Author: Richard Conyers

Finally, that prospect you’ve had at the start of your sales pipeline for months has agreed to meet. It’s time to prepare for the meeting.

There are two elements to preparing for a sales meeting: the first is preparing your attitude, (and if you haven’t read the first part of our sales series, we recommend you check it out: sales starting point: Attitude), the second is research.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to researching the company before that first sales meeting. Either you can thoroughly investigate the company, or you can go straight in there without doing any research at all.

So which way is best?

 

Preparing for a sales meeting – The full research approach

If your preference is to research the company before your appointment, it’s always best to make sure you fully understand the company and the industry they operate within.

Nothing stalls the progress of a meeting more than making the wrong assumptions or delivering incorrect information about the client back to them. However, if you get this research right, it demonstrates that you’re familiar with the industry and have an understanding of the top-level company objectives. This can go a long way in establishing confidence in your abilities.

The best places to do company research include:

• Companies House
• Website
• Reviews platforms
• Social media
• LinkedIn profile of the person you’re meeting
• Partnering websites

 

TOP TIP: Remember, looking at a company website or literature alone won’t give you a true reflection of what the company needs. A company’s marketing is (or should be) customer focused. It’s giving you a clue as to what they want the end goal to appear to be, not how they operate.

Think Wizard of Oz – you want to see ‘the man behind the curtain’, not the Great and Powerful Oz.

And it’s this very sentiment that leads people to consider the second approach when preparing for that first sales meeting:

 

Preparing for a sales meeting – The open approach

The main benefit of the open approach to sales meeting research is you shouldn’t have any preconceptions or assumptions.

It’s always best to do a little research, like understanding who you’re meeting and the purpose of the meeting. However, only doing this basic research should mean you don’t have any preconceptions about the company. You’ll have to ask questions and seriously pay attention to their answers.

This approach can make the meeting feel more natural. However, it does rely on your skills as an interviewer. If this is something you’re concerned about, it’s best to write down some questions you know you need answering before you enter the meeting – it’s always best to know what you don’t know. Then, towards the end of the meeting, you can quickly check down your list to see if you can answer each question.

 

What is the best sales preparation approach?

At the end of the day, neither of these approaches has been proven to be better or worse than the other. However, understanding each method should help you refine your chosen technique, and you may even find that your approach is entirely dependent on the industry or individual client.

Whichever position you take, it’s about working in the best way for you. Your objective during these meetings should always be to gather enough information to effectively answer their needs with your product or service – and close the deal. How you get that information is up to you.

If you’re still unsure, one of the most effective ways to understand which approach to take can be to practice a technique called ‘Mental Rehearsal’. This visualisation process is what top-performing athletes use to help prepare themselves before a competitive performance.

Mental Rehearsal is designed to help you visualise your journey to success. This can be visualising your walk to the car, the car to the meeting, the questions in the meet and the handshake accepting the deal at the end. It may be that by mapping out this journey, you identify where barriers to your success are going to be, and can help you think about how you’re going to overcome them – either through research or writing a question to ask in the meeting.

There are lots of resources on visualisation techniques online. This one from American coach Jack Canfield is simple to follow and provides a practical example of Mental Rehearsal.

 

If you need help preparing for a meeting, or want to discuss either approach to preparation, please get in touch.

If you’re new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

The sales pipeline, or sales board, is a set of defined stages that a prospect moves through to become a customer.

An effective sales pipeline will ensure you take each prospect on the best journey to maximise conversion. It also means you shouldn’t forget a prospect, what you need to do with that prospect and when you need to do it. It can also serve as a powerful analysis tool for your business.

If you want to increase sales and profits, you need a sales pipeline.

 

Do you have a sales pipeline or sales list?

It’s common for the sales pipeline to be confused with a list of prospective contacts. Although this is useful information, alone this isn’t likely to make you money.

Here’s a quick test to see if you have a pipeline or a list of people you’re trying to sell to:

Right now, without opening more than one spreadsheet or document, you should be able to answer these simple questions:

1. How many new prospects do you have?
2. How many quotes are with clients?
3. What’s the value of your last quote?
4. How many days until you need to follow-up your latest quote?

If you can’t answer each of these questions with a number, you need to re-evaluate, or create, a sales pipeline.

 

How to create a sales pipeline

When creating your pipeline, we recommend you start by looking at the stages you went through to secure your last successful sale.

The structure of a sales pipeline can differ from company to company, but here are some of the more common stages:

1. Contact. This is the initial exchange of contact information. This could happen via a referral, or through a phone call or meeting.
2. Qualification. This is where you take the time to understand the prospect’s problem. This could happen at the same time as the initial contact, but it’s usually a good idea to allocate some time to talk through their specific requirements. It’s also an excellent time to determine if there is a genuine need, they have the budget, and authority to buy in the near future – are they a legitimate prospect?
3. Proposal. At this stage, you outline the solution that best fits the prospect’s need and the cost.
4. Follow-up. You should always follow up each proposal. It may take several attempts to close the sale. Keeping on top of your follow up schedule will keep your pipeline live and useful.
5. Sale (Close). This is where the final negotiations are made and contracts are signed. The prospect is now a customer.

