenever I was pitching to clients and enthusiasm was generated, I did not focus on closing the deal. I never asked the client for the sale! Psychologically I was avoiding being the pushy salesman, afraid the client would say the dreaded word ‘NO’. As a result I was repeatedly leaving money on the table by not asking the right questions.

Armed with this advice I went back to my script and practiced closing strategies for sales pitches. There are many interesting articles and training courses out there on closing strategies. I have taken the Neuro Linguistic Programming which has helped me tremendously. I have since formulated a way to subtly and politely ask the client for their business at the end of the presentation. Initially it felt strange and I was not  confident about asking, however, over time I have honed my skills. Now ,it has become second nature for me to go into a presentation and confidently, politely and subtly ask the client for their business.

The next time you are making a client presentation, make sure you formulate a strategy to ask the client to give you their business. You will not always win the business, however, through this process you will learn what you could be doing differently and then go back and ask for it again which should win you the contract!

Sales Strategy

Be Proactive

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“You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.” Anthony Robbins

You have developed your product/service, have your pitch ready, and are ready to go. Unfortunately, customers don’t usually start banging on your door as soon as you announce your product/service to the world. If you are serious about getting that first sale, and more importantly getting it soon, you need to put yourself out there. Take the initiative to set a target, get a list together and start making those calls and visits to prospects. This is the only way you are going to see momentum in your business. Don’t worry about refining it to perfection, you need to go out there and see what the market thinks about it. Writing story boards and doing research from the comfort of your office is important, but you need to start taking action if you are want to see results. Listed below are a couple of pointers to get you started:

1. Set SMART targets: To get to any destination, you first need to know where you are going, what route to follow and an approximate lenght of time to get there. Charting the course of your first sale works pretty much in the same manner. Set yourself aggressive goals which are time bound. Specific targets keep you more focused and create a greater urgency to get things accomplished within stipulated time frames.

2. Put a list together: Do an industry analysis and select an industry in which you believe your product/service will have the greatest uptake. This will lead naturally to the next step, which is creating a list of prospective companies you can visit in this industry. After the completion of this list of companies, chart out references or friends you may leverage on to approach these companies. This step creates a greater degree of focus and increases the likelihood of closing a deal at a faster pace.

3. Start making those calls: Pick up the phone and start making calls to references, friends or directly to the company to get appointments or even sales. At this stage, you really kick it up a gear as you are now in direct contact with target customers. The impressions you make at this stage will be critical, especially if you are a new company. Have a scripted pitch which should not sound too rehearsed, be very polite and execute it all with the utmost professionalism. Follow each call with standardized follow up emails and start  building connections to get closer to closing that first deal.

4. Network Endlessly: If you are not selling, you should be networking. Use tools such as linkedin to help expand your current professional network. This expansion helps you get more qualified leads, greater access to a much wider net of companies and the opportunity to get your product/service known in the market without spending too much on advertising. The next time you get an invitation to mixers or industry specific conferences, use these opportunities to go out there and get known in the market place.

Use this list to get started. This is not the time to procrastinate. If you want success, you need to be willing to go out there are start looking for it. There is no better time than now to start your sales campaign!

Related Articles:

– SMART Goal Setting

– Industry Identification

Inspiration Sales

Envision It!

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“Envisioning the end is enough to put the means in motion.” Dorthea Brande

You call up the 4th prospect on your list and rattle off the perfectly rehearsed pitch you have been using for the last few months, day after day. All of a sudden, the prospect starts to show interest in what you are saying….you seem to have hit a chord somewhere and the best part is, you can sense it. The phone call ends on a positive note and more information is requested via email. An hour after you have the sent the mail the client, the large multinational, says they would like to speak with you in greater detail. Its an eerie feeling, the realization that you may actually have hit home and the butterflies let loose.

You arrive at the customers office, adrenaline is rushing through your body, however, you are willing yourself to be calm and confident as you have given this pitch many a time. You meet the team you are presenting to and straight off the bat you can feel the chemistry. The presentation goes well and all the verbal and non verbal cues confirm your initial vibes. During the question and answer session you face the standard questions, you have the answers, backed by much hard work and research. You close the meeting, with the client asking for time to make their decision. For a split second you think, will this end up like all the other dead ends, or was it truly different. You then make  a conscious decision to stay positive on this one.

The next morning you have an email waiting for you from the client requesting a quotation. Negotiations move quickly through the course of the day and you feel like you are on cloud nine. All those days where you were frustrated, angry and even demotivated, are already a distant memory. By the day’s end, you get the email you have been waiting for….a confirmation to move forward and a signed agreement. Sitting there , looking at the computer screen you are in a momentary daze that seems to last forever. A million thoughts are firing off in your mind relating to steps for moving forward, the realization that you have done it and a euphoric sense of happiness. You let go and for the first time in months there is a feeling of…..freedom.

Congratulations, you have cleared one of the steepest hurdles in your initial journey as an entrepreneur. This is the beginning of many more and now you know a bit more on how to get there. For those of you who have not reached this milestone yet and are working towards it, stop whatever you are doing right now. Close your eyes and envision closing your first sale in detail, start from the beginning and go through the entire sales process. Identify all the emotions, the verbal and non verbal cues, once the image is clear, hold it, you now have a roadmap to get to where you want to be ! Best of luck in your journey!

Advice Inspiration Sales

The Elusive First Sale

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“Remember, you only have to succeed the last time.” Brian Tracy

Having been in the position of pushing myself to close that elusive first deal as also managing people who are striving to hit that landmark milestone, I have developed this strange love hate relationship with this stage in a startups life. When I look back to my first startup where we were a selling designing and printing service, I realise what a great learning experience it was for all of us. We were a bunch of 21 year old students with no background, no experience and no past clientele. We had to figure out very quickly what aspect we could compete with our competitors on, it turned out to be customer service. Our entire business model worked because being university based we could cater to the large design and print requirements of the university in a more personalized manner.

It took us around 4 months to close our first ‘real’ deal. We were constantly pushed around, looked down upon, our calls were not returned and most importantly we were constantly pressured to reduce our prices because we were ‘students’. So given all of that, you are probably wondering what the ‘love’ aspect for this stage in a startup is. It came from the fact that for the first time in our lives we had to prove to ourselves that we could do something on our own. Call it ego, inner strength or a magical drive, there was a voice inside you which kept on saying “You Can Do This”. That is the voice which has helped me stay the course as an entrepreneur.

Over the course of this week, I am going to outline some basic but fundamental concepts which need to be kept in mind when you are in the position of pushing yourself or your team to close that first deal. This is a time in entrepreneurial life where will, determination and drive are tested to the limit. This is  a defining and testing time to check whether you have it in you or not, this is the stage where many discover that this path was not meant for them. Use this stage in your startup life to identify within yourself  what drives you, how you face adversity and what your threshold levels actually are. Most importantly enjoy this time, discover if you can learn to love what you do. In the end, that is all that matters. When you do something you love doing, you will never have to work another day in your life. Best of luck!