The aim of the workshop was to guide us through the sales process and give us some tips on capturing clients and generating prospects for our businesses. As mentioned in my first entry as a ‘blogette’, my aim is to establish an e-commerce fashion label for curvy women because in my opinion, and dozens of other women I’ve chatted to agree, the high street fails to cater for curves. So with this in mind I began the workshops, listening eagerly!
Our session leader was Steve Baker who I am likely to mention over several of the blogs as he is to be one of our main tutors for marketing and sales. Beginning with the interesting equation below we were told “selling is simple!”
If effectiveness is the business message and exposure the number of people I talk to, then the best way to make money is to represent myself and get out and network…hardcore! But is selling really that simple? Well I got the impression from Steve that it can be…if it’s well practiced! So where else to begin than with the ’15 second elevator pitch.’ Apparently remembering AIDA helps focus:
Attention-engage hearing and vision.
Interest- engage thinking and make it relevant.
Desire- engage the audiences appetite by helping them visualise the solution with relevance to their own life.
Action- get a decision to act.
I’m pretty sure however, that mine came out as a mix-up of words that I hope sounded vaguely English! Of course I’m exaggerating, but I know I missed out several things I wanted to say, and waffled on about things which should have been a short sentence. Steve has reassured us though that we will be working on this pitch over the next few weeks (I will be ready to impress)!
Steve continued with explaining that the best layout is to simply begin with who you are and put into context the problems that your clients are experiencing. In my case finding good fitting clothes for the bust and hips is impossible! This should then lead into the USP’s (Unique Selling Points) and why you can do the job that no one else, even superman himself, can’t do quite like you! And to polish the pitch off, state what you plan to do to turn this ugly problem on it’s head! Then silently congratulate yourself on moving that one step closer to a ‘perfect’ sales pitch as I believe Steve when he said that practice makes perfect!
Start-ups and Networking
So if like me you are a new business, then where do we look to sell our ideas? Well, Steve suggested to get networking. In fact I think ‘networking’ has become a bit of a buzz word for me since I’ve been doing this business year. It’s not that I didn’t know what it meant before, it’s just that now I feel I understand the importance of it when growing a business as networking can easily lead to professional selling.
The Sales Funnel
The idea of the sales funnel is to keep filling it up, as the more that goes in at the top, the more that comes out the bottom! This is how prospecting for business should work.
Prospecting
I may have an idea of what I want to achieve with my business but figuring out how to get there isn’t easy, it’s how to get people involved- prospecting- that I feel clueless about. But Steve gave an overview of the ‘sales funnel’, outlining the process of how engaging people and the results can tend to go; all sales begin with prospecting, then initial contact, qualification, presentation, addressing the concerns, closing the sale, ask for referrals/ testimonials, which then leads in full circle back to prospecting for the journey to continue again.
I now know that I need to get stuck into organising prospects and get as much information as possible, by looking through the phone book, trade listings, chambers of commerce, websites, papers, Google and purchase lists. I then need to qualify the list by sorting, e.g. make it my objective to find 25 prospects in a certain time limit, make initial contact and find another 25. It seems a long process but Steve reinforced the necessity of it!
Initial Contact
There are several ways of making initial contact; initial sales through people I know, networking as a result of referrals or professional selling through letters, emails and phone calls.
Steve gave tips on writing sales letters, hinting that they work best if they are addressed personally, are attention grabbing and I provide the client with useful information and consequently prove I am worth talking to. Then finish by asking them to take action steps. This seems bold to assume they will act but I guess a big part of business is confidence and knowing that you can sell yourself well, an area I hope to improve in as the workshops progress.
Cold Calling
I’ve worked in telesales in the past and admittedly half the time I found it such a daunting process because I knew I was trying to sell people something they didn’t need or want and to stay positive after several rejections was difficult. But for start-ups, cold calling can be one of the only ways to build a client base and because it will be my business that I’m selling and something I believe in, I need to be positive. Steve reinforced the ‘80% of the response is how you say it, not what you say’ theory which is why positivity works. So as well as networking I may need to allocate time to cold call and develop a script in relation to the responses I get, using open questions as a lead. As my business will be an e-commerce site I doubt there will be as much cold calling as emailing people who have shown an interest or searched my website, however if I wish to expand or put lines in shops I may need to call around business to do this.
Conclusion
I feel challenged to develop and practice a sales pitch that will knock everyone’s socks off, as I realise how important an opportunity just 15seconds can be. I also realise how motivated I will need to be to find prospects and stay enthusiastic even though I will be rejected as well as encouraged.
I found this picture, the '10 commandments of sales,’ on the internet and would encourage you to read it.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to any feedback!
Faith
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