Making More Sales the Number 1 Key To Business Success
Making More Sales the Number 1 Key To Business Success
*
Revenue comes from making sales.
*
Sales come from customers.
*
Repeat sales are made to satisfied customers.
*
Profits result when overheads and costs are less than sales revenue.
In order to continue to make profits, and for profits to increase, you can either reduce overheads or make more sales.
Overheads can only be reduced so far. You can try to cut the phone and power bills, reduce other expenses but that may reduce costs by 5%. That really doesn’t make much difference to the profit line - so all you can do is sell more or buy better.
In this article, I want to focus on selling more. After all, without sales, we’d have no revenue and therefore no business.
Some business planning purists would say that the starting point of the enterprise is a vision; a goal of where we want to be in two, five, ten years. That’s fine but in the everyday battle of making money, those admirable aspirations are forgotten; especially by the staff whose main motivation is the next pay check. Most staff don’t share your vision or aspirations.
Improved sales and customer service are the result of improved interaction between your staff and your revenue source – the public.
Yet typically we don’t take any time to train our support teams in customer communication skills or in how to really sell our products or services.
By really sell, I mean understand exactly the benefits our service provides and how to identify the buyer’s motivation.
Generating new clients comes down to identifying what you have to offer them and then packaging your advertising, marketing and presentations to meet that need.
By asking astute questions and listening attentively to their answers, you can find out what issues they are concerned about. What are astute questions?
These are questions that help you identify what’s going on in their business or in their lives. You’re looking to uncover how you can give them pleasure or help them avoid pain.
These are the simple motivators for all decisions. The gaining of pleasure or avoidance of pain. Sometimes in business, we’ll hear this expressed as making or saving money. When you think about it, both expressions mean the same thing so take your pick!
OK, so there will be more complex theories expressed about buying motivation. Fear, hope, reward, saving face and more but when you boil them all down, they’re all the same.
Ask yourself this question right now:
“How does what I sell help generate pleasure or help avoid pain?”
Answer this one simple question and you’re on the way to gaining loads of new customers. Make sure that you and your team fully understand this simple motivator, and you’re well on the way.
You have to understand the benefit of whatever you sell. Your entire reason for existence is the value you can bring to your customer. You’ve heard this before – What’s In It For Me?
Remember that all along, your customer is saying to themself “What’s in this for me?”
This might be a knockout punch to you but let me tell you this straight - if what you do doesn’t add value, people won’t come to you.
Here’s a simple check to tell you whether what you sell is a benefit:
When you explain what you do in such a way that your buyer can answer “So what?” you’ve not provided a benefit.
By comparison, if they reply “That’s interesting” or “Yes, I see” the chances are you’ve provided a benefit.
Whatever you do, don’t get wrapped up in your product. Your focus is to sell what people want to buy. This means you have to package and present what you sell in such a way that they find it irresistible. (For instance, you don’t want to buy sales training. What you want is to learn a proven process that will make you more sales.)
It stands to reason therefore that in order to make more profits, your business needs to gain and retain more customers. That’s where I can help!
Until next time…
Making More Sales the Number 1 Key To Business Success - To learn more about this author, visit James Yuille's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
As a business owner or manager, your aim is to generate profit for your business, and preferably lots of it. Before that can happen though, the business has to have revenue.
*
Revenue comes from making sales.
*
Sales come from customers.
*
Repeat sales are made to satisfied customers.
*
Profits result when overheads and costs are less than sales revenue.
In order to continue to make profits, and for profits to increase, you can either reduce overheads or make more sales.
Overheads can only be reduced so far. You can try to cut the phone and power bills, reduce other expenses but that may reduce costs by 5%. That really doesn’t make much difference to the profit line - so all you can do is sell more or buy better.
In this article, I want to focus on selling more. After all, without sales, we’d have no revenue and therefore no business.
Some business planning purists would say that the starting point of the enterprise is a vision; a goal of where we want to be in two, five, ten years. That’s fine but in the everyday battle of making money, those admirable aspirations are forgotten; especially by the staff whose main motivation is the next pay check. Most staff don’t share your vision or aspirations.
Improved sales and customer service are the result of improved interaction between your staff and your revenue source – the public.
Yet typically we don’t take any time to train our support teams in customer communication skills or in how to really sell our products or services.
By really sell, I mean understand exactly the benefits our service provides and how to identify the buyer’s motivation.
Generating new clients comes down to identifying what you have to offer them and then packaging your advertising, marketing and presentations to meet that need.
By asking astute questions and listening attentively to their answers, you can find out what issues they are concerned about. What are astute questions?
These are questions that help you identify what’s going on in their business or in their lives. You’re looking to uncover how you can give them pleasure or help them avoid pain.
These are the simple motivators for all decisions. The gaining of pleasure or avoidance of pain. Sometimes in business, we’ll hear this expressed as making or saving money. When you think about it, both expressions mean the same thing so take your pick!
OK, so there will be more complex theories expressed about buying motivation. Fear, hope, reward, saving face and more but when you boil them all down, they’re all the same.
Ask yourself this question right now:
“How does what I sell help generate pleasure or help avoid pain?”
Answer this one simple question and you’re on the way to gaining loads of new customers. Make sure that you and your team fully understand this simple motivator, and you’re well on the way.
You have to understand the benefit of whatever you sell. Your entire reason for existence is the value you can bring to your customer. You’ve heard this before – What’s In It For Me?
Remember that all along, your customer is saying to themself “What’s in this for me?”
This might be a knockout punch to you but let me tell you this straight - if what you do doesn’t add value, people won’t come to you.
Here’s a simple check to tell you whether what you sell is a benefit:
When you explain what you do in such a way that your buyer can answer “So what?” you’ve not provided a benefit.
By comparison, if they reply “That’s interesting” or “Yes, I see” the chances are you’ve provided a benefit.
Whatever you do, don’t get wrapped up in your product. Your focus is to sell what people want to buy. This means you have to package and present what you sell in such a way that they find it irresistible. (For instance, you don’t want to buy sales training. What you want is to learn a proven process that will make you more sales.)
It stands to reason therefore that in order to make more profits, your business needs to gain and retain more customers. That’s where I can help!
Until next time…
Making More Sales the Number 1 Key To Business Success - To learn more about this author, visit James Yuille's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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