The holiday season is upon us, and with it comes a lull in sales for some small businesses. Which is why it’s a great time to to start thinking about ramping up your sales strategy for the new year. But how?
Differentiate yourself
Standing out is really what it’s about. If you were the only one in the industry, for example, if you’re EZ Pass in the NYC area, then you don’t have competition and you’re golden. But chances are that you do have direct or indirect competitors, which means you need a way to stand out from that crowd.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying differentiation is easy. You can know your topic and communicate your story, but you also have to add value to people’s lives. Because that’s when you start to get remembered and stand out from the rest. So we place an effective strategy into play.
Use two kinds of sales strategies:
1. How-to strategy
How-to strategy is essentially teaching people how to fix what keeps them up at night. That equates to something that improves their lives. How-to strategy is advice on how to solve a problem your audience has, such as helping them grow their business. The how-to stuff comes in the form of the “5 Steps” or the “7 Habits” or “10 Ways to Build a …” Something to that effect that shows a quick and easy, step-by-step formula on how to do something that your audience wants to learn.
2. Leadership Strategy
Leadership strategy is how to do it with excellence and be the best at it. You want your audience or clients to be convinced that you’re in some way going to help them build a higher-selling brand and reputation that tops others in the industry.
It’s not enough to teach your audience to do something, you have to teach them to do that something better than their competition. For example, if you’re a finance expert and you’re teaching your clients how to deal with money better, then you need to teach them the version of dealing with money better in a way that makes them higher performing than their peers or competitors.
Leadership strategy is the way you are essentially helping your audience become the best.
Add value, convert leads, get clients!
So how do you run your business this year aimed to make more money?
You put in place a system that allows people to
- Get to know you
- Want more from you
- Become ready to buy what you’re selling.
- Have a system for check-out online, collecting credit cards, storing client info and sending auto-responders
Besides having passion and standing out in the crowd, all you need to do is understand the systems and tools that will help you automate your process. This is the greatest time ever to be an entrepreneur! Don’t let technology scare you. None of this is complicated. There are lots of inexpensive tools you can use, and if you email me I’m happy to send you names of the ones I like!
If you want to ramp up your sales strategy, or if you feel you need to revamp your revenue model, then think about hiring a professional to help make this new year a great one for your business. Marketing and business strategists may be helpful, but a business attorney who’s also a marketing and strategy expert is probably the wisest financial and business decision.