Are you waiting for the economy to get back to normal, for the election, for your competitors to take action, for your customers and clients to contact you or for the media to tell you that we are out of recession?
Now is the time to take action, to be proactive and to get out there talking to potential clients and customers who need your services. Have you got a plan in place for your sales and business development activity? If you have then perhaps you might like to double check this against the following tips and if you haven’t then perhaps these tips might guide you:
- Build on what has worked well in the past and update your successful practices so that you adapt as your market place changes.
- Let go of practices that have not been working for effectively for you.
- Know your numbers – how much sales activity is needed to produce a new client or a sale?
- Manage activity – monitor and manage the activity of your ‘sales people’. Get the quantity of activity right and you will produce the results you want.
- Develop your people – ensure that your people have the right skills and behaviours to convert activity into results. The better the quality of sales contact, the greater the results.
- Set a clear direction – know what you want to achieve and communicate this to your people.
- Remember people buy from people – do not rely on marketing techniques alone and ensure that your clients and potential clients have personal contact with your people.