When I speak to business owners about sales, I usually get the same feedback…
I ask things like:
Who is responsible for sales in your business?
If you’re not around, who does the selling?
Do you know what your conversion rate is?
The usual replies are something like:
“Well, I do most of the selling. But that’s ok, I’m probably the best at it.”
*NEWSFLASH*
If you’re the best/only person that sells your products, your business value (and saleability) are at risk.
Why?…
Because if you leave or sell your business, your sales will stop.
Not ideal for an investor.
How we fix this is by creating some structure around your sales process, then using this as your ‘system’ to sell your products, then we hire someone to do the selling for you.
Here’s how we do it:
Firstly, let’s map out the steps you take when speaking to a customer and making a sale. It could look something like this:
Enquiry > Qualify > Quote > Follow Up > Objection Handle > Close
At each step, make a checklist of what you say, how you say it, what you need to show the customer, how to do quotes, what to say at the follow up stage etc.
Be as precise as you can when doing this, so that your future salesperson can follow your ‘system’ to replicate the sales experience.
Put your sales process to work, by following your own steps with new customers and new sales. Refine this process as you practice it. Then measure your conversion rate over time. This is important so you can illustrate to a potential investor how well your sales ‘system’ performs.
Use the sales process to train others. If you have salespeople already, re-train them using your perfected sales process, so that they achieve the same conversion rate as you. (you’re the best, remember). Then eventually, you’ll hire a salesperson to replace you, and you’ll have a failsafe ‘system’ that generates consistent results.
The point is, if you don’t have a reliable and repeatable sales process or system that “sells” for you, it’s time you put the above into action.
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