Three Ways to Increase Sales
Three Ways to Increase Sales
Brilliant Idea #1
The first obvious way to increase sales is to boost the number of leads you get. This just may be the most expensive of the three alternatives, while also having the potential of being the least effective. To acquire more leads, you have to market more. What the Marketing department does is increase awareness and expose your company/product to potential buyers. These buyers may by ready to purchase, which is the ideal situation. Unfortunately, the lions-share of leads tend to be unqualified because they are typically not qualified or the marketing message was sent to someone who is not a good candidate for your offering.
If your marketing efforts are performed accurately and precise, as they should, then the target audience matches the right profile of customers whom already purchased from you. Clearly, if that works, you want to increase the audience that sees your message, thereby increasing the number of qualified leads that respond to your message. However, as I already stated, most leads that come into a company’s Marketing department tend to be unqualified. This is because they rely on mass-marketing. The theory being that if they normally get a 1% response rate, then they should increase the total number of direct mails they send out, or get as many names as possible from the trade show they’re doing, or offer a free drawing to ANYONE who comes to their web site so they can capture their name and email address. These leads tend to be as useful as a screen door on a submarine. The key is to get qualified leads, not just leads, which brings us to our next brilliant idea.
Brilliant Idea #2
My second most obvious way to increase sales is to improve the quality of leads. Now we’re making some sense. It’s not a matter of quantity, but quality that makes the difference. You can bring in as many leads as you can, but if they’re not qualified, then they are worthless. It depends on how you search for leads. In other words, your marketing efforts and campaigns should be geared toward the right audience in order to attract buyers who would be interested in your product or service.
When you decide to participate in a trade show, are the attendees the same people or businesses who would otherwise purchase your offering? When you hold a seminar, do you only invite the exact profile of prospects that match the customers who already purchased from you, or do you invite anyone (including your guests’ guests) in order to fill the room? When you purchase a mailing list, how close does it match the profile of your existing, profitable customers? All these factors, and more, affect the quality of leads you’ll acquire, which will affect your ultimate sales.
If you look at your existing customers and segment them into categories depending on their purchasing habits, how much they purchased from you, what motivated them to buy, their business or personal characteristics, and other such profiling information, then you should try to acquire similar leads. I spoke with a man once who owned a pizza parlor and he couldn’t understand why he hardly got any responses to a postcard campaign he mailed out with an attractive discount on his pizzas. It turned out that he sent it to a generic mailing list of “home owners” in a 20 mile radius. The ONLY qualification was that they had an address and it was within 20 miles from his restaurant.
Aside from the fact that this guy was clueless about geography and why nobody would travel that far for a pizza, he didn’t segment the data at all to match his typical client. Basically, one just had to have an address to get his mailing. Now, if this failed for a pizza parlor (and EVERYONE loves pizza), then think about what this flawed strategy could do to your campaign. You have to market to prospects that match the criteria of your most popular, profitable and preferred customers. I told you this stuff was obvious.
Brilliant Idea #3
Once you figured out that it’s the quality of the lead that makes the difference, then it’s time to address my third brilliant idea – Improve Your Selling Skills!
Marketing, or Sales, can find the most qualified leads in the civilized world, but if your sales people don’t know how to sell to them, it’s a waste of time and money. Focusing on just increasing the amount of leads you get is just plain dumb. Making sure they’re qualified leads is smart. But making sure your sales people have the selling skills needed to further qualify the leads, as well as identify their specific needs, present the right solutions, negotiate successfully, handle objections, and close the deal, is priceless.
So why is it that so many businesses neglect sales training and seem to just focus on gathering more leads, qualified or not? I don’t know. But I wish they’d think about it more and address this simple, yet important, aspect of sales. I hear all the time about sales managers and business owners who get frustrated by hiring a sales person, only to fire them in 6 months because of poor performance. Yet these same business owners and executives have done nothing to help improve or build the skills of their sales people. Sure, they provide what they call “sales training”, which is comprised of product, market, and competitive training, but no selling skills are involved. They believe that the actual selling skills should already be ingrained in the sales rep’s head and that comes with the territory. I don’t agree.
Sales managers and business owners need to recognize that selling skills need to be reinforced and repeated for all sales people, even if they’ve been selling for many years. Over time, sales people forget things, they take things for granted, and/or they don’t know some of the new and changing selling techniques that are required in today’s economy. And new sales people (I mean new to selling, not new to the company) need sales training as well, and mostly, since chances are they never learned the skills needed for cold calling, asking questions, listening, negotiating, handling objections, closing, and even retaining existing customers.
I don’t know about you, but I vote on Brilliant Idea #3 as the best idea. It’s really a “Duh” moment because it’s so obvious. Yet I don’t see enough of it happening. Perhaps it’s not so obvious after all. I know that a lot of sales managers and business owners are so wrapped up in their daily activities and fire-fighting drills that they “don’t have time” to provide quality sales training. Somehow, though, they seem to have time to fire their non-performing sales reps and spend months finding and re-training new sales reps. I guess it’s like that old saying --- There’s never time to do it right, but there’s always time to do it again. Some people never learn. I hope you do.
Good luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
(702) 655-5652
Three Ways to Increase Sales - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo's Website.
