The goal of most sales and marketing efforts is to deliver more business faster.
I’ve been guilty of sometimes focusing too much effort on brand building at the cost of actually focusing on the basic blocking and tackling of marketing and selling, so I know that which I speak.
That said, I wanted to spend a few moments this morning writing about ways that you can use your strategic planning and thinking skills to help accelerate your sales pipeline.
Know Your Value:
The key question we all should have in mind is, “How can I deliver more value to X?”
No matter what industry you work in. No matter who your clients are.
You have to have a constant uptick of value.
That’s it.
Now, one challenge I found myself in was that I missed out on the idea that value can be delivered in hundreds of different ways to the markets I serve.
This happened because I was so obsessed with one offering that I neglected to create multiple offerings of value: in-person, digital, or product.
One way to accelerate business acquisition for you and your business is to know your value and think about ways that you can deliver that value that are outside of the norm.
For all of you, this might mean that instead of just offering a service, you might consider delivering your value through workshops, products, courses, teaching, etc.
The key concept is that you want to be able to deliver your value to your market more frequently.
So the first step is to begin with understanding your value and thinking of multiple ways that you can connect your value to your audience.
Be Really Focused On Buyers
It is pretty easy to get distracted by buzz, engagement, likes, and stuff that doesn’t matter.
Our always-on culture delivers this misconception that in too many instances mass matters.
In truth, I think mass matters less than ever before in most cases.
What we are really looking for is impact.
I am doing a Marketing AMA tomorrow and one of the early questions was about the size of my online following which is approximately 8,000 if you combine all the areas.
Not shabby. Not huge.
And, the question was do I think that size matters.
The answer in this regard is no.
What you are really seeking in your value delivery efforts is that you engage with and communicate with the right audiences.
That’s why I point out that it is really important you are targeting actual buyers, people that can say yes. Not just no.
So the second key to accelerating your sales is to make sure you are talking to the right person or people.
It can be comforting to talk to everyone, but that’s also a lot of times limiting.
Make Sure You Are Communicating Correctly
The days of ABCs of closing are over.
The days of a one-size fits all conversations, that’s done too.
In today’s selling environment, you have to be flexible in your planning, in your outreach, and how you manage the sales process.
This makes business acumen and creativity the highest of skills for modern salespeople.
It means that being creative in how you deliver value to your audience and communicate with them can be the key between success and failure for your business.
Creativity means everything in today’s world.
That’s why it is important to keep in mind the strategist’s mind while you are making marketing and selling decisions.