Once the long process of starting a business is over, your idea is ready for the big world.  You have all the paperwork done, equipment delivered and hundreds of other things are done.  You are left with one thing only – having to find work.

And that’s where the scary realization comes in.  How the hell are you going to do that since you are only starting out?

Perhaps you have started doing some marketing, sent some emails around, put up a big sign outside your office or shop. Maybe you put up an ad in the paper, listing on Gumtree or other website. Maybe you also joined your local Chamber of Commerce to make new contacts, great.

The problem is, none of it is going to bring you immediate work.  For that to happen, you need to go out and find your first clients yourself.  But you don’t know how.

With that in mind I decided to write a short, step by step guide to start out selling your services. In todays post I will discuss the first five days, or a working week if you prefer to look at it this way. You will learn more about your company and start researching your potential clients.  Each day contains a set of practical actions you need to complete in order to start selling. Each of those actions can be completed in 30 minutes or less so you don’t have to worry that it will take your entire day.

Ready? Pull up your sleeves, put down the coffee and get to work.

Start Out Selling Your Services: The First 5 Days

Day 1:  An epic day, today you are starting to sell your services.

Before you start winning new work you need to define yourself, your business and what you will be selling. I expect that you have researched your business idea and identified the market you would like to service as well as developed your unique selling proposition. If not, I would recommend you do that first before you continue with this plan.

On the first day I want you to write down the exact description of your business. Make a list of all services you provide, the benefits for your potential clients, your unique selling proposition and also what makes you different from your competition.

Note: This is a crucial step, today you define for yourself who you are, what is your business and how are you are going to present yourself in the eyes of your prospects.

Day 2: Discover whom you are targeting with your offer.

On the previous day we looked at you, what you do and what benefits you offer to your potential clients. Today we are going to look at whom you will be approaching with your services or products.

Write down a description of your target audience, the market, you have identified, industry or people with a need for your services or products. There is no need to have actual names or businesses in mind yet.  What we need today is a description of whom you will be targeting.

For example, if you provide copywriting services you may want to target design studios, marketing people, people involved in advertising campaigns and so on.  A yoga teacher may decide to target blue collar workers in the business district of her town.

Day 3: Now that you know whom you want to be working with, it’s time to go deeper and look for actual prospects.

Make a list of 30-50 (the more the better) companies or your target audience members that you would like to work with. If your target audience is designers, open up your local business directory and list all design studios in your region or in your country or any geographic location you decided to work in.  Make sure that they match the target audience description you made yesterday.

Once you have your list, organize it from the most important prospect to the least. When doing this, take into consideration the following:

• the size of the company
• their market position (how well known are they, are they market leaders or just a small business operating within this niche and so on)
• their impact on the market
• how much money they potentially have

Day 4: The next step is to begin finding out more about the companies you listed the day before.

Pick 5 companies from the bottom of your list and try to find out as much information as possible about them. What you are looking for is:

1. the name of the person you need to contact
2. the direct email for that person
3. things you might have in common (this could be anything, from growing up in the same neighborhood to attending the same school to memberships in the same organizations, churches, etc.). You will use this information when making initial contact with that person
4. whether or not the company has been using your competition
5. the opinion about them

Day 5: Continue researching prospects.

Pick another 5 companies from your list and research them in the same way as you did yesterday. Pay special attention to things you may have in common with the contact person in the company.  Whether they have been using services or products similar to yours in the past and their opinion. Also, check out their employees’ twitter accounts for any complaints on them.

Remember that you should pick companies from the bottom of your list.

The reason for that is that it is better to start with companies that have the smallest impact in your industry. You are still learning sales and possibly also how to run a business in general so it is easier to make mistakes if you don’t talk to the major players in your niche. Smaller companies are more understanding and willing to overlook errors typically made by a sales novice.

And there you have it.  The set of actions for your first week of selling.

Coming soon, I will show you how to start approaching your prospects to set appointments.

Days of the Week Photo via Shutterstock

The post Start Out Selling Your Services: The First 5 Days appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Price, time or other commitments are simply your prospects excuses for not wanting to admit that they do not feel secure to buy from you.  Behind any sales objection hides one of such questions as:

• What will happen if I buy from you and things go wrong?
• What will be the consequences to me?
• Is my career, reputation or position at stake?
• What will my boss/spouse/family say?
• Is that really a necessary purchase?
• Will you provide me with enough support?
• What if I can get the item cheaper?

