Systems + Process = Increased Sales

An effective lead generation system and process is how to increase sales in business.

When you receive a sale, you could easily spend every waking moment ensuring that it is delivered quickly and efficiently, to keep your business running. However, with the focus solely on sales, you may not have factored time in your working week for an effective lead generation system & process. Without this in place, a good sales pipeline and increased sales targets may be impacted. This could be costly to the very foundations of your business.

Here’s how to combat this common issue:

Develop a highly effective week

Spend 3 days per week on delivering your service, then a day for admin and a day for business development.

Setting a realistic weekly plan increases your productivity. We find that an effective way to do this is to time block. You can easily block out your diary to make sure you are spending time doing what you need to do. A structure that works for some of our clients is business development on Monday to setup the week. Delivery on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday then admin on Friday to close the week. It can also help to prioritise your workload, manage your time, and stay on track with your projects. For user friendly online project management, we recommend you look at systems like Trello and Asana.

For increased sales a system & process is vital for your business

For your allocated business development day, your first step is to create an effective system, then a robust process, which supports the system. It’s important to structure your day to consist of a mixture of activities. This could include writing proposals, one-to-one meetings with connections and most importantly, reviewing your pipeline. In our experience business development activity either gets missed all together or it’s completed in the evening, weekend and sometimes on holiday! It’s important to remember that without business development you wouldn’t have a business, so make sure this has priority in your week.

Increased sales means keeping your pipeline boiling

Implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System. A CRM system is essential as it keeps all your contacts and opportunities in one place. It also enables you to manage the status of your business relationships, as well as the information associated with them. Based on our experience we would recommend either ActiveCampaign for Microsoft users or Daylite for MAC.

Once the CRM system is in place, the next step is the CRM process. The main intention of the CRM process is to ensure that leads are reviewed and updated on a regular basis. One of the biggest missed opportunities that you can make is not following up potential leads.

A study in the UK also found that only 2% of deals are concluded when the two parties meet for the first time, while 80% of sales take five follow up calls to close. But over 50% of business owners give up after just one follow up call!.

So, that’s two simple things you need to build into your sales process straight up.

• Get in first and get in as early as possible
• Persistence will pay off, so don’t give up at one attempt

Create and build email follow-ups into your process so that you are staying at the front of your potential client’s minds.

This winning combo means you can deliver your service, whilst working on keeping your pipeline warm simultaneously.

Of course, we know that every lead is different. Some take longer to come to the boil than others. But ultimately, it’s having a warm pipeline that eventually may turn into a sale. We also understand that no two businesses are the same. Every process is bespoke, depending on how big the business is and how quickly you would like to grow.

Never miss out again!

We all know how hard sales can be. There are so many variables. Some deals close and others don’t. You can’t afford to get lost in the confusion and uncertainty.

Retain control over your activities and make sure you sales process allows you and your team to know the highest priority action to take at any given time. Do everything you can to find and close the deals that matter.

You will be confident knowing that your output is the most effective use of your time. Your team shouldn’t have to waste time on prioritisation. The best sales processes automate this decision-making, freeing you up to do what they do best:

Following up with new hot leads and closing more deals!

Increase sales examples: Our bespoke system & process boosted sales by 30%

Here’s how we helped one of our client’s increase their organic sales and surpass their target of 20%…

A Learning & Development company had aspirations to significantly grow their business. Their target was to increase sales by 20% on a year-by-year basis. This is an ambitious target for any organisation, though by no means is it not achievable.

After 3 months of implementing a bespoke system & process, we saw the pipeline increase by 40%. In the same way a shoot takes time to grow, so does your pipeline. It took 3 years for the business to grow organically and to hit the sales target of 20%. In fact last years profit increased by 30% on the previous year, which is an amazing achievement.

It’s a simple equation: System + process = increased sales!

Who we help

Many businesses recognise the value of having a process and system in place. However, in our experience, we find that there aren’t the resources or the skills to implement this. Businesses also know that their time is more valuable working for their clients. So outsourcing can be a more cost effective solution.

Our Virtual Operations Managers are highly skilled from corporate backgrounds. We have a wealth of experience across many sectors, which enable’s us to assist your needs effectively. We understand the pressures that you’re under in running a business. Plus, we realise the importance of having the right support in place at the right time.

Our expertise has helped the following businesses with increased sales:

• Accountants
• Leadership & Training & HR Professionals
• Consultants & Solicitors
• Mortgage Brokers & Insurance Companies
• PR/Marketing Agencies