We would like to share a few sales and business tips that might be useful to you. These five key areas of focus will help keep your business vital and growing:
- Know Your Customer Targets – The foundation of your business is past and current clients. Analyze the type of customers where you’ve had success and use that foundation to help you identify new target customers. Then, develop a compelling sales proposition, like a free pre-holiday system inspection of a customer’s home theater because the best sales opportunities are created while in a customer’s home.
Use that inspection time to identify opportunities to upgrade the homeowner’s system. For example, games are hot. If you don’t already offer gaming systems, develop audio/video packages to enhance the gaming experience. You can help your customers get more out of the gaming experience by presenting them with a package options tailored to their interests.
- Sell More to Each Client – Propose more product categories when you first meet a client on a potential project. This is a great technique for immediately increasing sales. For example, if they are purchasing a home theater system, natural extensions to this sale would be movie seating or a popcorn wagon and mini-fridge.
Introduce your clients to new manufacturers and their product offerings. Brand names available only to custom installation professionals will set you apart from the major retailers. If you are in commercial audio and video sales today, look for ways to further expand your product lines for this market with new and unique offerings. Sell the benefits to your customer—not just the product features, which can often be overwhelming.
- Set Realistic Sales and Close Rate Goals – Not every call or visit is going to produce a sale. Develop a close ratio target to help you determine daily, weekly and monthly call rates that will be necessary to hit your sales target and then measure your success. By having measurable goals, you and your sales team can keep your sales calling efforts on target.
When your sales team is meeting with a potential customer, they can use the interaction to solicit additional sales targets by asking, “Do you have any friends, neighbors or relatives who might be interested in our services?”
- Motivate Your Sales Team – Hold a contest that rewards your sales team for additional revenue that they generate on a project—they’ll creatively come up with new ways to sell more to each client. By building a recognition program with a monthly focus, you can create a culture where higher-levels of performance are not only expected, but rewarded. Nothing motivates a sales person like a competition to win.
Host regular brainstorming sessions to gather the best and most creative ideas from your team to generate more business. Follow through on the recommendations to make the most of new ideas and increase sales.
5.) Manage Financials With Your Customers – Before you start working, clearly scope the project and complete a signed contract with your customer. Along with that signature, collect 30 percent of the total project cost up-front and outline when subsequent payments will be due. Collect your second down payment partway through the job—another 30 percent. When you are nearly complete, invoice another 30 percent.
At the final project walkthrough, collect the final 10 percent of the payment. This simple disciplined approach to financial management can help significantly reduce collections issues in your business.
Capitol Sales Company partners with system integrators and low-voltage installers as an emerging technology distributor. Visit www.capitolsales.com for more information.
