Sales Pitch

I believe the most important part of your sales process is your pitch and you should always be improving it. Being out in the field talking to potential clients is a great place to practice and immediatley see what works and what doesn’t. You don’t want to talk AT the client and loose them during your information sharing; engage them and make it a conversation. Is your pitch sharing key information that a decision-maker would want to hear aka numbers/savings? If you’re in face-to-face sales like me, I am sure you have walked into a business, without an appointment, to be faced with a gatekeeper. I can’t stress enough that in these situations, do not immediaetly just offer to “drop off information to _______” because you assume you won’t be able to meet with your goal person. For the love of all things sales, you need to try and speak to the decision-maker, not give the gatekeeper an easy out. By asking for the DM, your 30 second stop-by to a potential client could end up being a 10 minute meeting. One last thing to not forget- their name. If it wasn’t shared in the beginning of your conversation, make sure to ask them before you go and write it down.

Email Response

My company primarily conducts sales in person but follow-up calls and emails will always be part of the process, and it’s needed. I like to revamp my emails pretty often because testing what triggers a response is part of the sales game. Go through your previous follow-up emails to clients and see how you can improve your response rating. Which emails did you get a response too? Was the information you shared understandable to someone who does not know the details of your business/industry? Would you respond to your email if it was sent to you?

Day Planning

This is key. The amount of time you will save if you plan ahead will increase your productivity guaranteed. If you’re in the field like I am, you know how important a plan of action is. I’m talking client map that outlines my driving route, at least 2 names of people I plan on connecting with at each businsess, and more than enough marketing material in my car to hand out (business cards, logo sheets, case studies, product flyers).  Your day will go by quicker, you’ll feel more accomplished, you’ll actually be more accomplished, and you’ll make more money if you get your time management and organization in place.

Client List

I am a stickler for a detailed and organized client sheet. My business partner and I live by these right now, which we have shared in our Google Drive. As a new business we 100% understand the importance of saving money and finding cheap or better yet free ways to organize our business. So no worries if you don’t have a CRM tool yet, you can still be extremely organized with something as easy as excel. As mentioned just above in “Day Planning”, you want to enter the sales field completely prepared. However you are organizing your clients and follow-back lists, make sure you have a place to record basic potential client info (name, address, phone number, website, notes). On that same sheet or program, you want to store key names of decision-makers and their contact info so it is readily available for you to glance at before walking into the business to give your pitch. Lastly, recording your follow-backs (as we call them) in this sheet/program, with the date and key info for that meetings will make your sales life easier and more efficient.

Written by Eva Gerrits