Having spent the majority of my lifetime in Texas, I must begin with the disclaimer that the Good Ol’ Boy approach to sales and marketing can be effective once it has been established.  Who you know - and the size of their guns - can really blast your business through walls and take you to high places.  But sometimes, attempts to establish our businesses solely by making quick and powerful friends may take longer than our resources will allow.  We all know that pure selling is about relationships and people.  However, knowing this is not enough.  If you are interested in taking an intentional, measured approach to selling, the first step is to build a system.

Let’s take a look at the seven keys for creating a “killer selling system” for your business.

1.  Build A System

What I mean by ‘Build A System’

As the proprietor of your business, it is your strategic duty to figure out what selling techniques, formats, and media work best.  If you’re just getting started, get with an expert or associate in your field (if you are already a seasoned expert in your industry, less research will be required, but compiling your information and experience is important!).  Once you have gathered all your information, create your system - that is, write out the specific things you should do to sell your product best.  Is it phone calls and e-mail?  Fancy snail mail packages?  Visiting prospects at their place of business?  Skywriting at NFL football games?  Singing telegrams?  A combination of all of these?  Whatever the case, figure out how much time should be spent on these activities per week, schedule the time to do them, and execute. 

Your system for selling should at least:

• (1) Identify your specific market and profile its customers (demographics, psychographics, etc.)
• (2) List the best practices, techniques, formats, and media you will use to sell your product or service
• (3) Show the required time allotments for each of these practices - in other words, ask yourself how much selling you must do to net your desired revenues, and
• (4) Integrate seamlessly with the rest of your business systems

As you create this system, keep in mind the ideal, logical order of steps you will take to close new business - from uninitiated prospect to satisfied customer.  What is the customer’s experience from start to finish?  What have they heard about your business?  How did they hear about you?  What’s the entry level purchase that leads to a subsequently higher purchase?  What will guarantee they refer other prospects to your service?  Answering these questions will help you to know exactly how to approach the sea of potential buyers, and, more importantly, how to “multiply fish once they’re in the boat.”

Finally, make sure your selling system is compatible, or integrated, with the rest of your systems.  That simply means that they work together.  For example, once your new killer sales system is built, will customer service be able to handle all the orders?   

2:  Know & Trust Your System

This is self-explanatory!  Once you’ve done the strategic thinking and formulation of this system, do the work.  Give it time to “take”.  Know that your work will pay off.  Trust your instincts.

3:  Reassess and Modify Your System

Certainly, tweaking is involved.  You will discover on an ongoing basis what works well and what doesn’t.  Take the strategic time to modify your system - that is, document what works and what doesn’t (What has led directly to sales?  What has turned off potential buyers?).  Make the appropriate changes in your system.  Writing down these changes makes them ‘official’ and internalizes them for you, even if you think this step is inconsequential.  Just do it.

4:  Discover Key Phrases & Questions that put a positive spin on your ‘sales conversations’ 

You are no doubt selling to people.  Therefore, you’d better know how to coach certain responses and guide dialogue in a certain direction.  This is not in the interest of manipulating your prospects; it is simply to uncover the problems they are having that you are well-equipped to solve.  There has surely been much writing on this topic, but the simple truth is that asking the right questions (not telling them how great your product is) draws both pain and resolve out of our prospects and clients.  So, discover those questions, and use them all the time.

5:  Be innovative in your networking

Most people’s idea of networking is to join a group.  They do this with the intention of creating an unpaid army of associates to tell as many human beings as possible about how great their product or service is.  While there can be powerful influence in sheer numbers, the “spray & pray” approach can lead to frustration, stagnation, and wasted time, energy, and resources.  Too often, well-intentioned groups become merely social gatherings where prospecting is scant and ‘giver’s gain’ is a foreign concept. 

Good, innovative networking usually involves two key components:  (1) true giver’s gain, and (2) a cross-section of industries that wouldn’t normally be associated.  Instead of approaching a cold prospect with how you might help his business, find out first what he needs most for his success.  Offer your compatible abilities to help his business grow.  Moreover, become an advocate for a cause he is passionate about.  Imagine, for example, you are a financial consultant in a region filled with domestic steel manufacturers.  Instead of soliciting them individually (where you have virtually no leverage), become an associate member of their trade association.  Read the publications they read.  Attend their meetings - not with the purpose of leeching for new business. Take the position instead that you are truly a supplier to their industry, and in order to serve them best, you have to know what’s going on in the world of steel.  Explain you are committed to the success of American steel producers.  Moreover, write a letter to Congress on behalf of domestic steel companies, voicing your support for helpful legislation.  In the most important move, share this letter with local owners of the steel companies, endearing you greatly to their cause!  Business should follow.¹

One caveat to this approach is that you be selective.  Pick industries wisely - perhaps ones in which you have some degree of knowledge.

6:  Create unique, surprise elements

Both prospects and existing customers love a surprise bonus to their purchase, especially if it’s one that presses one of their hot buttons.  Only you know what’s best for your customers; but try to imagine what YOU would enjoy receiving by surprise!  Avoid sending something that hits the trash bin within 5 seconds of opening.  The challenge, as usual, is to be innovative without breaking the bank.  Marketing consultants can be useful in this regard, but remember ROI is key.

7:  Don’t give up! 

You have heard that before, but just remember:  six ‘no’s’ followed by one ‘yes’ is still a ‘yes,’ provided the six ‘no’s’ didn’t do irreparable damage to your ego or reputation.  If you believe your business is a context to work out your specific calling in life, then your only choice is to press in and get the job done!  Is there any greater satisfaction than having your dream, your business, running at its best?

To review, here are the seven keys for creating your Killer Sales System:

1.  Build A System

2:  Know & Trust Your System

3:  Reassess and Modify Your System

4:  Discover Key Phrases & Questions that put a positive spin on

      ‘sales conversations’

5:  Be innovative in your networking

6:  Create unique, surprise elements

7:  Don’t give up! 

GOOD LUCK!

¹ For more about inter-industry networking, see “Networking With Millionaires” by Thomas Stanley

Jeff Timpanaro is the president of Oberata Consulting, a 2007 Certified Total Integration firm, based in Kingwood, TX.  Oberata is a consulting firm founded on the principles of strategy, process, and transformation, and utilizes the Total Integration^TM system of business consulting. This system has helped business owners and professionals in the Fortune 100 with definitive, measurable operating strategies that produce unprecedented growth and profitability. For more information about Oberata Consulting call 281.570.4676.