You may be an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, or someone who recently launched a startup. Regardless of your situation, the way you bring value to your customers is essential. Your business is now officially a sales organization.
Your success hinges on your ability to attract new customers. This can be challenging when you wear multiple hats as the owner and operator of your business. Here are four strategies to transform yourself into a formidable sales force of one.
1. Put sales and marketing first.
Businesses often struggle (or fail) not due to inferior products, services, or ideas, but due to a lack of focus on customer acquisition.
This requires a shift in mindset for most entrepreneurs. For example, if you run a lawn care service, you might consider your business to be a landscaping business. However, in reality, your business is primarily a sales organization that provides landscaping maintenance services. If you experience harsh winters, your sales organization might branch out into snow removal services as well. Essentially, sales should be steering your business.
The way you prioritize your business roles is critical. Your business is unlikely to face challenges due to a lack of value delivery. The real struggle arises when sales and marketing are not given top priority.
Regardless of the marketing method you choose, make marketing the first task on your agenda each day. Whether you are working on print fliers, social media posts, mass emails, or ad campaigns, focus on building the top of your sales funnel. After completing tasks that feed into your sales pipeline, follow up on every lead generated by your marketing efforts, regardless of their size or potential.
2. Engineer your sales process.
Every successful sales organization follows a process. While some processes are more formal and well-planned than others, establishing a structured sales process is crucial for a solo entrepreneur like yourself. Analyze what works best for you and transform it into your sales process. Align your process with the traditional stages of sales and address key questions.
• Qualifying: Identify the characteristics of the right prospects for your business. What questions should you ask to ensure you invest time in the right leads?
• Discovery: Determine the questions needed to understand your customers’ needs and decision-making process.
• Proposal or presentation: Create a compelling presentation to demonstrate your capabilities and suitability to address customer needs.
• Acquire: Identify further discussions, necessary documentation, and potential negotiations to secure business deals.
At the end of each stage, seek commitment from your potential clients to progress further.
As a micropreneur, you must act as your own sales manager. Your sales process may vary in complexity but adhering to a structured process ensures you secure essential commitments for business growth.
3. Build templates for sales and marketing activity.
Managing product delivery while focusing on sales and marketing can be challenging for a solo sales force. Entrepreneurs are known for working long hours to avoid working for someone else and making product delivery more manageable.
Develop templates for various sales and marketing activities to streamline your tasks. For instance, create a standardized questionnaire for new customers that can be hosted online using platforms like Google Forms. Design boilerplate templates for proposal creation and customize them as needed. Utilize templates for follow-up emails or letters to save time and ensure consistency.
Building templates for all sales and marketing activities boosts efficiency, allowing more time to deliver exceptional customer service.
4. Develop a bulletproof follow-up system ASAP.
Maintaining a robust follow-up system for sales opportunities and customer interactions is crucial for a solo sales force. Capture and track every commitment made to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
As productivity expert David Allen advises, “The mind is for having ideas, not remembering.” Document your commitments in a reliable system that is easily accessible. Consider using online tools like Todoist for task management across different platforms.
For a comprehensive sales and marketing platform, platforms like PipelineDeals.com offer customer relationship management functionalities along with task management features and customizable templates.
Choose a system that you will consistently use. As a salesperson, building trust through consistent follow-up is essential for establishing reliability and credibility.
