5 ways the No Ordinary Sales Machine will grow your sales
If you operate a small business, chances are your sales and marketing functions are one and the same, controlled by you or one other person, but as businesses grow, these two functions tend to grow apart, becoming almost independent fiefdoms. There’s always been a tension, a kind of jealousy, between sales and marketing, but there shouldn’t be because they both have the same purpose – to obtain and keep customers. In my experience as a marketing manager, CEO and marketing consultant, the best-performing companies take a holistic view of sales and marketing – not only running them hand-in-hand but expecting everybody in the company, from the receptionist to the CEO, to be a salesperson.
2. Focusing on the customer, not on the product or service
No matter how clever your marketing is, customers won’t give a hoot about your product or service unless it solves a problem or meets a need for them. Yet so much marketing and so many sales pitches still focus on the product and not the value that the customer will get from the product.
3. Optimising your Sales Machine working before sucking more leads into it
I don’t like the term ‘sales funnel’. Why? Because a sales funnel implies that leads go in at the top and come out at the bottom as customers. But in reality, most sales funnels are so full of holes that pretty much all the leads leak out the sides and only a trickle of customers come out at the end, if you’re lucky.
I prefer the term ‘Sales Machine’ because leads need to be managed in a careful and methodical way if you want to stop leakage and gain a steady flow of customers. This is called ‘conversion’ in the sales funnel analogy because its focus is on converting leads into sales. I prefer to call it ‘nurture’ because not all leads will be ready to buy, but you must establish a nurturing relationship with them if you’re to get the sale when they are ready. You also need to look after leads who do buy because they can become repeat customers and refer their friends and colleagues to you.
The No Ordinary Sales Machine contains all the systems needed to nurture leads and customers with little or no leakage.
4. Making sure your consultants have attitude
I use the word ‘consultants’ instead of ‘sales people’ because that’s the first attitude they need to have - that they’re consultants, there to help customers solve their problems, not salespeople looking to foist products or services on customers. Despite the rise of sales and marketing technologies, most businesses still require some sort of salesforce. Consultants must be provided with all the tools and training they need to be effective at what they do. But most important, they must have attitude – self-belief as well as belief in their products or services.
6. Testing, measuring and improving
Is sales consulting a science or an art? The truth is, it’s a little of both. Which means there’s no one way to consult. But only by constantly testing and measuring its effectiveness – in terms of customer relationships, results and loyalty as much as simply sales – is it possible to improve the Sales Machine’s processes.
Need to increase your conversion rate, grow your sales and build customer loyalty? Contact me for a free Initial Consultation about the unique No Ordinary Sales Machine.
I'm Robin La Pere, no ordinary marketing consultant. It's amazing how much marketing has changed since I started in the industry, but although this has made the industry more complex, it has given marketers more opportunities than ever before.
I've designed the No Ordinary Sales Machine to help businesses like yours take full advantage of these opportunities to create an effective sales funnel – and that means a sales funnel that doesn't leak and optimises sales conversions!
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