Saturday, September 12, 2009

Eight Ways to Augment Your Sales Process and Win Business Today

These eight basic elements will help you to start augmenting your sales efforts. If you are new to business, you’ll learn a great deal by implementing these measures. If you are a novice, not to worry, you may need to brush up on your closing or networking skills. Either way, these eight steps will move you one step closer to closing the deal.

1. Dream big and never give up – This is the first step because without believing you can win and working to achieve the highest goal you set, you will surely never get there. Shoot for the stars and if you get to the moon you are halfway there.

2. Commit to building your capabilities and portfolio without being concerned about money – Of course we all want to make money but sometimes taking steps is a learning process and worth the price you get for a project just to get your name out there. Don’t be afraid to ‘volunteer’ your services on the front-end. Only follow this advice if you intend on producing results. It doesn’t work with poor quality. Try organizations, non-profits or even business-to-business (B2B); for example, you can offer your services on e-lance.com at a competitive rate.

3. Don’t forget sales 101 the natural buying process – Buyers do not purchase products or services they do not know or trust; therefore, when developing your sales process, you must think of sales as a funnel. The wide mouth indicates the level that consumers just want to get to know you down to the bottom of the funnel where trust is strong enough to buy. You may have learned this concept in marketing 101… It’s called Awareness. Interest. Trial. or (A.I.T.). Augment Marketing has coined this as B.I.G.™ - Build awareness, Increase interest and Generate results. All this means you need several levels of buying options to gain trust from your clients.

4. Know your target market – two fundamental questions you must answer – who are your customers and what do they want? Again this is marketing 101 – But, it’s the hardest to identify. The reason is because you may have several targets and segments. Without research and analysis, you may not have a good grasp of your competitors or your customers. Do yourself a favor and focus on one or two targets and expand from there.

5. You have to know it before you can grow it – before you can go out and sell your product, you should have already thought about your vision and core values. It’s important to understand what you stand for because while you are out networking or meeting potential clients, they will want to hear your elevator speech.

6. Develop an elevator speech – Be able to say who, what, when, where and how in 10, 15, 20 or 30 seconds. No doubt, you will have to be prepared to deliver a compelling message to get your audience to listen.

7. Image is everything – Never leave home without it. Meaning, a polished business card and brochure. If you can invest on the front-end, you definitely need to make that happen. If not, it’s better not to take a chance on cheap materials. Get their card and tell them you will be in contact.

8. Close the deal – Make sure to plan out your calls, contact messages and emails. Once you have their attention, don’t be afraid to close the deal. Create a sense of urgency. If all else fails, tell them you have another project and need to make a decision. You would appreciate their diligence and timely response. If they say, not at this time but maybe in two months, great – you have a solid commitment and can move on to bigger fish in the sea.

Good luck to all businesses and entrepreneurs. You truly are the real American heroes.

Trisha Ahlman is the CEO of Augment Marketing Group and has nearly 20 years experience in marketing for corporations and small businesses. She sits on several creative and strategic development boards nationwide. "Inspired by growth" from its inception, Augment's mission is to inspire growth in all businesses large or small when developing strong brands. We believe in inspiring, learning and growing please contact for more information: trisha@augmentgroup.com.




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