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It seems that everyone is loaded with ideas on how to increase sales (so why shouldn’t I join the pack too?) Some of these ideas have to do with marketing tactics. Others deal with selling skills. And yet others have something to do with the phases of the moon and sacrificial goats. Most of these ideas are good and work to one degree or another. I, however, want to discuss three blatantly obvious tactics that may have alluded you.
Brilliant Idea #1
The first obvious way to increase sales is to boost the number of leads you get. This just may be the most expensive of the three alternatives, while also having the potential of being the least effective. To acquire more leads, you have to market more. What the Marketing department does is increase awareness and expose your company/product to potential buyers. These buyers may by ready to purchase, which is the ideal situation. Unfortunately, the lions-share of leads tend to be unqualified because they are typically not qualified or the marketing message was sent to someone who is not a good candidate for your offering.
If your marketing efforts are performed accurately and precise, as they should, then the target audience matches the right profile of customers whom already purchased from you. Clearly, if that works, you want to increase the audience that sees your message, thereby increasing the number of qualified leads that respond to your message. However, as I already stated, most leads that come into a company’s Marketing department tend to be unqualified. This is because they rely on mass-marketing. The theory being that if they normally get a 1% response rate, then they should increase the total number of direct mails they send out, or get as many names as possible from the trade show they’re doing, or offer a free drawing to ANYONE who comes to their web site so they can capture their name and email address. These leads tend to be as useful as a screen door on a submarine. The key is to get qualified leads, not just leads, which brings us to our next brilliant idea.
Brilliant Idea #2
My second most obvious way to increase sales is to improve the quality of leads. Now we’re making some sense. It’s not a matter of quantity, but quality that makes the difference. You can bring in as many leads as you can, but if they’re not qualified, then they are worthless. It depends on how you search for leads. In other words, your marketing efforts and campaigns should be geared toward the right audience in order to attract buyers who would be interested in your product or service.
When you decide to participate in a trade show, are the attendees the same people or businesses who would otherwise purchase your offering? When you hold a seminar, do you only invite the exact profile of prospects that match the customers who already purchased from you, or do you invite anyone (including your guests’ guests) in order to fill the room? When you purchase a mailing list, how close does it match the profile of your existing, profitable customers? All these factors, and more, affect the quality of leads you’ll acquire, which will affect your ultimate sales.
If you look at your existing customers and segment them into categories depending on their purchasing habits, how much they purchased from you, what motivated them to buy, their business or personal characteristics, and other such profiling information, then you should try to acquire similar leads. I spoke with a man once who owned a pizza parlor and he couldn’t understand why he hardly got any responses to a postcard campaign he mailed out with an attractive discount on his pizzas. It turned out that he sent it to a generic mailing list of “home owners” in a 20 mile radius. The ONLY qualification was that they had an address and it was within 20 miles from his restaurant.
Aside from the fact that this guy was clueless about geography and why nobody would travel that far for a pizza, he didn’t segment the data at all to match his typical client. Basically, one just had to have an address to get his mailing. Now, if this failed for a pizza parlor (and EVERYONE loves pizza), then think about what this flawed strategy could do to your campaign. You have to market to prospects that match the criteria of your most popular, profitable and preferred customers. I told you this stuff was obvious.
Brilliant Idea #3
Once you figured out that it’s the quality of the lead that makes the difference, then it’s time to address my third brilliant idea – Improve Your Selling Skills!
Marketing, or Sales, can find the most qualified leads in the civilized world, but if your sales people don’t know how to sell to them, it’s a waste of time and money. Focusing on just increasing the amount of leads you get is just plain dumb. Making sure they’re qualified leads is smart. But making sure your sales people have the selling skills needed to further qualify the leads, as well as identify their specific needs, present the right solutions, negotiate successfully, handle objections, and close the deal, is priceless.
So why is it that so many businesses neglect sales training and seem to just focus on gathering more leads, qualified or not? I don’t know. But I wish they’d think about it more and address this simple, yet important, aspect of sales. I hear all the time about sales managers and business owners who get frustrated by hiring a sales person, only to fire them in 6 months because of poor performance. Yet these same business owners and executives have done nothing to help improve or build the skills of their sales people. Sure, they provide what they call “sales training”, which is comprised of product, market, and competitive training, but no selling skills are involved. They believe that the actual selling skills should already be ingrained in the sales rep’s head and that comes with the territory. I don’t agree.
Sales managers and business owners need to recognize that selling skills need to be reinforced and repeated for all sales people, even if they’ve been selling for many years. Over time, sales people forget things, they take things for granted, and/or they don’t know some of the new and changing selling techniques that are required in today’s economy. And new sales people (I mean new to selling, not new to the company) need sales training as well, and mostly, since chances are they never learned the skills needed for cold calling, asking questions, listening, negotiating, handling objections, closing, and even retaining existing customers.
I don’t know about you, but I vote on Brilliant Idea #3 as the best idea. It’s really a “Duh” moment because it’s so obvious. Yet I don’t see enough of it happening. Perhaps it’s not so obvious after all. I know that a lot of sales managers and business owners are so wrapped up in their daily activities and fire-fighting drills that they “don’t have time” to provide quality sales training. Somehow, though, they seem to have time to fire their non-performing sales reps and spend months finding and re-training new sales reps. I guess it’s like that old saying --- There’s never time to do it right, but there’s always time to do it again. Some people never learn. I hope you do.
Good luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
(702) 655-5652
Three Ways to Increase Sales - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo'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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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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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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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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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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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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