Boost Sales

At the forefront of driving revenue is the sales team; If you are not part of the sales team you probably do not have a direct quota, however the more value you add to the revenue driving activities of your company, the more valuable you are to the company. This is probably where you can increase revenue the most.

# 5 Increase Key Lead Generation Activities:

- Write newsletters for existing and potential customers;

- Provide Free, or Low Initial Buy-in, offers to drive paid product/service bus

At the forefront of driving revenue is the sales team; however everyone, from the receptionist to the CEO, is vital for revenue success. No matter what position you hold in your workhouse you can use the many low-to-no cost strategies in this term paper to spur revenue.

# 1 Set Your Goals and Objectives: Members of the sales team usually have a quota settled to them by management. If you are not part of the sales team you probably do not have a direct quota, however the more value you add to the revenue driving affair of your company, the more valuable you are to the company. If you are not part of sales, make a commitment, even if you don’t tell anyone as respects it, to do what ever you can to drive revenue up and to costs down.

Make sure that you hold yourself accountable. I have found that one key de-motivator, including self de-motivation, is an imbalance of eye – even if it is perceived and not real. This imbalance is raised when your are not inline with your goals and objectives. Manage yourself and your culture pattern consistently and you will see the results in your top line.

# 2 Know Where You Are Now: you start any journey you need a map, a plan in the case of your heightened revenue driving activities. in anticipation this journey begins it is important to know where you are going (discussed in the previous section) and where you are now. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

- Where are you adverse to your goals?

- Where is your holding company at cross-purposes with its goals?

- Are your goals inline with your company’s?

# 3 Know Your Value: Take an inventory of yourself. Understand what you do well, what you do OK, and what you don’t do well at all. Then leverage what you do well and improve on what you do OK and not well at all. Constantly, review your progress and keep casting new skills to your training regimen.

# 4 Know Your Company’s Value: Look at your company. What does your yokemate do very well? What is the value of that product/service? Value from your customer’s perspective – not yours. How does this product/service increase revenue or decrease cost for your customer? (Not how can you offer the product/service cheaper than your competition.) Or does it increase efficiency or reduce risk (subset of reduced cost). Again, for your customer, not you.

Focus most of your energy on leveraging those things your joint-stock company does extremely well. Especially, those products/services that add the most value to your customer. This is probably where you can increase revenue the most.

# 5 Increase Key Lead Generation Activities:

- Write newsletters for existing and potential customers;

- Provide Free, or Low Initial Buy-in, offers to drive paid product/service business;

- Write white papers;

- Develop positioning papers;

- Conduct short, value focused, seminars on how you help your clients increase revenue and decrease cost

# 6 Automate all Sales Reporting: Use my simple and short three step process to develop your sales reporting system. Here it is:

1) Define Sales Reporting Needs: be focused on the deal and on the client’s timeline;

2) Establish Sales Reporting Needs: make reporting quick and easy for everyone; and

3) Execute and refine as you gain a favouring understanding of what information is really useful.

I don’t recommend that your institution spends $5M, or even $5/month, on a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. They take too long to add value in any case - the point of this denounce is results in 30 days. Look at what you need to report and report it in the most efficient and effective way possible. Leverage information technology, if that makes sense, or just have a process flow for hard copy reports. Define reporting parameters ahead and make sure that you report in regularly.

# 7 Get Help / Offer Help: Show your management that, by having a sales admin you can increase revenue by X. Or reduce cost of sales by Y. Or …whatever metric you can use that shows increased efficiency, value, to the gathering that you couldn’t do on your own. This sales admin person/team could also support more than one sales person. Show value in real terms and you might get a favorable response.

For example, if I was going to pitch this I might say “ Mr., or Mrs. Boss, it has been my experience that, in most cases, Sales admin staff keep more expensive, and productive, sales people (like me) in front of, or on the phone with, a customer, prospect, or suspect. In a layered sales force I feel that can contribute even more time to the sales cycle and won’t spend valuable time on areas of the sales process that I am not as efficient, or cost effective, in. The key here is not to hire more sales staff, it is to get more revenue dollars for every hour of my effort.”

If you are not a sales person, then offer to help. Talk to the sales team and determine where you might offer assistance. Working together with sales will give sales a renewed understanding of you and your department. It will also give you a renewed tactfulness of sales. Together you and your partner(s) in sales can revitalize enhanced revenue efforts while guy an example for the rest of the business establishment to follow

# 8 Leverage Your Hunter and Farmer Skills: There are two types of sales styles to focus on to cross-bombard revenue, Hunters and Farmers. These two types connect to inside and outside sales people.

Hunters are those sales people that love the thrill of the kill. As soon as they ‘close’ the deal they are on to the next. And they are very good at it. The main weakness of the hunter is that they typically do not nurture assets – they lose interest in the allow as soon as the ‘deal is closed.