Buying poses a risk and quite often prospects take it on a personal level, fearing how much trouble they will get into if they buy from you. And, one of the most important things for you to do, regardless of whether you run your own business or work for a company, is to minimize that perceived risk. Failing at that means only one thing, no sale.  Use the following tips below to minimize the risk of buying from you:

1. Build Customer Awareness about You and Your Company

Educate your prospect about you and your company before you even initiate the selling process with them. Increase your business accountability by becoming known as an expert in your field. Create your brand advocates. Be everywhere your prospects are, in person or via your publications, writing, advertising and more.

Here are some simple ways to achieve that:

• Write a blog
• Write a column in a publication that’s read by your prospects
• Send a regular newsletter with advice that helps your clients and prospects
• Speak in public
• Organize networking events
• Run regular training sessions for your clients
• Do anything else that can help you become known. You will know what will work best for you.

2. Become Famous for Your Customer Support

Think for a second. . . are people afraid to buy from Zappos? Of course not, the company is famous for its support and because of this one thing alone, it is hard to fear purchasing from them since they will listen to you if things go wrong.

Strive to achieve the same level of perception about your business. If your prospects heard about your amazing support before they even met you, how hard do you think it would be for them to decide to buy?

3. Show Mind Blowing Testimonials

Build social proof of your service and customer support with great testimonials. Post them up on:

• Your website
• LinkedIn profile
• Social media
• Business card
• Ads
• Your brochures
• Product packaging

Testimonials are like a seal of approval for your business. Showing that others have been satisfied with your service or product is one of the most powerful ways to reassure potential clients to buy from you.

3. Offer a Sales Guarantee

Offer a guarantee that will be hard to beat. At my company, we give money back if our clients realize that our course didn’t bring the desired result. In other words, there is no risk for the buyer to try us out. Worst comes to worst, they will loose some time in their day going through our product.

4. Follow Up With Your Prospects

Regardless of what you do, there are times when you are not able to overcome your prospects fear of buying before they meet you. But, you can still do it afterwards.  Show your prospect that you care about them, reassure them that you will not disappear the minute they hand over the check. Follow up with them regularly, check if they don’t have any questions to ask or don’t want to clarify some information. Be proactive and come up with ways to stay in touch while offering value.

Your Turn

What other ways of reducing your prospects fear of buying do you use? Is there anything I missed?

Safety Net Photo via Shutterstock

The post How to Reduce the Risk of Buying: From You! appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Sure, you know that you must sell. Deep in your heart of hearts though you despise it. You know that making sales is the only way to increase your revenue, build up your company and, well, stay in business. You have heard of the results others get. You know that selling works.

But, for some reason, it’s not working for you.

You work hard researching and contacting prospects. You do your best to interest them with your work during a sales presentation. Hell, you even follow up, which is not something many small business owners would do.  But you still don’t make sales. At least not as many as you would like. You do everything by the book but you get no results. And, the sales that you make, well, sometimes they feel kind of accidental. Like as if they just happened, as if you were simply in the right place at the right time.

You know that wasn’t selling, just luck.

So, what’s wrong? What’s causing all this hard work to go to waste?

Well, I may have an idea so read on. I will show you a simple hack that can help you make more sales almost instantly.

This Is Not Only Your Problem

Before we begin, there is one more thing I want to talk about.

You are not alone. The problem I am about to discuss with you is one of the most common ones amongst all small business owners. There are literary thousands of people that struggle to make sales. Some of them try very hard, others give up because, as someone once told me, “this is the difficult part.” Nevertheless, they make no sales.

But do you know what is the reason for that?

Wrong Attitude

Yep, it’s nothing to do with who you are, what you do and how good you are at selling (well, technique plays a part in that too but it’s not the most important part). It’s your approach to selling that’s causing the problem.

Because, you see, you go to a presentation hoping to make the sale (and I fully realize how stupid this sentence sounds but please, read on). The trouble is, it’s true. You go to the sales call with one intention, to get the order.  It’s not a genuine, honest reason. It’s being selfish. And, the trouble is, many of your prospects see through that.

Do you know what a seasoned salesman does instead? They go to a meeting hoping that their solutions will help the prospect solve their problems and improve their business.  They know this, hell, they believe in it. And, they get the sale.

Want to make more sales? Go to your next sales call believing that what you are going to do to your prospect is going to help them, improve their business or increase the revenue.  And, you know what the best part is? It’s actually quite simple to do.

How To Change Your Sales Attitude And Show Your Prospects That You Care

1. Realize What You Are Really Selling

You can’t change your mindset if you don’t know what are you really selling. By this I don’t mean the actual product or a service you are offering but what is the biggest benefit of using it.  A web designer does not sell websites. She sells the opportunity to promote the business online, to gain more leads and sales for the business.  A garden designer does not sell new gardens but rather an opportunity to have a special place to rest and unwind.

