The question of how does a company become more profitable when the economic climate is quiet and locked up is a good one. Many believe that venturing out to a broader base by reviewing other ways their product or service can be applied is a great idea, but difficult to implement quickly.
Though you may want to look to find new applications for the product or service you provide to broaden your client base and bring in additional revenue, capturing more of the sales from the opportunities or leads your sales force is currently in front of is the fastest “quick fix”.
To help, some of the questions we ask when Encino Financial Resources begins working with a client is – what is your cost of acquisition? If your sales team meeting their quota? What is the cost of getting those sales? What is the effectiveness of the sales effort to reduce that cost by capturing more of the opportunities their facing? More importantly, how are you adjusting your sales efforts off of these analyses?
It’s always good to try and look at your sales from the outside looking in and try to see how your sales team is being received. If it’s a phone room, are they getting a lot of hang ups or are they getting through their initial pitch? If it’s face to face sales, are they listening to their potential clients or are they just forging through, unaffected by new information, trying to make a sale? Are they effectively qualifying? Are they holding prices? Are they working to reduce selling cycles?
Oddly enough, the solution in these unique and uncertain times is listening. In fact, it's more than just listening - it’s understanding the words, posture and tone of your customer. Before you start spending money to force more sales opportunities through your pipeline, you should focus on the techniques that can capture more sales with the leads or customers you already have available to you.
It’s the slowing down the front end of your sales process and the making of each opportunity to sell more valuable. But it takes more work, more effort, more attention and more of your sales team’s best skills. As we say at EFR there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. But times are different so your sales approach needs to change with the times, as well.
It’s simple math that if you can retain or gain more customers by improving sales techniques instead of just bringing in more sales opportunities, you will drop your cost of acquisition (ROI) and therefore when the climate for sales does change, your team will be better prepared to reap the benefits and so will your bottom line.
Though you may want to look to find new applications for the product or service you provide to broaden your client base and bring in additional revenue, capturing more of the sales from the opportunities or leads your sales force is currently in front of is the fastest “quick fix”.
To help, some of the questions we ask when Encino Financial Resources begins working with a client is – what is your cost of acquisition? If your sales team meeting their quota? What is the cost of getting those sales? What is the effectiveness of the sales effort to reduce that cost by capturing more of the opportunities their facing? More importantly, how are you adjusting your sales efforts off of these analyses?
It’s always good to try and look at your sales from the outside looking in and try to see how your sales team is being received. If it’s a phone room, are they getting a lot of hang ups or are they getting through their initial pitch? If it’s face to face sales, are they listening to their potential clients or are they just forging through, unaffected by new information, trying to make a sale? Are they effectively qualifying? Are they holding prices? Are they working to reduce selling cycles?
Oddly enough, the solution in these unique and uncertain times is listening. In fact, it's more than just listening - it’s understanding the words, posture and tone of your customer. Before you start spending money to force more sales opportunities through your pipeline, you should focus on the techniques that can capture more sales with the leads or customers you already have available to you.
It’s the slowing down the front end of your sales process and the making of each opportunity to sell more valuable. But it takes more work, more effort, more attention and more of your sales team’s best skills. As we say at EFR there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. But times are different so your sales approach needs to change with the times, as well.
It’s simple math that if you can retain or gain more customers by improving sales techniques instead of just bringing in more sales opportunities, you will drop your cost of acquisition (ROI) and therefore when the climate for sales does change, your team will be better prepared to reap the benefits and so will your bottom line.
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