Founder and Chief Officer CEO experiencecreating a monthly CEO Executive Guide intended for CEOs.
Getty
Marketing success can often be difficult and difficult to understand. Successful business marketing can often be elusive, but every leader knows that good marketing is essential for continued business growth and expansion.
While there are more tools to marketing than any one methodology, a good understanding of the sales process can be a great place to start seeing more results from your sales efforts. I believe the key to good sales is having a simple sales process that anyone can follow.
One of the principles to follow is to never leave a customer interaction without clearly identifying the next step. I’ve developed this proven five-step sales process that you can implement in your business to achieve success. Continue to move the prospect through each step and you may have more sales success than before.
Step 1: Make contacts with new customers
Contacts can be defined by new potential clients. Contacts are those potential customers who first learned about your product or service. These can be the first visitors to the location or even the first followers of your company’s social media presence.
Contacts are key to good sales because people can’t buy or use a product or service they don’t know exists. Any business looking to expand its existing customer base should track the new contact number it follows each week to understand how it is penetrating its market area.
Step 2: Identify user comments
Comments represent meaningful interactions with customers. These interactions can be on social media or through existing customer referrals. A comment occurs when a prospect is now aware of your products and services and has shown some level of interest in learning more about your business.
The comments step allows you to get to know your customers and begin to understand their needs. It also allows you to be memorable to your customers and earn the right to go deeper with them by building trust.
Step 3: Build customer conversations
Conversations are interactions with the customer in which the customer’s questions can be answered and some basic understanding of the customer can be gained. This can happen through a cold calling process, a chat box on your website, or a conversation—either in person or over the phone.
Conversations are short interactions with a purpose where your company can learn more about what your potential customer needs. The conversation step allows you to get to know your customers and further understand their needs.
Step 4: Stand out in client conferences Conferences are pre-arranged meetings with the purpose of presenting to close a customer. These in-depth meetings are where a solution to the problem the customer is facing can be answered and addressed. The solution is clearly articulated, objections are answered, and the price is understandable.
The conference step allows your customer to gather the information they need to make a good buying decision. Customer conferences allow you to stand out from the competition by making a good impression and communicating to the customer how you are different from the competition.
Step 5: Request closings from customers
Customer closure is when a new customer accepts the terms of the solution offered and the customer begins the integration process with the organization. Closing occurs when the contract is signed and paid for.
Closing the buyer is one of the most important steps in a successful sales process. Many companies go through a good sales process and never push to close. You’ll get either a “yes” or a “no” in the final step, but the sale isn’t complete until you request closing.
Every step to the final destination is important, and all steps of the sales process need to be identified and measured in order to be well managed in the organization and to treat customers properly to create customer intimacy and satisfaction.
The Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. do I qualify?