How do you like your pie? Cherries, apples, maybe peach? Whipped cream or warmed up with ice cream? Well know matter how you like it, you better make sure it is made up of the right ingredients. In today’s economy your pie could end being crow.
What is the sales pie? Like any pie, it can be cut into different size pieces. The pie includes various sales and marketing tools and strategies. It’s about how one cuts those pieces to get the best return on their efforts. Most businesses need several slices of different sizes to achieve their desired return.
I’m always surprised when I meet sales managers or business owners whose sales come from just one source. Cold calling, only referrals, or perhaps random advertising. If you’re an attorney or psychologist, you might get by just on referrals. If you run a gutter cleaning business, print ads can be effective too. However, for most other businesses, a varied sales and marketing approach is necessary.
Whenever I broach this subject to people, they always respond with “Oh, we do that.” But when you peel back the layers, they really don’t. For example, a friend of mine started a new sales job recently, and the owner of the company said; “If you want to go to networking events, you pay for it, I do not think they are important.” This same owner relies heavily on telemarketer appointment setters. My friend told me that those appointments have a less then 5% closure rate. Most of them are poor prospects with no opportunity to advance to the next stage of the sales cycle. Keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, well I think you get the picture.
My pie is made up of; telemarketing, email marketing, networking events, customer referrals, and social media. I keep a close eye on industry trends and most importantly a wide and diverse network of other professionals that I continually communicate with as to share prospective new business with as they will they do the same with me.
So get your plate and fork and EAT UP!
Good Luck and Good Selling!