Farmers nurture accounts. They typically don’t penetrate new accounts. They take those first choked off by the hunters and expand them. concluding opportunity by opportunity, until they have sold all that they could sell into that account. The weakness of the farmer is that the cooperation that they work for must continue to evolve, reckoning new products and services, or the value of the farmer drops quickly, for that account, to the cast of characters they work for.

The key is for you to understand the two sales styles, understand which role you do best in. Exploit your strengths and find a partner that has complimentary strengths so you can leverage each other.

# 9 Increase Your Number of Cold Calls: If you implement only one idea out of this opus THIS IS THE ONE! Don’t waste your time with somewhat else unless you cold call – a lot. Look at any report that measures correlation of the success of an individual sales person, or sales team, with the number of cold calls. The number just don’t lie. There is an absolute, and direct, correlation to the number of cold calls and the success of a sales person, or team.

Cold mainspring is just a form of networking. Everyone in the acting company can support cold sake campaigns, whether you are in sales or not. Cold call is as simple as beck and call someone you know, a friend/associate, in a combat command that is not a current customer, or in a different division in a current customer, and having a conversation as respects their point – everyone loves to talk much themselves. Keep in mind that you do not need to scant the order. You need to initiate the contact and then get a sales person involved. You can continue to follow up with the sales person as the opportunity materializes to an order. Just make sure that, once you have initiated contact, you border through the sales person or you just might ripen into the problem.

# 10 Perform and Leverage Win/Loss Reviews: Win/loss reviews are probably the most valuable sales tool to use AT ALL TIMES, and not just in tough times. Unfortunately, since most of the results of the review are view as more of a marketing function, most sales organizations do not do them, or worse, do them incorrectly. Also, many sales people, and their managers, are skittish of what the review will tell them – what they need to do to be successful. (areas of weakness)

What a win/loss review is? A win/loss review is an in depth opinion of all aspects the sales process for a particular deal. You need to look at each and every win, and loss, and ask, sometimes tough, questions. Questions that are very similar to what you learned in lock-up nigh journalism, the five W’s and one H, sometimes the ‘Journalist’s Six W’s’ (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How). Why you won the deal (Win Review)? Or Why you lost the deal (Loss Review)?

As you review your wins, and your losses, make sure you continuously scrutinize your pricing policy. If you are losing based on price, make sure that you understand, in detail your sales process. If you sell based on value (realized value to the customer, not what you perceive your value to be) then you don’t need to reduce price, you might just need to work on your threaten in establishing, and communicating, value for the customer.

# 11 Visit Your Past Customers: Start with your top ten former customers. Call them, or have them by an executive. See how they are doing. Ask them why they have not done activity with you recently (this is a very valuable method to understand the customer’s perception of your company). If there are any issues, work through them. If not, engage the customer. Get back in there. Work a deal. Get the relationship back on track.

# 12 commit to prison to spring up the Sole Source for Your Key Customers: Just the bounden duty to your key customers would provide you huge returns. As you make this decision to yourself, your boss, and your customer, impress upon everyone that you will do this by value to everything you do.

Making this disinterest will force you to look at all aspects of your customer’s motion and understand where you, through your products/services and other capabilities, can enable your customer to increase revenue and/or decrease cost. Focusing on your customer’s proprietorship and how you can increase revenue and decrease cost will not only help you grow revenue, but also increase your gross margin on every deal. If you stay obligate and honest, this process will be the springboard for a very long and very profitable relationship for you and your customer.

# 13 Determine What Your Customers WILL Want: Don’t just look for what you customers want right now. Figure out what their needs will be in the future. Key note: Your customer probably does not know what she needs now. She knows what she wants, but not what she needs. As well, she probably won’t know what she will need in the future. It should be your mission in your professional life to know the future needs of your customers. – Be beforehand of your customers and you will be in the ascendant of the pack.

# 14 Take Your Executive Team Out on Sales Calls: The CEO of any size atelier is usually the best sales person. If you think that he is not a sales person, you are wrong – dead wrong. How did he get funding? How did he hire his first staff member? How does your CEO get the management team to get what he needs done, done? He sold them, he sold them all.

Your CEO owns the vision, in most cases it is HIS vision! Who else can best sell his own vision?

I do not recommend you take the CEO out on the first, second, or third call. Look at your sales pipeline, take the proposal that is the largest in revenue, or is the most profitable, or you know the most as respects the customer/buyer. Set up a face-to-face meeting. This meeting should be with someone on your customer’s senior executive team only, preferably with the CEO.

Go and get the order. This process affords you the opportunity to: 1) get to know your executive team, 2) get to know the customer in a new light, 3) understand the issues in final consortium today, and 4) gain confidence in what you, and your club is doing, or needs to do. Worst case, you are educating the executive on the sales team and sales process.

