Business owners are frequently their own best sales person – sometimes the only one. The sales process works well for them because they are passionate, know the business well, and the very fact that they are not sales people usually works in their favour.
So not being trained in sales can be good. But it also means that selling owner-managers are usually not disciplined in their approach, and there are several areas in which they can shore up their skills.
Many sales coaches and courses focus on communicating and selling. That’s great, but the discipline behind selling is frequently overlooked, and it’s where an owner-manager can most benefit. The prime focal points in sales structure and discipline are:
• Targeting
• Prioritizing
• Recording results of sales calls
• Follow-up.
The first two are easy for business owners – they do this all the time, and their vision for the business usually encompasses these concepts. But when it comes time for cold (or even lukewarm) calling, these are what will save the most time and effort.
Recording the results of sales calls is standard for businesses with contact management software, and newbie sales personnel. Interestingly, this discipline fades as the experience of the sales person increases. Our ability to gauge client potential gets more accurate, and it just seems right not to waste time of this isn’t there.
And there is nowhere that owners fall down more than on simple follow-up. The immediacy of running a business sees them responding to daily challenges. But last week’s challenges are past, and out of consideration. Unfortunately this frequently includes contacts who needed more information, external input or just time.
As a business owner, spending 5 minutes after a sales meeting to record major points and add follow-up activities to your calendar, can be the single most important boost to your business development success.
