Driving sales is a challenge for many businesses, but it doesn’t have to be that way…
If any of the points below are true for your business, then this article will help you quickly and consistently overcome them:
- Only sporadic referrals are currently driving leads and opportunities for your team to close into revenue
- You do not proactively research, contact and close your own leads
- Revenue from sales is very irregular, some months it can be high, some months are low
- Managing your cash flow is difficult, and the company’s account balance is low
- There’s no documented sales process for business development team to follow
- Sales metrics are not tracked consistently to gauge performance and find areas for improvement
- Your sales teams do not calculate gross-profit when developing their proposals and do not have a strategy to negotiate
- Overall, you have a gut-sensation that you’re not in control
As a business operator, how should one use company values to drive sales more effectively?
The purpose of this article is to detail the minimum framework needed to effectively drive your company’s sales and overall performance using company (brand) values.
By following my recommendations, and ensuring it’s consistent implementation, you can enjoy exponential growth in revenue and profit earnings.
So, where should you start?
Can you state your company’s purpose? More importantly, does every executive from the highest to the lowest ranks know what the company’s purpose is also?
This sounds like a trick question, but I have seen many executives truly stumped when asked this, because many don’t actually know. But I am positive without this knowledge at hand, driving sales at your organisation will be limited.
Financially acute executives may say to generate a profit, however, before you can realize a profit, you need to collect a prospective customer’s hard earned cash in the form of sales, and therefore, there has to be some form of ‘value exchange’ first.
Essentially, for USD X sum of money, what will your product or service do for the customer that will A) solve a problem or B) help them achieve a goal.
So, back to the question at hand and driving sales; you have to make your business more ‘valuable’ to the potential consumer.
What benefit does your service or product offer? Written, in another way, what problem or goal do you help the consumer solve or achieve?
You need to distill and summarize the value your company offers in the simplest and most distinct sentence possible.
Once done, driving sales should be easier as you are able to fire this sentence off to any enquiring individual and for them to truly ‘understand’ about your company’s value.
This can be harder than it may seem depending on the nature of your business, but the clarity it will offer your company once developed will be tremendous.
Once you have determined the answer, you must teach all of your employees (from the highest to the lowest ranks) and not just inform them – your employees should understand the actual mechanics of your company’s purpose. Thereafter, driving sales shall become a more enjoyable experience for your team.
For example, our company purpose is ‘insert statement X’. This means, if customer Y buys our widget Z, they can see a 10% gain in productivity over a year – this gain in productivity could result in additional revenue for customer Y (hence delivering on our company’s purpose).
What are your company’s values and beliefs? And again, does every employee know what they are as well?
Every individual is guided by a personal set of values and beliefs that subconsciously dictate their decision making. These decisions ultimately impact how an individual interacts with their surroundings and other human beings.
You probably associate with individuals that share similar values and beliefs as you do – and although these individuals have not sat you down to share their list of intimate values and beliefs, they wouldn’t need to.
You’ve built a strong perception of their value and belief systems already by having observed your interactions with them over time. If you enjoyed your interactions, naturally your comfort and trust would grow, and hence you would commit more time to interact with them (and they with you). Now, why is all of this relevant?
You must look at your business in the same light, and understand that a brand is ultimately an entity just like an individual, of which, we as consumers attach our perceived values and beliefs based on our interactions as customers. If we have a good interaction, we build a positive perception, and vice-versa for a negative interaction.
As an operator of a growing business intent on driving sales, you most likely will not have the time to carefully manage every interaction that occurs between your employees and your customers.
We hope that our staff have the common sense to interact with prospects, customers and suppliers in a manner that would leave a positive experience – however, as you have probably also experienced, not all employees will.
If driving sales is your responsibility, you must define the values and beliefs that your brand should exhibit, so that your employees can learn and then faithfully execute them.
Very frankly, if you do not have a defined list of values and beliefs for your business, your employees will default to their personal values and beliefs instead, creating a very inconsistent experience for your customers and suppliers as a result which will impact your bottom line.
Remember, consumers are loyal to particular brands over their competition if they have a positive and trusting perception of the brand. So, if you want to drive and increase sales for your business, you need to spend time and develop the values and beliefs of your business.
I recommend defining no more than 3 values for your company, any more becomes confusing and difficult to remember.
You’ve determined your company’s purpose, values and beliefs, but what ‘references’ do you have to back them up?
Humans are suspicious creatures, and for good reason. From an evolutionary standpoint, there have always been unscrupulous individuals that mean to do us harm, or at the very least, care only for their personal advancement even if it comes at the expense of others.
Modern day humans, (our prospective clients in this case), do their best to ensure that they’re not manipulated, especially when in the presence of marketing and sales executives.
We have collectively learnt as consumers, whether via media or from real-life scenarios, that marketing & sales executives have an overwhelmingly consistent capacity to make incredible statements and claims about their service and or products which are not always true, and that are certainly not in our best interest!
So, as a business focused on driving sales, and if you have taken the time to clarify your company’s A) purpose and B) values & beliefs, only one hurdle remains; to help your prospective client answer the following question:
‘Why should I believe what you’re saying?’
In fact, marketing & sales executives that tick all the boxes in terms of their visual appearance, their sales pitch, and that effectively spout their company’s purpose, values and beliefs fall into a new and dangerous scenario.
The prospective client immediately begins to think (whether consciously or subconsciously) ‘this all seems too good to be true.’ and ‘what’s the catch?’
To overcome this final scenario, which in reality might be the difference between a closed sale or walking away empty handed, your company needs to fall back on ‘references’, which is another way of saying, you need to present concrete evidence that your product or service does exactly what you claim it does.
A ‘reference’ therefore is indisputable evidence for your prospective client, improving the credibility of your marketing and sales claim.
Remember your prospective client most likely wants to work with you – but you have to help them reach the conclusion that you are an honest, trustworthy individual / business that will deliver the value that you are promising – show them proof!
Here are some easy to prepare, yet extremely powerful ‘references’ that provide empirical evidence to support your company’s marketing & sales messages:
- Client testimonials (video is always more valuable than written, but if you don’t have video testimonials, written testimonials with supporting images are the next best thing)
- Pictures and video of awards and accolades won by your company
- Service / product demonstrations or comparisons (case studies) that highlight the effectiveness of your offering vs the closest competitor
To wrap this article up
As a business engrossed on driving sales, be clear on the following if you wish to enhance your efforts further:
- Step 1: What is our purpose, what problem do we help our clients solve and or achieve?
- Step 2: What are our values and beliefs, are our employees aware and aligned with these values and beliefs when conducting their jobs?
- Step 3: What references do we have as evidence that our purpose, values and beliefs speak louder than just empty words and promises?
Finally, with these three elements in place, as entrepreneurs and managers of our respective businesses and brands, we must ensure that we are doing a proficient job to communicate and teach our employees and customers the same.
There is no value in developing these strategic elements only for them to be stored on a computer or within an office draw; they need to act as visible reminders of how to act as ambassadors of a brand.
Admittedly, the subjects in this article can feel a little ambiguous, but rest assured, it does have its roots firmly in Psychology. For further reading on the subject, I highly recommend Tony Robbin’s book ‘Awaken the Giant Within’ which explains the subject in even greater detail.
Alternatively, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to implement these strategies within your organisation.
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