Written by: Frank Ferrara, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The excitement of more revenue is a big driver for many business owners. Often, the capacity available in the business to increase revenue without additional costs is abundant. More revenue, therefore, has a significant impact on bottom-line results and this will magnify profit.
Higher profit equals more choices for business owners. More choices about how they spend their time, how they invest for growth and how they enjoy their lifestyle.
Unfortunately, too many business owners do not take an internal, proactive approach to creating more revenue. Oftentimes, the enrolling of new clients is externalised, meaning there is a reliance on forces outside the business to enrol new clients.
The most common examples of these externalities are:
Relying on word of mouth (referrals)
Relying on networking
Rely on marketing (websites, SEO, Ads)
These are all great lead sources, by the way, but without an internal, proactive effort, the conversion of these leads into more revenue will be low.
How frustrating to see leads come in and then lost. Are they bad leads? Or is the sales process bad? Sales and marketing departments all over the world have this argument.
Regardless of where the weakness is, it is so annoying that our expertise can so easily go unrecognized.
We often assume that prospects know what we do and therefore we make one of two mistakes:
We go into too much detail about our product or service.
We believe our marketing is that good that we don’t need to do too much to close the detail
Too Much Detail
How many times have you had this experience? A salesperson tells you how wonderful their product is and how excellent it will be for you?
I like to refer to this strategy as the “show up and throw up” technique; great for lowering conversion rates, not great for increasing revenue.
The reality is that although we are the experts in our field, our clients do not know the details of what we do. Often, they do not understand how we can help them. Furthermore, they don’t care, they just want an outcome that solves their problem and how they get there is only part of the equation.
Our Marketing is That Good
What about this? We have a website, or a network partner has referred us, therefore, the prospect already knows all about what we do. They have all the information they need and we don’t feel the need to do much more than explain the product features, and surely they will buy. As a result, we don’t ask for the sale, and we assume that the prospect knows that we want them to buy our product or service.
How People Buy
Unfortunately, these two mistakes cut your conversion in half, by my estimates, and worse, stop you from being in tune with what the market wants, thus robbing you of opportunities to innovate and further differentiate yourself.
Think of a straight line with intervals 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
If you haven’t already watched The Wolf of Wall Street, I recommend you do it because it’s very entertaining. If you have and taken an even closer look at the Wolf, Jordan Belfort’s sales system called Straight Line Persuasion, you’ll have understood that it is based on the principle that The Straight Line describes how certain it is that your prospect will buy from you.
For example, zero represents when a prospect doesn’t know you or what you do, therefore there is zero probability that they will buy from you.
As probability increases so does the number, so that five represents a 50-50 chance and 10 represents a client that has bought.
Our job as business owners is to help our clients take the journey with us so that they move along this buy line from 0 to 10.
The closer to a 10, the more likely they will buy from you. It is important to note that our leads, prospects and clients all occupy a different position on this line, depending on an almost infinite number of variables that make up their current situation.
The two big revenue mistakes every business owner needs to avoid:
Trying to progress the client to make a decision faster than they are ready for.
Not asking for the business.
These two forces oppose each other, the key is to find the happy balance between them.
Here are some tips to help move your clients to a 10, provided you have their attention and at least a little interest:
Have certainty and clarity about what you want from the conversation – this is the offer you wish to make to move the opportunity forward.
Connect emotionally with your client – be curious and meet them where they are. Ask questions about what their current situation is, how long for, and what their expectations are.
Strive to align with your client – where they are now and where do they want to be? Does your offer make sense to them? What might happen if they don’t commit?
Provide a case study or previous example outlining the success and ask for the business! Would you like to move forward today?
Make it easy for the buyer to buy. Be very clear about what needs to happen next, including payment, onboarding and anything else that makes it easy to move the opportunity to a close.
Confusing Offers
Keep the offer simple. Whilst the devil is in the details, if there is too much detail in the offer, or the client does not know what they need to do, they will not buy.
Pushy Sales Tactics
This approach gives sales a bad name. Asking for the business too early or making an offer without qualifying shows that we are putting our agenda first. This is not showing care for the client, and they will feel this.
Put-offs
Oftentimes, the conversation will stall and the opportunity will not progress. The result is some form of objection or put-off. This just means we missed something. Go back and ask another question; we need to learn more about how our offer and client can align. Follow steps 1-6 above and repeat as often as you need to. Most deals take more than one conversation to close.
Here are some examples of how to deal with put-offs by asking a question:
“It’s not a good time” – When might be a good time to implement a solution?
“I need to consult with my partner” – What sort of things does your partner consider important in this situation?
“It’s not in the budget” – What level of financial investment are you considering?
“I don’t really need it” – How important is it to address this problem now?
Conclusion
You can take advantage of the capacity in your business and increase revenue and profit by avoiding two common mistakes in the sales process and instead follow the sales process above that explains how people buy.
Frank Ferrara, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Frank is a Sales Trainer & Coach with over 20 years in customer service, sales, and sales management.
His previous career was in the electrical industry, selling to contractors, wholesalers, engineering consultants and facilities managers. He spent five years in Sydney running an electrical wholesale operation, which under his management grew to become the most profitable branch in the company. This opened the door to run bigger businesses in Melbourne. He delivered major growth for 3 separate businesses there, increasing sales
from $6m to $12m (100% growth in 3 years)
from $6m to $30m (500% growth in 5 years)
from $8m to $26m (325% growth in 7 years)
Frank now applies everything he learned in his own business, providing sales training and coaching to help business owners grow their customer base. Since founding Stellar Education less than two years ago, he has helped over 50 businesses build sales pipeline, shorten sales cycles and increase conversion rates.
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