Introduction
Hi, I’m Marty Park. I’m an serial entrepreneur turned business coach and author. I was inspired to write this ebook by many of the entrepreneurs I’ve coached who struggle with finding time in their busy days to sell. Ensuring a steady flow of sales and cashflow is often the primary source of stress for any entrepreneur. Through the following methods, my clients are able to gain control of their cashflow, drive massive sales numbers and suddenly love their business again! It is a transformation every overworked, stressed out entrepreneur deserves to make.
The knowledge contained in this ebook took me 13 businesses and 29 years of my own entrepreneurial struggles, learning, and innovation to figure out. Since then, I’ve been able to share these strategies with others to help them get exceptional results faster and easier than I ever did. Using my proven methods, I wanted to help struggling business owners solve their dilemmas. In the last 22 years, I’ve helped hundreds of clients get results and create stable and profitable businesses they love.
Is This You?
Time is your most precious resource and there’s never enough of it. You start each day knowing you need to make sales but before you know it, it’s 5 pm and the day is already done. You find your business is running you with interruptions from staff, customers and suppliers all day long. How can you grow your business when you can’t even find time to eat lunch? You’re caught up in the operations and service delivery side of your business, leaving you with no time to work on sales and growth.
If you are experiencing time shortage, you are not alone. All entrepreneurs discover that their real shortage is time. They are pulled in so many directions each day, many wishing they could clone themselves. They are desperate to grow their company and drive sales, but can’t seem to find the time to do it. In response to this widespread dilemma, we developed a solution.
When you can never seem create the time and space for sales, it’s because everything else seems more important – customers, orders, staff, etc. You know that sales is more important, but you succumb to whatever is most urgent.
You must reprioritize sales and the growth of your business. Limited sales are a death sentence for most companies, and certainly their number one barrier to growth. So, while fulfilling the next order or answering your staff questions may seem important — it’s not. No single client order, staff question or supplier issue is going to sink your business. However, failing to focus on sales daily will. To ensure your sales, business health, and sanity, you must observe the following steps immediately.
Re-define Your Role
You’re now the head sales person. Forget being the owner, the president or the CEO. Take on a role that makes you feel empowered, like VP Sales or Sales Master. After you’ve decided on a role, make it known to everyone in your business. Let your staff know that sales is your focus every day. Tell your customers as well, since you’ll be discussing additional purchases, referrals and growth ideas with them. The exercise of telling everyone forces you to hear it out loud over and over — you are now in sales. It re-enforces the idea that your identity is that of a salesperson.
Here’s a little secret: the best salesperson in every business is the owner! The owner will always be great at creating new business, so embrace it. You must believe in what you produce and understand your product or services thoroughly.
Identify Where Time Goes
Many business owners say they just don’t have the time to pursue sales. However, many of them are actually just nervous about sales. Sales takes confidence, and it is the most courageous thing any business owner can do. Fulfilling orders, administration and anything that consumes your time does not take the kind of courage that sales does.
Start measuring what you spend your time on right away. Ensure you are consciously aware of exactly what you spend each 15-minute block of your day doing. Make a list of the things you do with your time, and review it at the end of each day. Resist critizing yourself, and look for opportunities by identifying unnecessary tasks that take up your time. Once these irrelevant tasks are identified, we can begin to get control again. Make a list of these items that can be assigned to staff.
Leverage Others
Now that we’ve discussed time control, our next step will focus on completing a big action. You must begin assigning other people tasks in order to lighten your load. While you may initially be skeptical, you must remember that if you are not able to commit to sharing your responsibilities with others, you are going to remain stagnant.
Turn your attention to the most basic tasks from your time analysis. Assign jobs such as opening mail and answering the phone to staff. Specifically, answering the phone can be can be assigned to people on a priority sequence (John is in charge of this task, if John isn’t around then Susan you answer, if John and Susan are unavailable then someone in the back gets it, etc.). If you do not have staff to allocate jobs to, look for digital solutions such as a virtual assistant. Nowadays, there are global services that offer writing, answer customer calls, provide delivery and more.
We must create some time gaps that you can use to conduct sales. However, if you find that you are unable to hand off tasks and that everything needs to be completed by you, then we are going to take a final step. We are going to add hours to your day. We are going to create sales time earlier in the morning or at the end of your day. So, in light of this, let’s turn attention again to look at finding solutions during your day. Ask yourself the question, when is the quietest time for me in any given day?
Add Blocks Of Selling Time To Your Calendar
The problem with the use of your time, until now, has been that you don’t block pieces of your day for things that are important for you and the business, like sales time. Now that we have leverage and have identified your sources of wasted time, we are going put that time to better use.
First, we will begin by blocking off time daily to focus on sales and efforts to grow the company. We are going to make each selling “time block” at least 90 minutes long. This is to account for possible distractions, leaving you with a solid hour to complete work.
Second, we will set event alarm reminders. If you require multiple reminders, set alarms to repeat. Choose a function that allows you to honor the alarm — vibrations, beeps, notifying others, music, anything.
Third, ensure everyone in your business is aware of your blocked sales times. You are going to relay to staff, suppliers, and customers that you will be unavailable during your allotted sales times every day. While this may seem extreme at first, over time you will receive praise from those involved in your business. Ultimately, people will respect your time because you have shown to respect your own time.
