This is the final in the series of posts on how to get more sales. in the previous posts we talked about how to find more opportunities and increase your win odds. Now lets look at the other tactics you can use.
Increase the size of your current opportunities, or ……. Do you want fries with that?
An organisation’s ability to build extra products or services into their offering is a great way to increase revenue. This can be achieved through upselling to a more expensive but better solution or offering customers options like service contracts, extended warrantees, installation, etc. Some things to keep in mind as you try to increase the size of each opportunity include:
1. Focus on fully understanding the total business issue and offer a solution that provides the client with the highest value. To do this you need to be able to articulate the tangible value of each component of your offering.
2. Identify where you can help other parts of the organisation. Look beyond the traditional people and departments you deal with and communicate how you and your offering can help them achieve their goals. Often this is easier to do by looking at what the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are for each key contact. Then work out how you could help them meet their KPIs.
3. Broaden the scope of the solution by understanding the initiative (and associated business issue) that is driving the purchase of your particular product or service. This works best if you enter the buying cycle early and are able to influence the buyer’s requirements.
Shorten your sales cycle
If it takes 3 months to sell your offering and you can only manage 4 opportunities at one time (16 deals per year), then shortening the time it takes to sell a deal to only 2 months (24 deals per year) will your increase your sales by 50%.
It’s really all about improving your productivity and one of the best ways to do this is to identify and disqualify bad leads early.
Sell cycles can also be shortened by:
1. Improving speed through the sales steps by having a good opportunity plan. As Abraham Lincoln once said “give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” While we all know that having a robust plan will make things happen faster most sales people rarely plan their sale beyond the next step.
2. As you engage with your client consider what competitive strategy you are using:
2.1. How you will align with all the key stakeholders, what are all the steps that you and your client will need to go through to get the deal done?
2.2. Are there any legal, technical or administrative barriers that will need to be overcome?
By preparing for all these things early you will speed up the sales process.
3. Get access to all stakeholders and decision makers early so that they the information they need and are committed to your value proposition well before you close the sale.
No matter what the size of your business you can increase your profit not only by cutting costs but by applying one or more of the revenue increasing methods I have outlined in this paper.
The challenge that most business owners face is to pick the one most applicable to their situation, both in terms of the marketplace and business timeframes.
How do I know what strategy is the right one for my business?
Consumer confidence and the pressures of technological change continue to both challenge and provide opportunities for many business owners.
The strategies that I have briefly addressed in this paper can be applied across many business sectors.
I acknowledge that it is very easy to get caught up working in the business rather than taking the time to think strategically and plan for business growth.
M101 Sales Capability Builders work with business owners to implement growth strategies utilising effective sales techniques and strategies.
If you would like to discuss what sales growth strategies would be right for your business please get in touch.