Keith Rozelle, Sales Marvel
Dec 6, 2019
Anyone who says there is only one set formula or technique to selling for any type of product or service in any industry is, simply put…a dinosaur. Sales has come a long way since my 1st ever sales training course – “The 3 F’s of Selling”.
At times, when chasing that golden prospect you’ve been salivating over for the past month, you can easily find yourself putting in a lot of leg work with nothing to show for it. However, if you’re knocking on the front door and your prospect is barbecuing in the back garden – you’re going home hungry my friend.
So what’s the best way? There’s a plethora of ways of getting that all important sale especially nowadays and there’s a variety of contributing factors in making your decision:
1. What your Business does to make money – product positioning and your ideal client.
2. Are you B2B, B2C or both?
3. Are you selling Directly or through Channels…and how do you decide? You’ll likely start off by selling directly to clients, “discovering” your most effective sales process along the way (supply-chain as well). Once you’ve got that off-pat, you can then think about scaling-up to drive your sales growth. There are a number of ways to scale-up these days – from appointing sales channels right through to franchising your business (think Subway, McDonald’s etc).
4. Are you online or off-line? Are there really still businesses that sell off-line these days? Yes, particularly the luxury markets (e.g. holidays) where discerning clients expect a personalised or bespoke service these days, so you’ll need to create a world-class buying experience for them if you’re operating in this sector.
5. Where, geographically, in the world you’re selling – just in the UK or overseas too? I recently worked on a Masters programme that attracted Executives from all over the world and we found that the platform that worked well in the UK/Europe performed less well in Asia and Africa. Why? Because people think and buy in different ways depending on their environments.
6. All under-pinned by your Sales and Marketing budget. Obviously, the more budget you have, the greater your range of options. But don’t get carried away, you should ALWAYS do a C2A (cost 2 acquire) Analysis to determine your most cost-effective sales channels.
Chances are there won’t be one particular avenue that will lead to you grabbing that sale – there might well be a dominant one or you have have to use a number of different platforms across the sales process. Trial and error could be a useful approach when determining what works for your business – the important thing is to make informed decisions about how you go to market and why you do it that way.
For more information, why not register for my next FREE lunchtime webinar at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whats-your-go-to-market-strategy-tickets-49380727084
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