4 Key Sales Tools You Can t Sell Without
You know the features and benefits of your solution and now it's time to put your sales skills to the test! But before you hit the pavement or the Internet, you have to implement the right sales tools to support your sales efforts:
1. Business Brand - Integrate Touch Points with your Brand Foundation
Since we're talking about sales; your brand should be communicated at every touch point. Touch points are multiple points of contact with customers and prospects. Every contact a customer or prospect has with your business represents a valuable touch point that can either be reinforced or degrade your brand.
To understand your brand and it's relation to your touch points, think about all the different ways your business interacts with your target. For example: Sales is a touch point. Usually, a sales person (or you) is the first human interaction prospects have with your brand. This touch point can affect your prospect's relationship with your company and their motivation to buy from you over your competition. One inconsistent or wrong move (brand inconsistency) can kill key relationships and their resulting revenue.
Take the time to document your touch points and make sure your brand is consistent at every turn.
2. Geographic Management and Target Market
I can't say enough about target market because it's so crucial to your success in sales. If you're not generating the sales you need and you're doing everything right. You might be targeting the wrong market.
In sales, it's important to know your target market. It's equally important to know where your target market is geographically. The internet is great for business but sometimes you still have to hit the pavement some times including making phone calls.
Geographic management is organizing your prospect list by location; you can break it down by state, region, city, county, or zip - it's up to you. By organizing your list by location, your sales campaigns can be targeted based on geography which can increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.
For example: I have my prospect list broken down by country, region, state, and zip. When I'm doing a new sales campaign my list is divided into to 3 lists based on 3 regions I market to for business. Each of these regions represents specific characteristics and communication styles. Therefore, my sales campaigns are first strategic and lastly effective.
Geographic management is not hard; it's just a matter of making the organizing automatic. When I add people to my prospect list, I ask them for specific pieces of information. That information is entered into my contact management process and boom! - My list is automatically categorized into the three regions I mentioned above.
Remember, this is my process. Your process should be based on your business and your sales process no matter if you sale online or offline.
3. The Prospect List - The Key to Explosive Growth and Sales
To prepare for sales you have to develop a viable prospect list to market to. For some, purchasing a list is the way to go but for others it's best to build your own list organically.
In order to have effective sales campaigns, you have to implement an automatic process to find QUALIFIED prospects to target.
I have found the best prospects by speaking to targeted organizations and with consistent online marketing and networking. In addition, there are many other sources of lists that you can acquire depending on your networking activities. For instance, I attended a national conference for entrepreneurs and as an attendee I received a book of all businesses exhibiting including the speakers. This was an excellent list for my business and I used that book to add additional QUALIFIED prospects to my prospect list.
Another example: I get the local Business Journal. In the back, there's a listing of new business licenses and established corporations. I use this list every week to build my prospect list by cold calling or sending emails. Most cities have a local business journal; check out www.bizjournals.com to find yours.
Effective campaigns are those that develop qualified contacts at the least effort. To build my list automatically, I promote my ezine. It's an effective and efficient list building tool.
4. Contact Management Software
Now that you know your target market, you now where they are, and you're on your way to build a stellar prospect list; next you have to manage all that data into a simple database or contact management program.
Contact management software was the foundation for what is now Customer Relationship Management, or CRM. Regardless of which level your company uses, having some form of contact management software is necessary.
CMS can conveniently manage all customer information, including history of interactions, sales and marketing activities, and important notes in a single multi-user database from a central point. Depending on the software you choose, you may be able to print sales dollars per customer, send newsletters and promotions, and create strategic email campaigns that target those that are on you prospect list but not on your newsletter list.
As a rule, you should have one central location for all prospects and customers so that it's easily management and updated. I only import those who have contacted me or expressed interest in communicating with me one-one-one to my central database.
Remember, your business may be different. Contact management may mean something completely different than listed here. Bottom line, you want easy access to customer information.
You never want to engage in unnecessary steps for marketing to prospects. Contact management software coupled with a great sales process makes prospecting easy and manageable.
Effició, Inc. Sherese Duncan
About the Author:
Sherese Duncan, is the 'The Entrepreneur's Strategic Partner.' Get her FREE Award Winning weekly eZine, Tactical Growth. It's for small biz owners who want actionable strategies to grow their small business. Sign up for your free growth package at http://www.tacticalgrowth.biz
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/
Added: May 27, 2008
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