No Money Without Sales

Your comments and experiences will enhance our conversation. Please share your sales stories (successes or failures).

I believe that a good marketing plan includes a sales section. I do not accept that marketing replaces sales. Too many business owners mistakenly count sales and marketing as a cost center. Business success requires that marketing (including sales) remain THE profit center. Your company generates no revenue without sales.

Brent’s Story

Brent owned his own photography business. His photography skills equaled or surpassed every professional photographer in the greater metropolitan community. Revenues and profits from his business failed to meet potential or expectations. He wanted more photo shoots each week.

Brent joined a marketing mastermind group. He subscribed to a marketing newsletter from a nationally recognized photographer whose expertise at marketing created a following. Brent hired a firm to improve his web site. He subscribed to a cross-promotion coupon program with a local car dealership. Every month Brent created a new mailing flier to send to current and potential clients. He increased revenues minimally.

In addition, Brent did not capture information about clients that could be used to generate future sales. He did not send emails or make phone calls in time to photograph clients before birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, births or other events conducive to family portraits.

Active versus Passive Sales Approaches

Brent represents thousands of business owners who confuse marketing with sales efforts. They believe the current philosophy that passive sales approaches succeed:

• Sales will naturally follow if they get their message in front of people through the Internet, mailings, advertising, publicity, and whatever method they contemplate
• Millions of clients will flow, with credit cards in hand, to a great web site
• Search engine optimization (seo) automatically translates into sales and revenues
• Automatic telephone messages will simulate people to press the button to buy

I do not contend that passive sales fail in every case. I propose that they succeed in a very low percentage of cases. They generate large sales because they contact 1,000s to 1,000,000s. A low percentage of millions of contacts can overshadow a high percentage of scores of contacts.

Too many business owners think that minimal marketing efforts on their part will entice clients to act. The term “passive sales” refers to situations in which the business waits for the client to act. The term “active sales” refers to situations in which the business acts to help the client agree. Active sales requires that a person become involved with the client.

You must improve either the product/service of your company or your sales strategy if you want to increase revenues. Examine your sales and marketing time. What percent of the time do you spend preparing marketing materials? What percent do you spend talking to past or potential clients? What percent of your time involves overcoming resistance and closing the sale.

Establish Your Point of Profit

I like Enoch Chapman’s term “point of profit”. Your point of profit indicates the action that creates the sale. You must create your point of profit in theory as part of your marketing plan. Your point of profit may be the checkout of a shopping cart on a web site or bricks and mortar in a store. You may designate a form or contract signed by a representative of your company and the client as your point of profit. Your point of profit may be a screen completed by a call center employee.

The purpose of all marketing must lead the client to taking action at your point of profit. Your call to action needs to clearly ask them to act how you want them to act. Many business owners lose sales because of vague calls to action. This applies to Internet sales, phone center sales, retail sales, and sales representatives. Confusing directions may lead your client to someone else. Chip and Dan Heath, the authors of Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard encourage companies to remove every barrier to make the path easy to see.

Sales Experts Will Help

The world abounds with experts that teach sales techniques. You may wish to consider the following programs: little Red Book of Selling, The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource,  and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless by Jeffery Gitomer, The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. The the web site All Things Guerrilla by Jay Conrad Levinson, Spin Selling by Neil Rackham, Advanced Selling Techniques by Brian Tracy.

I suggest that you continue your exploration of increasing your sales by studying these programs. Reexamine what percentage of your marketing time prepares materials and makes sales. Remember that you make no money without sales.

Join us next week when we begin our discussion of the financial section with Quickbooks

 Your comments and experiences will enhance our conversation. Please share your sales stories (successes or failures).