Define Your Sales Process - Simplify Your Advertising

I was recently talking to a client of mine about a marketing campaign he was interested in running.
This client is a computer networking consultant. He does on-site visits to service business's computer networks.

So, he calls me up and said that he needed more clients and so was going to run some advertising. He mentioned 3 mediums - (bulk) postcard mailings, billboard ads and Google Adwords. He was going off in all different directions and I started asking him a couple of simple questions. Once he couldn't answer them, I just said, "Ok, stop. Backup. What is your sales process?"

His reply - "What do you mean, my sales process?"

I said, you are a long way from talking about advertising. You aren't ready yet if you don't know your sales process. Before you spend any money on advertising, you need to have some things in place.

The first is a defined system for closing sales. You see, marketing should be about controlling an known entity. It is something in which you invest in order to gain a return. It is not (or should not be) something that is done by random chance in order to "see what happens".

To define your sales process, you must think about the steps that potential customer or clients go through before they hand over their money to you. How do they get from not knowing you to becoming a paying customer? Then, you simply create a path for them that makes it easy to follow from one step to the next and then promote it.

For example, my computer consultant client... We had a good discussion and I asked him how he gets his clients. What is the step before they contract you to work in their office? "Oh", he said, "that is easy. We set up a meeting with them. If I can get in their office for a meeting, I will close a good majority of prospects."

Great.

See, now we know what we are selling. Any of the advertising that we do does not sell the consulting service. Advertising should be the start of the sales process and should follow like a chain. Any ads that we put out for his service only have to sell the potential client a meeting. If the consultant gets into a meeting, he will close the majority of the time.

So, do we run ads that sell the meeting? Well, we could. However, there is even a more effective way. Think for a minute... wouldn't it be better to go in to the meeting as an "expert"? Wouldn't it be better if the potential client already felt some respect for the consultant? It would very likely increase the close rate. How do we do that? Well, I suggest adding an extra step to the sales process.

Take the opportunity to position yourself as an expert.

We'll call it the two-step method. Introduce yourself to your prospect via an information package. Or through a free trial of your product/service. Or with a free consultation. Something that will let them feel comfortable with you before you ask for the sale.

I have suggested to my consulting client to offer a free info package. Maybe a report he is writing regarding monthly computer maintenance tasks. It could be a free site visit and inspection of their computer network. He could actually go and offer some kind of network security analysis - after which, he could identify to his prospect certain areas of their security that could be enhanced or maintained.

The point here is that if you have a clear, defined sales process, it is easier to do advertising. All that your ad has to do is ell the next step. So with our consultant example, here is one proposed scenario:

1. Advertisement invites readers to go to a website and learn how to maintain their computer network monthly for maximum performance.
2. Website requires visitor to exchange their contact information for a free report on the topic.
3. Consultant follows up, using contact info to set up a free consultation.
4. Free consultation leads to identifying flaws in the company network security.
5. Now the consultant has something to sell - a specific solution to a problem he has already identified for the customer. Why wouldn't the prospect buy?

See, by now, the consultant is already an expert. He has already proven that he knows his stuff (free report), he has been in to the office and identified issues that the prospect has. If he is smart, he takes a minute to explain why each issue he has identified is relevant to the security of the company. This also proves him as the expert and builds trust from the prospect. Now asking for the opportunity to fix these problems is easily done with a high rate of closing.

Some extra notes:

Some of these steps could be changed. For example, the advertisements could offer a free consultation directly and eliminate the free information product. It may depend on what you are more comfortable with. It may also depend on the complexity of what you are offering or your area of expertise. One thing to keep in mind, though is that you will very likely get more people asking for a free report or free information than you will for a free consultation. You should test this of course, but free information that is sent over is less threatening. Your goal here should be to generate leads and a prospect list with which you can follow up later on. A few follow-ups will greatly increase your close rate.

The main point here is that whatever you decide your sales process is, know what it is. Write it down and make it step-by-step so that it flows. Have one step lead to the next so that when your prospect enters your "sales funnel" (i.e. Sees your ad), you are leading them along to the finish line (turning them into a client).

More importantly here is that you even know what your sales process is (many businesses don't have a defined sales process or even know how or why they get customers). This way, it is easy to know how to advertise - just start at the top of the sales process. One step sells the next until you have a repeatable, defined sales machine.