When you run a small business you very quickly find your skill set expanding. You’re not just carrying out your core service or creating your core product, you’ve become accountant, HR exec and marketing guru too.
As much as you can carry out all these activities, the real question is: is some activity in all of these areas enough? By diluting your time across various roles in your company, are you also diluting their impact?
The answer is quite probably yes, so it’s probably time to bring in some outside help to manage your books and HR processes while you get serious with your marketing and sales action plan.
If you’re about to channel your energies into reinvigorating your plan, then this blog will talk you through some key areas to consider.
Goal Setting
When it comes to setting out your sales action plan you’ll need to work backwards by setting up the end goal.
It’s not enough to simply say “generate more sales” but instead break down that target into SMART goals, that is: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Think specific figures when it comes to revenue and other measurable statistics such as website visits and so on.
Once you’ve established what you want to do and when you want to do it, you can then plot the actions you need to take to get you there.
Actions
We could roll out a whole list of action points to consider but the majority of them fall under the broad heading of outbound and inbound sales. The more modern approach is to look at inbound sales and this means building a relationship with your customer. It doesn’t mean bombarding them with sales calls or constant emailing but instead a more subtle approach.
The key to any activity is making sure you’re targeting the right audience and using platforms that reach them. This is where your marketing team comes in and you’ll need to work closely together to turn those leads into positive outcomes.
Think carefully about how the potential buyer has reached the point where they’re ready to transform their interest into a real sales action. They will have researched you and your business and be looking for reassurance that their buying decision is the right one. It’s important to be the voice of reason and help rather than to think in terms of pure selling to tip the buyer over from doubt to decision.
Selling is a fine art and not everyone has the right temperament and character to make it a success.
If you’re starting your plan from scratch, then make sure you have set goals that are not just ambitious but that are also realistic and have a great set of action points to go with them.
Focus your attention on your sales and give your business a fighting chance of achieving the sales that your product or service deserves. Then get excited because your sales are going to start rolling in.
