If you can’t sell, nothing else matters
Being a startup is like being in a myriad of challenges. You might have some exceptional business ideas still you miss the dart to point right at the interests of your prospects. Generating leads and increasing sales becomes an enigma, specifically when you run on limited funds.
Premature scaling, lack of customer understanding and absence of authentic marketing approach can debilitate the sales process and then comes the point where most startup fiasco happens.
Fortunately, there are ways that can make the difference. Have a look at these 5 tips to help you boost the sales of your startup:
1. Connect With the Right Fits:
How can you shoot a sale when you lack the required bond with your audience?
Sales strategies of many startups straggle because they fail in fostering healthy relationships with their right prospects. Don’t make efforts to sell your products and services to everyone around. Do some research and find the ones who are the right fits- the exact potential customers. Try to know every inch of their interests, problems, and solutions to those problems.
Let them know that what you offer is ‘what they are looking for’.
Make efforts to win their trust. Offer them an easy option to take a trial test of your services, and you will see more leads coming to your sales pipeline.
2. Show Value of Your Services:
Do you know what turn prospects into customers?
It is the value that products create for them: cost-effectiveness, reliability and the capability of solving the problems with which they intend to buy.
However, for startups, it becomes rather heart-aching to let the consumers believe in the value of their services.
So begin with asking a few questions to yourself:
- What value does your brand create?
- Are your services aimed at solving the problems of consumers?
- How would you rank the cost-effectiveness of those services?
Analyze your services and products, focus on incorporating values and put them in front of your audience with all the authenticity that is viable to show. Share your industry experience, success stories of your projects and build credibility by proving that your brand holds the trust of some/many respected people of the industry. This will help you increase your sales.
3. Say ‘NO’ to Sales Pitch:
Yes. You read it right!
Gone are the days when typical sales pitch used to work to drive leads. Now, people just hate salespersons knocking their doors or calling them abruptly trying to sell something they don’t even want.
The correct way for startups is to replace ‘sales pitch’ with ‘genuine conversation’. Only ‘selling’ cannot be your goal. It has to be aligned with a mutually beneficial conversation with your audience. Instead of attempting hard to make them buy your services, demonstrate the values of your offerings. A genuine persuasion will eventually turn into leads.
4. Rank Your Leads:
Generating leads and converting them to sales is often mistaken as the success-end of the sales process by many startups. The truth is it is just half of the job.
How can you improve if you cannot measure your leads?
Tabulating leads is an indispensable requirement of every business. Well-established sales organizations quintessentially use Customer Relation Management System (CRM) – a system that helps them track and rank their prospective buyers. However, as it is a quite expensive system, it might be unfeasible for startups to introduce it at the initial stage.
Solution to the puzzle is ‘spreadsheets’! Without spending any money, you can categorize and rank your sales leads as per their priority by using spreadsheets. Use these spreadsheets to keep a record of contact details and conversations of your prospective buyers to nurture leads.
5. Sell with Patience and Persistence:
Staying determined to your goals in the lack of resources can be the hardest part. Many new business owners dwell themselves in some unrealistic expectations from their sales process. Increasing sales and establishing a brand is a tricky process that demands enormous patience and persistence.
Understand that your brand is new and your customers are your priority. Be patient and stay persistent even when your selling efforts fail in the beginning. Look for the right opportunity and solicit.
Startups that succeed invest time and the right approach in applying their sales strategy.