Part One
Each and every one of us, whether we work for ourselves or work for someone else, should now really be thinking in terms of going to work as if you were running your own business. This is never more so important than it is today, when we have so many pressures on us to retain business, and our customers are being entertained by the competition to move…
Your business is a bit like a garden. It can either blossom or become overrun by weeds, or just wither away and die - it all depends upon your attitude to nurturing growth. To attract customers to your business you have to establish it properly.
It takes a lot of careful planning and hard work to nurture your business, as it does your garden, but it can be very rewarding - just as a beautiful garden is a pleasure to behold. When you have it where you want it to be you can justifiably stand back and feel proud of your achievements. However, when does your business ever stand still long enough for that to happen?
You cannot stop there - just like a garden you have to weed and water it. If you do not, growth will be stifled, and once it stops growing it starts to die, and your business will never flourish.
Your established customers are the basis on which to build your business – you probably already know that. However growth is a sign of health and vigour and if your business is not growing then there's a good chance that we are in the early stages of decay.
To stop the rot setting in, you need to develop a well-organised “attack” and seek out new business opportunities so that you will prosper and grow. What this means is, you have to think about developing an effective approach to prospecting.
Regrettably, many people just sat back in their offices waiting for the business to come in. Don’t laugh, I have seen it! Do you?
Let’s assume your product range is very good, and your service is excellent, but how different is that to what your competitors offer? Somewhere, someone is selling to somebody, something that is just as good as what you have. So where does that leave you then?
Well, the first thing you can do is make sure that the customers actually know that you are in business. (See Lesson One: Get Noticed!)
Why are you in business; what are your business goals? I believe the number one reason for any of us to be in business is to help our customers achieve their goals. By assisting your customers to do that, then we in turn will achieve our goals. However, that’s not the reason I asked the question.
The reason I asked that particular question – what are your business goals? – was to demonstrate the question that is very often neglected in a sales call - finding out exactly what the company's goals are, and where they expect to be in 12 months, five years and ten years. Often this information can be gleaned from an Annual report if available, or other company material. For smaller businesses however, you are going to have to ask.
Continued in Part Two.
Prospecting for More Sales - A Ten-Part Series - To learn more about this author, visit Lawrence Atkinson's Website.
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Lawrence Atkinson
(Visit Lawrence's Website)
Lawrence specialises in sales training and
sales coaching, with over 20 years
experience as both a trainer and a coach.
He has lived and worked in the UK, Europe,
the Middle East and more recently the
Pacific Islands. He is a Fellow and
former Director of the Australian
Institute of Training and Development and
holds Fellowships with the Australian
Institute of Company Directors, the
Australian Institute of Management, and
the Financial Services Institute of
Australasia. He is also a Justice of the
Peace.
His many experiences in a variety of sales
situations present an interesting
background for his training and coaching
interventions and provide Lawrence with an
ability to relate to and train people at
all levels, across a variety of cultural
and industry settings. This includes, for
example, training and coaching business
owners and managers, senior relationship
managers, business banking managers,
financial advisers, retail sales people,
electrical sales engineers, accountants in
PNG, new Australian exporters, importers
and exporters in Fiji, and a video
production company in Bahrain!
A Rotarian and Paul Harris Fellow, he
loves to work with people to see them
succeed.
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