Many small businesses focus on the goal to increase sales as well they should. Without sales, small businesses will die plain and simple. However, when focusing on only increase sales sometimes the outcomes are not what the business owner truly wants or expects.
Building sales begins by understanding that ”sales” is a process uniting marketing and sales actions. Marketing skills and selling skills are very much like Ying and Yang. These two actions balance each other and need each other to make the whole that being sales.
When a proven sales process is embraced by the business, results can quickly double and miss steps can be easily identified. Let me explain.
To get business demands that you get the attention of prospects. After the introduction, you begin to build a relationship with the prospect. If you try to sell something without the relationship being firmly established, odds are that you will not be successful in securing a sale. These first two steps are all about marketing.
Next step begins what we call selling by determining the prospect’s specific needs. Then, a presentation is made where stalls and objections are successfully handled allowing progression to the fifth step of gaining commitment. Now it is time to deliver the goods or services. Some sales people forget that delivery is part of their selling skills.
Finally, the last step is checking back with the client to determine customer satisfaction and then asking for a referral. This final step is a marketing skill because you are not selling anything since the need hopefully has been satisfied. When a business realizes that marketing and selling are partners, then it is much easier to craft a marketing and sales plan that will generate even greater results.
TAKE ACTION right now and revisit your marketing and sales plans before the end of the current month, quarter or year to ensure that they are working together to catapult your business forward instead of holding it back.