Find out what you are really selling and figuring out the ways to help your prospects will become extremely easy.

2. Understand That You Are Not The Most Important Part of The Sale

By nature, we think of ourselves first. It’s quite natural, however, if you want to make sales, you need to change the way you think. In sales, in spite of what you might say you are not the important part. It is your potential client, their business and the problems they are looking to fix. Everything else is secondary.

3. Prepare Solutions For Your Prospect

When you initiate a sales process with a prospect, you usually have a very good idea about the kind of problems they might have in relation to what you are selling. If not, I suggest you stop here and first learn how to research your potential clients thoroughly before making the initial contact.

That knowledge should be enough to think of the best solutions for your prospect. It doesn’t mean that you should have the whole proposal ready. But having examples of how you could implement your solution into the prospects business in your presentation will certainly present you as someone who cares.

Here’s A Scary Fact

Every time you lose a sale, you most likely also lose a prospect for life. It is an unfortunate fact that you may never get a chance to sell to them again.  A simple change in your business mindset can make the difference between this and constantly winning new clients for your business.

So, what do you choose?

Mindset Photo via Shutterstock

The post A Small Change in Your Business Mindset Can Increase Your Sales appeared first on Small Business Trends.

But, in spite of all that, nothing may happen. You may make no sales and hear nothing back from your prospects.

You fear that there’s something wrong with your product, service, brand or prices. Or perhaps that it’s something that you have said during the presentation. Out of shame, or desperation you move on to another prospect and start the process all over.

The thing is, your sale might not be lost.  Most sales don’t happen during the first presentation. You need more than just a meeting to make the sale.

This happens for a number of reasons:

• Your prospect might not need you right now
• Their decision making process is complicated

Think of large corporations. No decision there is made without forming a committee, a number of meetings and getting a number of signatures. This might be the case with your prospect too.

• They may still be uncertain about you and need reassurance about hiring you
• They are uncertain about their project
• Lastly, they might have not been impressed with you

And in that case there isn’t much you can do. However, until you know for sure, you should assume it’s one of the other 4 points above.

In other words, until said otherwise, you still have a chance to win the sale; you just have to work for it a bit more.  And, I have the best tool for you to do so.

A Follow Up

It may seem that a follow up is one of the most guarded secrets in sales. I certainly have noticed many sales experts deliberately omitting this part, or reduce it to a simple phone call two weeks after the meeting.

There is, however much more to a follow up than this. On many occasions, you win new business through a good follow up strategy.

Before we go any further though, let me specify what I understand as a follow up. By no means is it calling the prospect to check if they have received your promotional literature or had a chance to think about your offer. A properly conducted follow up is a means to keep in touch with prospects that haven’t bought from you yet. Most importantly, you do it with the prospects absolute permission.

How to Successfully Follow Up with Prospects

The secret to a good follow up is getting the prospect to agree to it. Naturally, you don’t need a permission to contact your potential client again, however, I can guarantee you that you won’t make a great impression by doing so.

Instead, get your prospects permission to stay in touch. You can do it by simply ending your sales call, if it hasn’t progressed to discussing an actual project, by asking if you could:

1. Call the prospect in 2-3 weeks time (or whatever time period is appropriate in your market) to see if they would like to discuss the project then. You can repeat this request every time you ring them if there is no progress in a sale.

2. Add the prospect to your mailing list. State the benefits of being a part of it. If you offer great value, I can assure you that most prospects will have no problem with that.

3. Send them a revised proposal after a certain amount of time. This is by far the weakest form of a follow up, however it still can work for you. Just remember to arrange with your prospect that you will check if they had a chance to act on it.

4.  Another great way to ask for a follow up, especially if you are not comfortable asking the prospect in person, is to email them after the meeting. Use this opportunity to thank them for their time (which you should do anyway) and end your email with a follow up suggestion.

Any of the above is usually enough to keep in touch with the prospect with their permission. And all that is left to do is to simply act on that.

If your prospect has agreed that you would get in touch in a couple of weeks time, ring them then. Remind them who you are and ask if they had a chance to think about your proposal, or if they would like to meet again to discuss the project further. Do not prolong the call. If the prospect tells you that they didn’t have time to consider your offer, thank them and ask if you could follow up in a couple of weeks again.

If you added the prospect to your mailing list, simply continue sending your newsletters. There is nothing else you can do here except for providing insanely useful advice regularly. I can guarantee you that if you send them quality information in your newsletters, when the time comes they will get in touch with you.

Quite often, you lose a sale because you simply give up. By persisting and using follow up to stay in front of the prospect all the time you increase your chances of making that sale after all.

Sales Photo via Shutterstock

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