After you’ve written down the stages you need to make a sale, talk it through with someone who knows your business. They can help fill in any gaps or remove any unnecessary steps.

Once you’re happy with your pipeline, start placing each contact on your sales list in these stages.

The idea is to keep the sales pipeline simple, but not void of substance. As a guide, why not refer back to the questions at the start of this article. If your pipeline doesn’t allow you to answer these questions quickly, you may have missed a step.

 

Create your pipeline today

In a digital world, many people have their sales pipeline on a spreadsheet or use a sales tool built into their CRM system. At an early stage, it’s probably best to keep your pipeline as simple as possible. A complex tool or spreadsheet might prevent you from continually using it.

A pipeline is only useful if its used and continually updated and reviewed. When used correctly, a sales pipeline will increase the number of converted sales, guaranteed. Don’t over complicate it. Here are some simple ways to help you create and maintain a pipeline:

Online tools. Free tools like Hubspot and Trello allow you to create digital boards and then, using your mouse, drag cards through the various stages of your sales pipeline. Here’s an example of what a digital pipeline can look like:

Spreadsheets. Don’t want to use online tools? Why not use a spreadsheet? Simply create a list of all your prospects and detail what stage they’re at in your pipeline. You can then use filters and formulas to quickly summarise information.

Whiteboard. Have your sales board information prominently displayed in your office on a whiteboard. Divide your board into a grid and move each contact through the board manually. This is a great way to feel physically connected to each stage of the sales journey.

Top tip. If you prefer to go down a digital route, we still recommend using a whiteboard. This is absolutely best way to keep you sales focused as its always in front of you, prominently displayed in your office. You can keep the detail on your digital version, but use the whiteboard to remind you how many contacts are in each stage without opening up a document or app.

 

The power of an effective sales pipeline

The sales pipeline is probably one of the most powerful sales tools at your disposal – if used correctly.

Without complicating your pipeline, adding additional information will allow you to measure sales success and evaluate specific areas of your business.

For example, if you record when you first made contact and when you closed the sale, you can start to understand how long it takes you to convert a prospect to a client (on average). This helps you better forecast and understand how many prospects you need at the start of the year to pay the bills at the end.

Likewise, this information can be used to understand how many prospects turn to customers. This will tell you how many prospects you need at the start of the pipeline to make a profit. You may need to look at ways to improve your conversion if the numbers become concerning.

 

If you need help creating a sales pipeline, or if you have one and want to get more from it, please get in touch.

If you’re new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

It’s time to start planning for 2020. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s time to start reviewing this year’s progress and start preparing for the next one.

Regardless of whether your business year runs from January-December, April-March or June-May, now is the time to get your business ready for the new year.

Taking action now gives you time to prepare, take a look at where you are against your goals, and if you’ve strayed a little, you have some time to course-correct.

 

When is the best time to create a business plan?

As a rule of thumb, business plans should be compiled three months before they’re needed. So, for those businesses that run on a calendar year of January to December, the best time is September. For businesses running from April to March, the best time is January.

If you’re in retail or an e-commerce business, you’re planning schedule may look slightly different. Typically, you should be preparing for Christmas in June and conducting your business planning in January.

If you’re not in retail or e-commerce, regardless of your business year (unless it’s August-July – in which case you should already have a sufficient plan in place), you should always think about a New Year plan.

Taking this proactive approach gives you adequate time to prepare for the new year and estimate where you will finish against your goals. You also have time to put yourself back on track if you’ve strayed a little, and it will provide you with a clear direction when you come back from Christmas (probably still a little foggy from an over-indulgent week).

 

What should a business plan include?

You don’t need to overcomplicate this process. If you’re creating a business plan for a bank or shareholders, it’s advisable to start working with experienced support as soon as possible.

If the plan is for yourself, you can be more flexible to suit your individual needs. Although, it’s still wise to gather some support, and sole traders can enlist some trusted friends or associates to help. If you have a mentor, now is the time to get them involved!

When writing a business plan, it’s always helpful to use the SOSTAC model referred to below. Here are some guidelines to help you create the plan successfully:

The purpose of your business

It is always important to keep the ‘why’ you’re doing business at the start of your business plan. It is possibly the most important section of your plan as it will help ensure the content within your plan supports your business purpose. It also provides context to someone outside the company should they read your plan.

To understand more about the importance of ‘why’, we recommend you check out ‘Start with Why’ by Simon Sinek – also available on Amazon.

Situation

Where are we now? Document where you are now so that you can measure progress. For example, how many products you have, how many customers, how much you spent against budget, sales numbers etc.

Objectives

Where do you want to be: both for the business and personally? Set Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timebound (SMART) objectives for each of the steps required to achieve your goals.

Strategy

How are we going to get there? Broadly, how do you plan to achieve the objectives you’ve defined? For example, if one aim is to increase sales, the strategy might be to start selling in new markets.