Fourth, if you need it, let’s create some additional accountability. Ensure you are honest with key people like your staff, a spouse or friend to have them hold you accountable. I’ve had success for myself by saying that if I am seen outside my office during my sales and growth time (10 AM – 11:30 AM), I’ll pay $20 to whoever calls me out. Paying others to help you stay accountable and focused can lead to serious results. After paying a few $20 bills, you will find yourself committed to being disciplined to avoid spending money.
Even with this guideline, I can almost guarantee that you will not get it all done instantly. When you return home at the end of your day, you will still have a to-do list that is 300 items long. Keeping this in mind, if you are already working 50, 60, even 70 hours a week and not getting it all done, then what difference does it make if you take a few hours out of your busy schedule to do something that might change your fortune? You must ensure to dedicate time to sales and growth-based thinking. While you may never get all of your to-do items done, turn your attention to proactive work and gradual pertinent changes will soon become evident.
Mine Your Existing Relationships First
So where does one start when they also need to ramp up sales fast? Good question. The default for many people is looking out into the market for new prospects. This is the wrong approach. Instead, you must start with your existing clients, and gradually branch out over a period of time.
First, you must follow-up on the work you have in front of you. Focus on missed opportunities such as price quotes and proposals that were sent without receiving responses. Additionally, turn your attention to people that called in but didn’t buy, and regular customers that have been left unattended. While this may seem overwhelming, all you have to do is reach out to people and strike up a conversation. Ask them questions, see what you can learn, and ask them to buy. If done properly, they will.
Once you get comfortable with these conversations, talk to your existing customers about future purchase plans. You see, often existing clients are also incredibly busy in their own businesses. They purchase from you last minute and often in a state of emergency. They don’t think about what they’ll need from you next month, or even six months from now. Once you’ve identified this, talk to them about their long term needs and seasonal plans. Offer to deliver all their product or service needs on a set schedule, with a pre or set payment plan. This strategy shows your customers and clients that you are thinking about their long-term needs, and it helps you secure consistent cashflow. It’s a win-win for everyone.
If you aren’t confident to begin cold calling yet, don’t! Start by calling those in your network first. Network with people on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media channels. Reach out to people that might not be customers themselves, but likely know customers they can connect you with.
Educate every person on what you do, and ask them for to provide referrals and introductions if you determine the conversations are going well. Ask if they know anyone that can help your business. Referrals are the fastest sales cycle because you are already a trusted supplier. We’ve all had someone say, “Well my friend Dave says you’re good, so I’ll just go ahead and order.” Referrals are the easiest, fastest way to generate leads and new clients.
After you’ve tapped out your current network, you can begin to reach out to new prospective clients. If you complete all the initial steps outlined in this guide, you will have gained experience and courage to ensure you are effectively making new connections. Please note, when reaching out to new clients, make sure to call them or talk to them face-to-face. Do not email them. Sales and business development activities are far more impactful and successful in person.
Know What You Want To Offer
- Be prepared to educate them on all the things you offer – as information first. Do not attempt to sell them everything.
- Have three to five specific items you want to tell people about. Pick the ones you’re most excited about or the ones you think are the best value.
- Make them easy, simple to understand, relatable and include options for easy add-ons.
- Selling involves asking for more business – so be sure to offer them the chance to purchase (often people will ask to buy if you cover the first three points well).
- Not sure what to sell? Call and ask people what else they need. Ensure to listen actively, and see what solutions you can offer.
- Sell from the place of genuine helping, and not just from a selfish place of needing to make a sale.
Now It's Your Turn!
So where does one start when they also need to ramp up sales fast? Good question. The default for many people is looking out into the market for new prospects. This is the wrong approach. Instead, you must start with your existing clients, and gradually branch out over a period of time.
First, you must follow-up on the work you have in front of you. Focus on missed opportunities such as price quotes and proposals that were sent without receiving responses. Additionally, turn your attention to people that called in but didn’t buy, and regular customers that have been left unattended. While this may seem overwhelming, all you have to do is reach out to people and strike up a conversation. Ask them questions, see what you can learn, and ask them to buy. If done properly, they will.
Once you get comfortable with these conversations, talk to your existing customers about future purchase plans. You see, often existing clients are also incredibly busy in their own businesses. They purchase from you last minute and often in a state of emergency. They don’t think about what they’ll need from you next month, or even six months from now. Once you’ve identified this, talk to them about their long term needs and seasonal plans. Offer to deliver all their product or service needs on a set schedule, with a pre or set payment plan. This strategy shows your customers and clients that you are thinking about their long-term needs, and it helps you secure consistent cashflow. It’s a win-win for everyone.
If you aren’t confident to begin cold calling yet, don’t! Start by calling those in your network first. Network with people on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media channels. Reach out to people that might not be customers themselves, but likely know customers they can connect you with.
Educate every person on what you do, and ask them for to provide referrals and introductions if you determine the conversations are going well. Ask if they know anyone that can help your business. Referrals are the fastest sales cycle because you are already a trusted supplier. We’ve all had someone say, “Well my friend Dave says you’re good, so I’ll just go ahead and order.” Referrals are the easiest, fastest way to generate leads and new clients.
After you’ve tapped out your current network, you can begin to reach out to new prospective clients. If you complete all the initial steps outlined in this guide, you will have gained experience and courage to ensure you are effectively making new connections. Please note, when reaching out to new clients, make sure to call them or talk to them face-to-face. Do not email them. Sales and business development activities are far more impactful and successful in person.
