The
Sales Business Cycle - Part 1
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The basic philosophy behind the sales
perspective is the more you sell the more money you make. This
makes a lot of sense, so let’s take a look at business
management from the perspective of a sales led
organization.
The basic representation of business from a
sales perspective consists of four main steps:
1. finding leads
2. converting those leads
3. closing the deal
4. delivering the product or service
The end goal, as always, is to provide a
solution that the customer is happy with so you can collect
payment.
In small organizations lead finding,
conversion and closing may all be handled by the sales staff.
In larger organizations these functions start to get split up
and assigned to separate teams. The best way to split them up
depends on the organization and the dynamics of the market you
are selling to.

Lead Generation -
Finding People To Help
Lead generation is all about getting
potential customers to take a first look at you and your
company. The objective is to make initial contact with people
and determine if there is the potential for a mutually
beneficial business relationship. You may not even have a
specific product or service in mind during lead generation.
Just an idea of your desired market and the type of people and
businesses you want to serve is enough to launch lead
generation campaigns.
It is important to recognize that the
success of lead generation tactics is measured by the number of
qualified leads generated by those tactics, not by the amount
of sales. The money comes later. Some common examples of lead
generation tactics are: broadcast advertising, direct mail, and
networking at trade shows and other events.
Many people (myself included) believe the
ideal business scenario is to first define your desired market.
Then go get some leads and get to know them and the problems
they are having. Only after gaining a deep knowledge of your
chosen market’s biggest needs and wants are you in the right
position to develop suitable solutions. You then get the added
benefit of offering your solutions to a market that already
knows and trusts you because you didn’t come in trying to get
their money pushing whatever you happened to have before
getting to know them.
Generating leads is where all new businesses
start. Without leads you have no one to convince to buy. You
can't get any orders, you can't deliver any solutions, and
ultimately you can't get paid. Without leads to follow up on no
other part of the organization can even begin to function.
In part 2 we'll look at converting those
leads into customers.
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About
The Author
Daryl Cowie has
shared management tips with 1000s of people in
over 30 countries around the world. His mission
is to help you and your company turn business
opportunities into business realities. Sign up
for his free business management home study
course at http://FreeManagementTips.com
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