Comments on: Getting sales – the single biggest issue for a small business – Part 1

By: Michelle Bray

Michelle Bray — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:07:47 +0000

My only concern with Andrews response is that not everyone can be on the front page of google for their products/services – especially when small companies have limited budgets. People are too reliant on email marketing and need to remember that funny object that sits on the desk – a phone !

Marketing a website is all very well but marketing and selling your product is more important otherwise you could be liable to lose track of what is most important and that is sales and profitability.

Break down your product/service strengths, analyse your potential customers and carry out some targeted sales strategies that most closely match their needs – hard work will pay off.

By: Matt Jefferson

Matt Jefferson — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:02:39 +0000

The problem with sales is that to get sales you need sales people and to get sales people you need to have sales to be able to afford them. It is a Catch-22 situation and leaves many businesses struggling for many years unless they have investment. The next problem is the quality of the sales people you hire, for £20k you don’t get much. Another option is hiring a more senior sales person on a part-time or interim basis which means there is less day to day management as they can be trusted to get on with it, are experienced, have an extensive network, don’t need much training, and are generally better sales people. You also don’t have to worry about letting them go as they can be hired on a per day basis. Here comes the self-promotion – we have been offering these senior sales interims for 5 years at Jefferson Sales.

By: Eric Hawkins

Eric Hawkins — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:43:47 +0000

Having lost one business through the banks and recession last April, the second one I have lost in the 30 years I have run my own business, I am now working from my home as a free lance renewable energy consultant with the addition of a solar collector production facility I invested in, in China 4 years go. Through the closure of my UK retail side which sold these collectors, I now find myself seeking a way to import them, having lost another £1/2 million through no fault of my own.

Marketing and selling in this current frenzy of a market for solar panel installations, is not my issue, its the paying in advance of delivery to get them into the UK to then sell them in system kits.

Its taken 14 months of searching for investors, but that is soon to come to and end having found one with deep pockets and an engineer at that.

By: Joe de Rozarieux

Joe de Rozarieux — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:16:39 +0000

An up-to-date web site is very important, all too often visitors are left disappointed with old content. Knowing your market and your competitors products will help to establish the benefits you have over them, be it price or quality, hopefully something to shout about, this in turn will help your salespeople and/or your direct mail.

By: chand

chand — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:34:42 +0000

I fully agree with the article.When I set my business up it was with quality speed delivery and price in mind. Now that it is fully set up with state of the art equipment, to get the sales is the most difficult.

Chand.

By: Craig Slight

Craig Slight — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:23:50 +0000

Very true what you say I’ve started my business with no capital .Therefore I’ve had to earn to create, as far as marketing goes I’ve gone door to door promoting my service, I think most the jobs I should get, I don’t . When I’ve done one job on a street I’ll always get many more. Could do with a canvasser cannot afford to pay one as yet. Without marketing you’re DEAD.

By: Neil Morecraft

Neil Morecraft — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:32:51 +0000

I quite like this article, lead generation is my business so I totally get the point.

In all honesty I’ve really never suffered from lack of customers so can definitely ‘put my hand up’ for that one.

Google PR1 is easier than most people think but sales is not about SEO, PPC, CPM or any of that. Its about good customer service. Do that right (combined with a strong online presence) and it’s problem solved. Assuming there’s a problem?

Business Plan Pro is excellent and in my opinion the best business planning software there is. I would highly recommend it to anyone considering investing in a solid BP tool.

By: Jonathan Geitner

Jonathan Geitner — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:05:52 +0000

Hi, I can only but agree.

Coming from a sales & marketing background, and entering into the start up World, and also running The Entrepreneur Network I see many individuals have an idea and build a website thinking it’ll work. Also, it amazes me how people think by simply doing SEO it’ll miraculously get them customers.

It also amazed me when firstly I’d ask start ups what feasibility & research they’d done, i.e. are there any interested parties willing to use your site, and then I’d ask them how they were planning to sell, and I’d have very feeble answers.

Now I’m one for a full on sales and marketing plan, after heading up sales and marketing for large hotel chains such as Marriott, its what you have to do. I also tend more towards actual proper sales than simply marketing, as, although I know there are many great marketers out there, it is also quite fluffy. Adverts, promotions and so forth are important, but there’s nothing more important that physically contacting prospective customers, getting them onto your site, using it, & listening to their feedback.

Before I started the venture of RocketSports I’d gone and done so much research, speaking to senior people in sports, including Sport England and large clubs and associations, and I’ve had them on board from the outset. Thus I’m more confident my product and concept, once launched will be successful as I’ll already have customers. I’m also more confident to go and spend all my money.

So, I agree with the original sentiments!

By: Danny Silver

Danny Silver — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:48:25 +0000

Excellent blog.
PR – very important and as you rightly point out – not expensive.
For years we have had major business/sales thru PR only. Much better response than advertising
Yes I know re. web and SEO – but I have found good PR gets more people to your site!
One point – get a PR company that has a track record with the same product as yours : ie we use PR that specialise in property.

By: Steven Herbert

Steven Herbert — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:23:19 +0000

I agree that it is fundamentally important to start with a targeted go to market strategy identifying those industry segments where you believe your proposition will attract the most interest by delivering ‘Low hanging friut’. However, it is equally important to be able to execute the plan effectively with strong vertically aligned (Matrix) sales personnel, as unless your business is 100% focussed as an e-commerce business it is highly unlikely that you will generate enough opportunity through a website alone if your proposition requires a consultative approach to develop the empathy required to rope suspects in and convert them to active prospects and actually close down opportunities.

Yes you can spend money on PR but I would only advise this as an adjunct activity to your core sales plan as it will not generate any significant opportunity alone and even if you have spent considerable time and money on your web storefront it will only generate around 1% of your prospect opportunity if your product requires direct engagement with the customer.

I strongly advise investing in good sales people to execute your plan, having led significant business units for Fortune 500 companies, medium sized entities and start-up’s the pattern is always the same – 90% of opportunity comes from direct sales, 5% comes from above the line marketing and the rest comes from word of mouth, PR and marketing communications.