Sales is often generalised as a single activity.
However, to fully understand sales and it's role to your business you must realise that sales isn't a single activity. It is a collection of steps your customer has to take before becoming a paying customer for your business.
This collection of steps is made easy to understand and explained through a Sales Process.
Before you begin with any stage of the Sales Process, I encourage you to find out your sales forecast in 2 steps here.
I've compiled below hidden secrets I wish I knew before I started my own business. It's because I only realised after 3 years, that a consistent flow of leads ensures that business is sustainable and continues to grow.
Below I will cover Stage 1 of the Sales Process.
Hidden Secrets for Beginners to Unlock the Leads Waterfall
Secret 1: Identify Your Target Audience - Learn Who Are Your Potential Customers.
‘Make a Customer, Not a Sale.’ ― Katherine Barchetti. When you rush to make a sale, you forget the person in front of you.
Listen and understand to the needs of your customers. Target your customers, and build your product with the best message to suit their needs.
Great reads and additional resources:
- Hubspot's article here gives great explanations on how other businesses' form strategy to target their audiences.
- Find inspiration on social ads for your business in Hootsuite's great article here.
- Quicksprout has a great article for an in-depth guide on defining your target Audience.
Secret 2: Choose a Promotional Method
After Step 1, you would have understood the preferences of your potential customer. You will need to ensure the benefits of your products are made known to your customers.
A great guide to create your detailed customer avatar here.
Secret 3: Use Social Media as Your Primary Tool
To start, I recommend advertising on Social Media, because you would save a great amount of advertising cost. A great guide I find useful is a LinkedIn marketing plan example covered by Suzanne here (although this is specifically for a financial advisor, I believe it would work for any other profession)
Secret 4: Don't Overlook Email
An alternative for customers which are not tech savvy, consider sending an email instead
- Email Monks covers a great article on Email Marketing myths here.
- Consider various email solutions from Everworks to deliver great emails here.
Lead generation is a continuous process however, with an efficient system in place your business is primed for sustainable future growth.
So are you going to take action to experiment the 4 secrets above?
