Suck at Sales? We Got You Covered.

Do you typically have trouble determining your prices and closing deals? Don't worry, other people also have this issue. We used to look like the bear in the picture when we first started in sales. The good news is that, like other skills, it can develop over time. It's the most important talent for entrepreneurs to have, which is why we founded this business. 

No matter what kind of business you intend to run, you must generate sales. Even if you are the best software developer in the world and have excellent marketing skills, your business will fail if you are terrible at closing sales. 

No matter how good or bad the economy is, your job as an entrepreneur is to create transactions with other people. Yes, the objective is to be replaced by people who can carry out the sales process in your place. You can't, however, train some random commission-only salesperson to sell to your target demographic if you don't know how to do it yourself. 

Let's start by talking about three things: pricing model, lead generation, and sale cycle. You may be looking at us like this little guy in the picture below. Don't worry we'll break down these topics in a second.

Pricing Model

Do you really demand enough money? I observe a lot of people who run agencies asking $500, $1000, or even more than $2000 per client. However, this is primarily the result of people imitating others' work or, worse still, competing on price. Whatever you are selling needs to be based on the value you offer to your customer as well as the requirement to pay for fulfillment costs.

If Website Development Company A charges $2K for a website, but the business is having trouble making ends meet. Even if they do manage to attract clients, they struggle to maintain fulfillment. Website Development Firm B bills a client for nearly $55K for a website and is putting itself in a position to be acquired by a fund for seven figures.

The surprising part is that Firm A may be just as skilled at creating websites as Firm B, if not better. However, Firm B will frequently be preferred over Firm A. Why? Firm B charges enough to pay for a team of engineers, account managers, web designers, etc. The owner delegated fulfillment to others and concentrated solely on selling leads. Additionally, the margins are sufficient to save some money for a rainy day. In contrast, Firm A struggles to make ends meet and is unable to hire anyone to assist them. 

Their outrageous pricing is the only problem with this scenario. All other businesses operate using the same principle. There are no exceptions here. It is also true that your work must be more valuable than the price you charge. This shouldn't be a problem for you if you are competent at what you do. Website Development Company A should unquestionably charge at least $10,000 for a website that increases a client's sales by an additional $100,000. It is an unfair exchange on your behalf to price yourself so low while also depriving your client by disallowing yourself the resources needed to do better for your clients.

Lead Generation

If you'd like us to cover ads or outreach, we will gladly assist you just reach out to support, and we can schedule a quick chat. We have plenty of resources available and would love to assist you. Back to the topic, the most important thing you can do during lead generation is qualify your leads.

Niching down helps with some of this, but we need to go much further. "Cruelty-free, green, beauty brands for women in their 50s," says your marketing firm. It would be a waste of time to contact all of those businesses if you didn't want to work with them. Instead, narrow your focus to include just "cruelty-free, environmentally friendly, beauty brands that only market to women, make over 2.5 billion in revenue, and are actively looking to help with marketing." This distinction is crucial because it shows that they already have a budget in mind and an issue that you can fix.

Well you might say, "Hunter & Kris where can you locate these businesses?" Search for job postings for marketing managers, CMOs, and other positions. They indicate the budget they have set aside for this assignment, and now you can either get in touch with them or attend an interview to propose your organization handle it instead, flipping the script. 

Similarly, when running lead generation in the more traditional sense, your first call with a prospect should always be a qualification call. Not starting with a free consultation, strategy session, or discovery call.  Even if they submit a lead form that says they are the decision maker and their company makes so much you have to ask them on the call to confirm.

Not the decision maker? You tell them to get the decision maker, if they won't you hang up. They don't make enough revenue? You hang up.  Don't have a budget aside and don't can't tell you what it would be? You hang up. You are only interested in serious buyers who know they require making their problems go away and understand it requires an investment.

Sales Cycle

Unknown things cannot be measured. Every stage of your sales cycle, from "lead engaged" to "customer retained," must be broken down. You should have a pipeline that is clearly laid out, with each step showing how a lead will proceed to the next. Although it seems clear, this is where technology is really put to use. Your pipeline should appear to be a well-oiled machine taking new leads through each stage of the production line until they become a repeat customer. If one part of your assembly line breaks down, the entire pipeline gets clogged up which leads to a whole host of issues. The main problem is that you lose a lot of potential business since the assembly was defective.  The main problem is that you lose a lot of potential business since the assembly was defective. 

The best way to make sure your pipeline is not just filled but also continually moving is to use CRM solutions that can alert you to new leads that need to be followed up on, show you visually where all of your leads are in the pipeline, and generate tasks for you and the appropriate workers. You are losing money if you don't do this and instead just collect leads as fast as you can.

The key is to act quickly, whether you do it in the old-fashioned manner or by leveraging technology. You must always move with urgency. You shouldn't wait to get in touch with a lead who enters your funnel or rely on an email campaign to get them warmed up.  You should call a lead as soon as they fill out a form to receive your lead magnet to say, "Hey, <Name>! I saw you were interested in XYZ. It is on its way, but I was wondering why are you interested in it? Why right now?"

This will start a conversation and quickly qualify them. You ask the discovery call questions if they are a qualified lead. If they still seem like a good fit, convince them to participate in the strategy or consulting call. You have the option of making this a paid first buy-in product or service, or you may make it free. 

Your sales pitch for your consultation or strategy call, whether it is paid or not, should be something along the lines of "I'll make a plan with you and if you like whatever we've come up with, you can either implement it yourself or have me do it for you." Someone paying you would allow you to give a better presentation in addition to being compensated for the time spent finding clients. If you work for a marketing agency, you can have an audit performed for them to present to them during your next call.

You fulfill your promise on the strategy call. Together, you'll develop a strategy to demonstrate to them the value of what you offer by utilizing the details they provided during the lead qualification/discovery call. Once they've seen it, you may ask them if they liked it and respond to any queries they may have. After that, you should ask, "So what do you think?" If they seem to enjoy it, ask if they plan to use it. They may be interested but say they can't use it. That is your cue to move in for the sale.

The next step is the most crucial; do not, I repeat, do not hang up with them after they have verbally agreed to a price and terms! Any agreement you have with them should be reviewed immediately, and signed, and then you should be paid.  To prevent them from becoming distracted or having the chance to cancel, you perform them while on the call.
This example focuses on a service provider, but the same principle holds true for businesses that offer hardware, any high-ticket items, and even low-ticket items like those found in e-commerce. Although the presentation may alter, you must always qualify leads as you create them, place them in a funnel where you demonstrate value to them, and then ask for payment once the value has been established.

Additionally, it is crucial to remember that once a consumer becomes a sale. Maintaining relationships with your clients to increase repeat business is a significant aspect of sales. You are losing money if you don't prioritize customer retention.  The true challenge lies in keeping the deal closed, not in concluding it. 

I'll stop writing this post now because it's getting a little wordy and off-topic. We'll try our best to respond to any queries, as we promised, if anyone has any.

TL;DR: Qualify, prove your value, close the deal, charge enough to cover expenses and fulfillment, and create customer loyalty to keep them around.