Leading a Sales Force of One

For many small businesses, sales and marketing are the key components to success. Without customers seeing value for their operations in the products and services you offer and willingness to pay you adequately, no business can exist. So how do you lead a sales force if it consists of just one person and that person might be you? Here are five tips to make sure you leverage sales.

1.      Start with the obvious: Know why your "A" customers buy from you

Too often I see that we set out un-prepared to get new business, confusing activity with achievement. Most of us are proud to represent our company and are eager to share this with potential customers. So we tell our story about cool products, innovative ways we do things and that we have 25 options and functions in our product which really makes you gleam. Most of the potential customers are looking for: "What's in it for me" and "How does this solve my problem".  The answer lies in knowing why your best customers buy from you and what is creating "value" for them by using your products and services. Knowing their needs and how you serve them will help you find companies with similar attractivity traits (size, leadership, market niche served, customers) who might benefit equally from your products and services. The better you can define this the more leverage can you create in attracting new customers. So how do you know? It's easy; just ask them and listen why they do business with you, how they got started, what their industry is looking for and what you can do to help them attract customers and sell more to their target market.     

2.      Don't forget your existing customers

Not all customers are the same. Look carefully which accounts are profitable and growing and which customers are requiring more resources form you than they are paying for. Obviously your profitable and growing accounts are the ones you need to be most concerned about. They have the highest potential to increase their purchases and your profit and have a huge potential to help you develop your products and services. Ask for their honest feedback, what they love in your products and services, what they would like to add and what would change the game with their customers.  In addition, up-selling existing accounts is up to 8 times less expensive than breaking into new customer organizations and selling the first order. As everybody loves profitable accounts, your best accounts are your competition's best prospect. So don't neglect them, stay close and measure and share the value you provide to them regularly. 80% of customers you lose are lost due to your deficiencies, only 20% will change to other suppliers due to competitive pressure.

3.      Manage time effectively

Time is the most critical resource for a one person sales force. We recommend focusing on the expected outcomes and then analyzing the activities needed to satisfy them. Interactions with our A customers are first, writing proposals and preparing for and meeting customers second, while keeping time for developing and updating the marketing strategy and the target accounts. To follow through, effectively set up a plan for a month and block out the times accordingly. There is no greater waste of time than meeting a new prospect who is not in your main target area or to meet unprepared and wasting your and your accounts' valuable

4.      Setting targets and holding oneself accountable to achieve them

If your mind focuses on the issues you keep present and where your focus is, you will achieve results. So setting targets, diligently tracking your leads and results to the plan, will get the needed focus for results. Again, start with the big picture in mind. What is your goal a couple years out? Break down those targets into increments (yearly and or monthly) and then chart your progress. It is easy to find excuses to stray from the targets. Everybody can tell stories about customers in need, looking for help, explanations, detailed information, quick quotes and proposals. Yes, this all is to be expected and is regular sales business. So plan time periods to deal with it! This is not an excuse to losing sight of set targets and the personal responsibility to getting the profitable orders.

5.      Honing the sales skills

Sales is a skill. And as preferences of customers are developing, customer needs and buying priorities are changing, our approach to sales has to change and develop, too. What worked three years ago has changed drastically with the entering of generation Y workers and will change again with the global move in products and services. Finding the right coach or mentor can help translating that passion and understanding of your products and services better into sales. The most important factors,besides being prepared, are always attitude and motivation. Staying positively motivated and following through are the stepping stones. Getting brutally honest feedback will create an opening for focus and advancement, building stones for future success.   

There is so much more to share. We have not touched on the value of creating sales procedures and following them to create consistency in the process, delegation of tasks and creating an understanding throughout a company that everybody -from the person answering the phones to the person fulfilling an order- is a sales person. Sales success normally is not facilitated by the action of One; the same is true for missed targets.

Give us a call if you would like to read more about sales, sales strategies and development as well as leadership and customer service. We can share several recent articles and offer on-line sales aptitude and personality assessments to develop effective sales conversation skills.