Tactics

What are we going to do? With the strategies outlined, you’ll need to decide what tactical elements are required to achieve these. Looking back at the example above, let’s say one strategy is to penetrate new markets, one tactic to achieve this may be having an online store.

Action

What do we need to do, by when, and by whom? This is the list you’re probably used to making. It’s the task list for each of the tactics you outlined above. Sticking with the same theme of selling into new markets, and using a website to do that, your actions may include things like:

• Build an e-commerce website
• Research shipping fees
• Review pricing
• Review packaging options

With a list in place, add to it who will do what and by when. Day to day service delivery can often get in the way of delivering on an action plan, so be realistic when deciding on deadlines.

Control

How are we going to measure and monitor success? All that work you’ve just written down is going to be a complete waste of everyone’s time if you don’t action it! This is where putting precise, defined metrics or milestones in place will help you record and recognise success.

It sounds logical, but you’d be surprised how many plans are written but not followed. There are so many distractions as a business owner; it’s easy to lose sight.

An easy mechanism to establish success against your goals is to attach accountability to the objectives, strategies, tactics and actions. Regular management team meetings, or if you’re a smaller business, scheduled meetings with your business coach will encourage you to stick to your plan.

Oh, and there’s nothing like a significant global event like New Year to give you a deadline. So, schedule some time in your diary to check everything is on track.

 

Budget

Following the SOSTAC model above, you should have everything you need to understand how much money you made and how much you want to make. A copy of the previous budget will help identify precisely where money was well spent, and where it could be adjusted to benefit your future plans.

For more advice on how to budget, take a look at our 7 easy steps to successful budgeting.

 

What’s next?

Nothing. Just follow the plan. A good business plan is a roadmap for the foreseeable future, so you should have everything you need to get going.

When you follow these steps and implement your business plan, you might just end up where you want to be!

As ever, if you need any help building and implementing your business plan, or preparing for the new year, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

Research suggests that at least 70% of small business owners never take a holiday. In our role as business consultants, we come across this time and time again. Catching up on emails is far more the norm than catching a few rays.

While it might appear that taking a break from your business could be catastrophic, not taking one could be worse.

 

How motivated and productive are you?

Your business cannot afford or function long-term without you taking a quality break. Ignoring this simple fact can be damaging to both your mental health and your business.

When business owners don’t take time out, they become fatigued; directly affecting productivity. Worse, resentment towards your business can build up, further adding to a decline in motivation.

 

How much holiday should you take?

We recommend taking at least 1-2 weeks holiday a year. If it’s impossible to take such a long break, then make time for long weekends instead. After some quality time away from your business, you’ll come back refreshed, and you’ll notice an increase in productivity – and you’ll make some more money!

Also, notice we say ‘quality’ a lot here. Going away and checking your emails every five minutes isn’t a quality break – a break from the office isn’t a holiday. You need to detach yourself from what’s going on.

To ensure you have a quality break, here are our top tips to help you have a quality holiday:

 

1) Understand your customer base

Do your customers have a pattern? Understanding your customer base can help identify natural quiet(er) times for your business. This might be the best time to take a break.

A simple survey of your existing customer base could uncover some facts you can use to your advantage. Include questions to find out why they don’t purchase at certain times.

Having this knowledge can help you prepare for that potential dip well in advance of it happening. If it’s an annual occurrence, you’ll have all year to develop a plan to take some time off without it having a significant impact on your business.

2) Handing over the reins

Ensuring the continuity of service for clients is a key concern for business owners when planning a holiday.

Bringing in support while you’re away can help maintain continuity. Planning ahead and scheduling several training or induction meetings before you go away will help acclimatise your support. These mini trial periods will also highlight what tools, platforms and any login details they will need to perform their temporary role.

If this is a problem area for you, take a look at our Creating Consistency in Service article. In this article, we explain how to give staff the tools and knowledge to get the job done exactly as you want it!

3) Build a good relationship with your clients

Having a good relationship with your clients is worth its weight in gold. Giving your clients a heads up before you go away will help to set expectations and may even result in more work before/after you go away.

If you’re handing over the reins, make sure your ‘out of office’ points clients in the right direction by providing temporary contact details. If you don’t have someone supporting you, let people know what your plans are: when you will be returning, or how access to your emails is limited and when you check them.

4) What to do if you can’t let go

If you still don’t believe you can hand over the reins and take a holiday, you need to take measures to switch off the best you can.

As we mentioned before, if you can’t take a long break, take long weekends instead.

If you still need to contact the office: schedule calls (as few as possible), don’t make or take unscheduled calls. More often than not, people need guidance or ‘permission’ to take a direction. Try and be the decision-maker and provide support only – don’t take on the work!

 

Get holiday ready and make more profit

So, with the summer upon us, it’s the perfect time to get away. If you don’t yet have your summer break planned, get one booked!

If you understand the benefit of taking a break but still feel unable to, book a free business review so we can help get your business ‘holiday ready’ and more profitable!