developing your sales channels

Although I have covered this topic before I think it is worth going through it again. Some of the emails I receive tell me that your businesses are growing just fine, but how do I get more prospects?

Here are various ways to leverage what you already have with your business without having to either a) develop your existing sales personnel or even b) recruit any real life sales people.

Your sales mindset

Before looking at the rest of these tips, you need to get into a sales "mindset". What I am really saying here is think of everyone as a sales person for your business - including yourself!

Wherever you are, whoever you are talking with, sell your company.

Now I don't mean go into a full blown sales pitch, but ....

Your elevator pitch

You may have seen this in films or on popular entrepreneurial shows like "Dragons Den" or "The Apprentice".

The scenario is you have just got into an elevator/ lift with a potential *big* customer and you are going on a 30 ride in the elevator. The person you get into the elevator with asks you "so, what do you do"

And it's within these 30 seconds you have to come up with a succinct summary of who you are, what you do, and how it benefits your customers - at with a call to action at the end, such as "and here's my business card, perhaps I can call you next week to discuss this further?"

Other sales channels

OK, enough about you - what about your customers?

The great thing about people who have purchased from you before is that they know about your business and how your products work.

They should be ecstatic about your products.

So use them as a sales force. See the ideas below.

What sales channels are you using?

Member get member

You've probably seen this with credit card companies - you get rewarded for introducing new members.

In this scheme, usually both parties are rewarded. You are rewarded for the introduction, and your friend or college gets rewarded for joining up.

This can work for any business

Just work out a reward for both parties - whether it's a simple discount or an additional product - and see the sales pile in.

online sales channels

A few weeks ago I finally took the plunge on my website to add an affiliate scheme.

This means, people put a special link on their website that links into mine.

If that visitor then buys from my site the original website owner gets a % of the sale.

I pay 33% of each sale

Why do I do that?

Well, it's unlikely I would have got that sale in the first place. So paying a third of my sales value means I keep 66%

When some people start these schemes they only pay a very small sum. maybe only 10%

But this is not a large enough incentive.

Affiliates are a sales force for your online business and they need to be rewarded as much as normal sales people.

You can also earn money from your website by checking out my scheme

Teneric affiliate scheme here

If you do start one of these schemes for your website it doesn't stop once you have set up your scheme.

You still need to motivate your new sales force with examples of emails they can write to their customer email lists and special offers they can promote.

Telephone sales

I have not tried this at all but I understand from people on my forums that this also works well.

In general, you pay a small fee for experts to make calls on your behalf.

They have the contacts already and you need to provide a script.

The investment always pays for itself so this may be something to consider.

Member get member

This works well offline as well as online.

Many of the credit card companies use this tack. Simply explained, you reward your existing customers for introducing new customers.

Again, it's worth paying well to reward your customers as mini sales people.

If they are a satisfied customer they will tell new prospects great things about your business.

These are the best sales people you can get.

People like unbiased reports of companies they can use.

Come up with an offer (it can be a cash reward, a % off a future sale or a gift of value that your customers want)

Email marketing channel

Not strictly a sales channel but a great way to keep your company in the minds of your customers and prospects.

If you have a website it is vital you capture emails of people who visit.

The chances of people coming back to your site from memory are zero.

Offer a free report or download for people to be motivated to join your list.

You can also buy lists of emails to send messages about your company. This will work for offline and online businesses.

(By the way, I don't sell my email addresses to anyone -- or give them away)

Final thoughts

You need as many sales people as you can find.

Whether you take these ideas or not, anyone you know can be a sales person for your business.

Provide business cards to everyone you know.

You never know when someone may ask one of your friends about a product you may be selling.

Marketing Communications

Of course running a business is hard work. You know about yourselves but probably very few other people do.

If you are thinking of advertising, first think about where your target customers will be visiting to see your ad.

I have put together 5 free marketing ideas that you can use right now, additionally, the total 25 marketing ideas and campaigns can be downloaded now.

Business and marketing plans

I hope this has given you a few tips - more will follow.

But have you gone through your business or marketing plan recently?

By following the structure of a plan it will focus your efforts very sharply to what you need to do and how to contact all your customers.

The 25 marketing ideas mentioned above is included for free with every business plan or marketing plan you download off this site so you'll have everything to maximise your financial results.

What next? Action!

With anything in life you need to actually do something. So take one of the marketing ideas or business plans and work on it. Put aside 1/2 day to work through some of these ideas. What's 1/2 a day for your business? It really is time well spent.

And don't forget the business ideas forums that are completely free and compliment the business and marketing plans.

To your success

Regards,

Peter Hale

How About You Just Call An Expert?

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sample business plans
A range of 32 industry specific fully completed business plans you can download online right now written especially for business start-ups.