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Guest post by: MIchael Daley Become an Author

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There is a saying in business that nothing happens until somebody makes a sale. This is true whether you are selling a product or a service.

Indeed, making sales is the reason businesses exist, but exactly how to identify, acquire, and keep customers can be a constant challenge. Sales processes and lead generation continuously rank at the top of the list of owners' education needs. How you generate leads, capture sales, and treat the customers after delivery are the drivers for a successful business model.

The most basic models for successful selling require that a business pulls together what they do best with what the prospects want most. But knowing which is which requires care and planning.

Here are some simple steps to help you capture more sales:

Know Your Unique Selling Proposition

• Why should a customer do business or purchase a product from you rather than your competition? In some instances, this can be a many layered question. For instance, if you are a Ford dealer, why would someone buy from you as opposed to the Chevrolet dealer and instead of buying from the other Ford dealer down the street?



• You need to know your market and your product inside and out. Talk to prospects, people who bought from you and those that bought elsewhere. Why are some customers attracted to the competition? What do your customers like about you?



• Take that information and describe what you can do for the customer better than anyone else.

Guide Your Customer through the Purchase Funnel

• Prospective customers have to learn who you are. This is awareness. Here the focus is on the emotional benefits of your product or service. Stress emotional concepts like security, integrity, charity, or prestige.



• The next stage is consideration. Prospects begin weighing the pros and cons of dealing with your business. They are considering making a purchase. Here you want to make real, rational, quantifiable benefits apparent to them. These could be cost savings, the latest technology, life time warranties, or any other measurable aspect of the product or service.

Set Up Listening Posts

• You don't have to invest a lot of money in focus groups to get feedback. Consider a low-cost listening post on the internet. Ask customers to take a web based survey or visit a chat room where they can discuss their needs.



• Use these to establish an honest, open dialogue with, and between your customers. If they have gripes, fix them.



• Each time you have a contact with an existing or potential customer try to establish a venue for communication with your company.



• Use the feedback to train your sales persons, make promotional offers, and develop new products.

Have a Clear Direction

• A shotgun approach to selling can be expensive and misguided. Just like an Air Force drone can pinpoint a target, a focused sales effort can pinpoint prospects and turn them into customers. Take the rifle approach and aim carefully.



• Knowing which customers are receptive to your unique selling proposition will help you target the sales efforts. If you are selling high service at a premium price, it's important to get your sales message to those customers that can afford and will appreciate your superior service.



• Who is your target? How do they behave? Where do they shop? What do they read? Effective selling is not about making a lot of impressions; rather it is about getting those impressions to the right people.

Get Your Share of the Wallet

• Market penetration should be a goal of every business plan. But just as important is wallet share- how much of what your customers buy are they buying from you? It is much easier and more profitable to sell to an existing customer. By maximizing your sales to each customer, you can reduce the cost of sales and increase profit.



• Develop new ways to provide complimentary value and benefit to existing customers. As you provide them with increasing value, the likelihood of losing them to competition becomes more remote.

So boil down the selling sauce to its fundamentals; know what sets you apart, develop a collaborative selling approach with your customers, and listen to what they need and expect. Finally, have a follow-up process in place. Who knows, your customer might provide a referral if you ask.

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