Sales and Marketing Are Not Optional, Focus on Them

It sounds like a very obvious thing to say, but never forget that the most important activity for any new business is bringing money in.

It doesn’t matter what your business does or produces.

It doesn’t matter whether you are setting up a not for profit or what you hope will be a build to sell concern.

The bottom line is this… if you don’t reach out to the customers and sell something, it will all be irrelevant. Unless you sell something and bring in the money, you won’t be able to pay the bills, and you will become insolvent.

As simple as that sounds, we see a lot of businesses that simply don’t see that in time to avoid insolvency.

In one way or another, whether it is cold calling, exhibitions, getting out on the road or through referrals and networking, you need to sell your products or services! To do that, you need to make your customers aware of what you do and where they can reach you.

• Sales isn’t about being some stereotype of a smarmy, grinning salesperson; it is about solving your customers' problems, so they make the right choice.
• Marketing isn’t about convincing people to buy from you; it is about telling the right people what you do and then building a bridge to them, so they make the right choice.

In both cases, the ‘right choice’ is choosing your business.

You need to market what you do, you need to sell, and you need to make them both happen efficiently and consistently in the first year of business… or you simply won’t bring in the money you need to make it to the second year.

1. Know Your Ideal Customer

Try telling someone who works in marketing that your target market is ‘everyone’ and watch the pained look on their face. It’s a common mistake in the first year to think that a business has a wider market than it does. Even in the rare cases when you do have a very wide potential customer base, it is still better to focus on a particular section of it.

Ask yourself which you would rather have: 10 customers who are 90% likely to buy or 50 who are 10% likely to buy? Clearly, the first one because it potentially provides 9 sales as opposed to 5, so chase the 90%ers before the 10%ers. Identify who’s most likely to buy and focus your energy there.

The perfect customer is important for both sales and marketing. The closer you get to the person who most wants your product or service, the easier it is to sell it to them.

Tip: Define your top customer types and tailor your sales pitch for each.

2. Create a Sales Process

Sales don’t happen by accident. Build a repeatable process from enquiry to conversion. Now regularly measure your results. Know your time from enquiry to conversion, and also feed back your knowledge into the marketing process. Learn about the sales funnel and map yours out.

Make sure you always know what business is in your sales pipeline. If it is coming in, find out why it is coming in and repeat. If it doesn’t come in as expected, find out what didn’t work and delete. Once you have a reliable figure that tells you your average conversion rate, you can forecast more effectively, and that helps us to more accurately depend on your best friend… cashflow!

Tip: Track key metrics like leads, conversions, and average sale value to improve performance.

3. Use Marketing That Fits Your Audience

Whether it’s social media, email campaigns, networking, or digital advertising, pick channels that reach your customers effectively. Marketing is a highly specialised and fast-moving area once you get beyond the basics. It needs to be done, though, even if it is just those basics initially, or your customers will simply not know you are there.

Tip: You don’t need to be everywhere; do a few things well rather than many things badly, and then later on get someone to do it for you. Outsourced or in-house, get specialist marketing as soon as finances allow.

4. Follow Up Consistently

We cannot stress how important following up is. So many small businesses lose sales because they fail to follow up on quotes, enquiries and marketing. People are busy, and yes, sometimes it feels like you are pushing them, but polite persistence often wins the deal. If you don’t follow up, you are missing sales.

Tip: Use reminders or a simple CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to track contacts and opportunities.

5. Remember That Sales Is a Skill

Don’t fall into the trap of saying “I’m not a salesperson”. Selling is about understanding needs and offering solutions, yes, it is also a skill, but it is one you can learn. You have a business that offers a solution for your customers. You are not selling; you are making their world a little better by taking away a pain point for your customers.

If you have never sold anything, it may be worth getting some training or, of course, having someone sell for you if the finances allow for it.

Tip: Invest time in learning sales basics; your business depends on it.

Sales and marketing are not optional. We see a lot of insolvent businesses that made the mistake of not focusing on them from the start or pulled back from them when their cashflow was interrupted. Under no circumstances get complacent or let your business focus slip from these areas.

Your customers must buy from you, or you do not have a business... so you need to sell to them.