After working in printing for 17 years, Linda Bishop founded Thought Transformation to consult companies on selling more and reaching their full potential. Linda speaks at conferences, and has been published in print publications. Additionally, she authored "Selling in Tough Times," a guide for growing sales in a down economy. She now joins the Daybook Expert Network.
If you’re looking to increase sales, take a new look at the sales funnel. The funnel concept survives because it’s simple and brilliant. Potential customers flow in at the top of the funnel and the process of qualifying prospects begins. Some leads progress down the funnel and turn into opportunities. Other leads decide they’re not interested and evaporate. The speed of progress depends on the urgency of the buyer’s needs and your team’s selling skills. Some opportunities turn into orders and cause dollars to drip out at the bottom of the funnel.
To get more sales, analyze your funnel from top-to-bottom. Determine where weaknesses are, and then adjust your sales process to correct.
Do You Serve a Big Enough Market?
Customer needs, geographical reach, and your ability to create awareness all place practical limitations on the size of the market you serve. If you can’t reach customers, they won’t buy from you. Your ability to create awareness combines with the buyer’s willingness to consider you as a supplier. Those two factors set boundaries and limits your reach.
Awareness is critical when selling. Many people may need your offering, but unless they know you exist, they won’t consider buying it from you.
If there aren’t enough potential buyers in the area you reach and serve, you must expand your territory to pour more into the funnel. If there are plenty of local buyers, but too few know you exist, your problem is creating awareness.
Some companies have a tougher problem to solve. There are plenty of potential buyers and loads of them know you exist, but they still aren’t interested in purchasing. Then, the problem could be your value proposition. Simply put, your value proposition states the benefits the customer gets when they pay your price. Customers believe a price is “fair” when they think rewards justify costs.
When too few customers are willing to buy at your price point, you have two options. You can increase the number of benefits offered so they get more for their money. Or, you can reduce the price to fit expectations.
Are You “Talking” to Enough Potential Customers Who Might Want to Buy?
If the market is big enough, potential customers are aware and your price is fair, and you still aren’t getting enough sales, the next step is to ask if you’re starting enough selling conversations to qualify leads.
Critical first conversations focus on learning if potential customers are interested in buying what you sell. In printing, many initial qualifying conversations start with cold calls. If that’s true at your company, then having the sales team smile and dial more often is one way to pour more into the funnel.
Marketing tactics such as advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, and trade shows are other ways to open selling conversations by raising awareness in your marketplace. These programs help to introduce your company to a large pool of potential customers and encourage customers to call you.
Are You Making Smart Sales Calls?
Once you determine the buyer is interested, the next stage is building a relationship and learning more about the customer’s needs. Salespeople build rapport by asking questions and listening to the answers, and furnishing information. Customers who like their salesperson and your product remain in the funnel. They represent real opportunities for sales.
If many potential customers enter the funnel, but few turn into opportunities, work on improving your team’s sales skills.
Are Opportunities Turning Into Sales?
If a customer seriously considers you, you have two options. You can cross your fingers and passively wait to see if they decide to buy or you can take an active role and try to close the deal.
Closing is always the smarter approach. Opening a dialogue won’t always close the sale, but it’s a smart way to gather helpful information and knowing more helps you make more sales in the future. To turn more opportunities into sales, practice closing skills and take them to the next level.
The old saying, “Sales is a numbers game,” still holds true. By increasing the amount in the funnel at any stage, you improve the end result. If you put more in the funnel and improve selling skills, you will see a bigger boost because you increase the odds of converting prospects into customers.
OTHER INFORMATION:
See attachment below for Linda's "10 Ways to Push Sales Up"
See Linda's Expert Network bio page here.
Contact info:
Linda Bishop
President
Thought Transformation, Inc.
3510 Evans Ridge Trail
Atlanta, Georgia 30340
770-846-3510
[email protected]
