As a business owner, you have diverse strengths. Is sales one of them?
To grow business, every owner needs to open the door to relationships. Here’s how to integrate three essential sales skills into business as usual.
Always Be Profiling
Always Be Closing (ABC) is a salesperson’s mantra. The business owner’s parallel is Always Be Profiling (ABP).
» List your top customer in each of your markets or channels, and three to five characteristics that make them a top customer, such as annual purchase frequency and dollar volume, geographic location, or type and frequency of communication.
» Discuss the top customer profiles with your sales team to ensure that your company prospecting is consistently focused on your best customer profiles.
» Keep your profiles in mind when you connect with people, organizations and companies. Benchmark them against your profile, and if there’s a match, engage your sales team in developing that relationship.
Know Your Questions
Many business owners aren’t ready when conversations that can generate new business arise. Write down a few questions that you can use intentionally and repeatedly in these types of conversations. Express your questions in terms that foster a purchasing relationship, such as:
» I’d like to hear your perspectives on (x) and I’m happy to share a few ideas that are working for other companies and customers. What else would be helpful for us to discuss?
» Based on what we’ve discussed today, our next step is (x). Is there anything else we need to discuss to move forward?
Ask for Referrals
The time to ask for a referral is when your customer is delighted with your product or service. Ask your employees to log all positive customer interactions, and review the log weekly. Then develop and send a note to ask your customer for referrals. Include the following ideas:
We appreciate your business and are happy to help at any time. We also welcome and appreciate your referrals. When we can be helpful to your (business associates/friends/family) please feel free to suggest and contact us.
In addition to possible referrals, the log recognizes great service from your employees and gives you and your sales team success stories to share with prospects. You can also use the referral note as a script to ask business contacts for referrals after you have been helpful to them. Be sure to reference associations, groups or organizations to which your business contact is connected to help bring possible referrals to mind.
The ability to generate revenue is arguably a business owner’s most critical skill. Focus on profiling, questions and referrals, and soon you’ll be opening the door to new business relationships.
Check back next month for the second part of this column, when Elizabeth writes about essential marketing skills for business owners.
