Sales & Marketing, The Heartbeat of Business

“You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.” Joe Paterno, Head Football Coach, Penn State University.

Never stop selling. Selling is the heartbeat of your business. If you stop selling your company will flat line.

There are four basic elements, or consistent action steps, of marketing and sales:

1. Create A Marketing Network: Create opportunities to meet new people. You have to have a system in place to create enough opportunities for making sales. Anyone can make lots of sales if they have lots of opportunities for sales. Your system might include monthly chamber of commerce meetings or leads clubs. You should also be asking for referrals all the time.

2. Create A Sales Plan: The sales plan is really a schedule for sales activities. Schedule time for phone calling each week. Schedule time for networking groups, for getting referrals. Put these activities in your calendar and stick to it! Create measurements of performance for your sales efforts - how many calls, how many new leads, how many new clients, and how many actual sales you need on a weekly basis. Have a system for reporting these results to a sales manager or business coach.

3. Selling: You must spend time engaged in the act of selling. You have scheduled the time to sell and you must follow through. You have to be having conversations with current and potential clients every week if you want to sell anything. Most importantly, you want to be having conversations with people who have the potential of buying your product.

4. Your Unique Sales Approach : What is your commitment to your customer? What makes you different from your competition? How are you going to deliver your service? All these things need to be part of your marketing and sales plan. You must distinguish yourself to the customer in order to develop a relationship that will lead to sales.

If you want to learn more about how to craft a sales and marketing plan, listen to Consulting2Win Radio where we discuss this and other important business techniques every Wednesday from 11:00 am to 12:00 noon PST.

Are you ready to win?