# 15 post up your success (internally to your organization at first, externally if you feel it is appropriate).

# 16 Reduce Time Spent on Non-Customer Meetings: Unless for certain necessary and even then, when you can, stop all, or reduce the the whole story of, time spent on internal meetings. If the meetings MUST happen then make them outside customer’s corporate body hours. Every minute that you are in an internal meeting, you are not in front of, or on the phone with, or supporting the needs of, a customer, prospect, or suspect.

Your band is in the area of making money. Every minute that you are not in front of, or on the phone with, or supporting the needs of, a customer, prospect, or suspect, you are not value to the customer. If you are not reckoning value you are not going to get paid (Revenue). Even if you work for a non-profit you need revenue (donations).

# 17 Go to Training: I bet that there is at least one person in your parlour that is night and day in training for one thing or another. I am also confident that if you go to training, unless you are at a very large company, you only go through product/service training and seldom to real sales training.

I was in the information technology jigger for fourteen years. I have been in back office support roles, I have been a techie, I have been in inside and outside sales, and I have been in sales and marketing management. I have taken so much training it is crazy. However, I have never been in sales training. The companies I have worked for were either distributors or resellers and I went to vendor ‘sales’ training countless times. Turns out, they were not sales training. They taught us how to position their products/services. That was product/service training, not sales training.

I was trained OJT (on the job), trial by fire, mentored. Whatever you want to call it – it took too long to translate the training to a obstinate deal. I was very successful. In retrospect, I place confidence in I could have been much more successful, much more quickly, though, if I would have gone through structured sales training.

# 18 Train Others in Your Company: Leverage your sales skills to help strengthen the relationship betwixt and between you and the rest of the company. Do a series of ‘lunch and learn’ sessions. Require at least one person from each department, if that make sense. The point is to give everyone the opportunity (requirement) to participate. The focus of the training should be to educate the guest on your sales process and to get feedback from all employees on new ideas/approaches.

You will be pleasantly surprised where the best ideas come from. Remember to include ALL employees in the training sessions. The rewards will shine through as amplified revenue very quickly.

# 19 Get Everyone Networking: From the CEO to the sales team, including all marketing, fulfillment, administration, and back office staff. Everyone knows someone. Know who they know and leverage everyone to push on revenue. I suggest that you start with a plan and some training that you provide during ‘lunch and learn’ sessions. Set the objectives of the Networking Plan and transmit to the team.

# 20 Energize advocate Sales/Marketing Channels: Sure you have partners. In today’s networked world EVERYONE partners. Unlike others, make partnerships work for you. I understand that you might not have the tout to execute contractual relationships with partners, however, you can make personal commitments and team with many partners to drive your inflated revenue.

Determine which partnerships will drive the most revenue for you, then develop and leverage them first.

# 21 Integrate Internal and External Resources in Revenue Driving Activities: As either a product or service based repertory company you value your staff at the top of the list of your assets. However, are you leveraging them to grow your heightened revenue? You should!

Leverage all resources within your organization and your rhythmic door organizations to:

- Perform Presentations at Seminars/Conventions;

- go with Pre-Sales Calls;

- replace Post-Sales Calls;

- Run Cross Project Meetings;

- Write passbook and Articles;

- Train/mentor you;

- organization Relationships with Your Customers/Prospects; and

- a Name for Your Company.

Leverage Your Back Office Staff too. Get everyone in the cooperation involved in customer related activities, including the back office. Many companies follow the ‘Everyone Sells’ accomplish – you should as well. For example:

- Have summing up Receivable (A/R) Meet with your Customers to:

o Pull in Credit Terms

o join on Slow Players

o Usually Invoicing Issues

o Understand the Customer’s Best Practices

- Process

- Procedures

o bloat Relationship with Your Customer’s

- Buyers

- Payable

- Have proceeding Payable (A/P)

o Shop for transcendental Pricing and Terms

o Pool purchasing power Power with Partners

o broaden Relationships with Vendors

- Understand the Vendor’s Best Practices

- Process

- Procedures

# 22 Revitalize Your…SELF. Here are some tips I strive to use often:

- Regulate your thoughts - wipe out worry - rid your self of resentment

- Nourish your mind, read

- Act the way you want to feel

- Remember, trouble finds everyone - keep perspective - focus on your response

- Take time to reflect - foremost reacting - restore your sense of perspective

- Laugh a lot

- Learn from difficulty - seek opportunity in the difficulty

- Recharge relationships - seek solace from family and friends

- Lend a helping hand - helping others has been found to be the best medicine

- Keep going - don't get 'stuck' in the difficulty, identify it and move on

- Waste less time

- Exercise regularly

- Contribute to your community

- Do not neglect my family in pursuit of the eternally the same dollar

- Focus on quality

Now it is time to put together your raised revenue plan! Your plan should include many of the areas covered in this article, and many more. Good Selling!

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