learning to sell - the most essential start-up skill by chris cousins

LEARNING TO SELLTHE MOST ESSENTIAL START-UP SKILL

LEARNING TO SELL

INTRODUCTION

▸ Everyone in this room, either owns a business or wants to start one

▸ Sales are the most important business function

▸ Selling is being able to convince and influence someone to TAKE ACTION……it involves psychology

▸ Proven sales system which will grow your business

▸ Any business can use this system

FINDING CUSTOMERS!WHAT’S THE MAIN PROBLEM WHEN ANYONE LAUNCHES A NEW BUSINESS?

FINDING MORE CUSTOMERS!

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WHEN ANYONE TRIES TO EXPAND A BUSINESS?

SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATIONS

SYSTEM IS BASEDON A PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE CALLED:

‣ Gets a prospect to say yes to a small request, creating a psychological bond and justification for the decision

‣ Bond grows stronger as your prospect has the psychological need to remain consistent and forms a relationship

▸ How do you find new customers? EASY: you PROVE what your business can offer - people LOVE FREE OFFERS!

▸ Free information - if you’re in the legal or accounting field

▸ Free product offer

▸ Free Trial

STEP 1 - THE LEAD GENERATOR

FINDING PROSPECTS

EXAMPLE:


FINDING PROSPECTS

GOAL:

‣ Show off your product or service

‣ Customer gets a taste for the product without any obligation

‣ Builds trust and relationship with prospect


FINDING PROSPECTS

Pay a small FEE but GET BIG VALUE. Many business do step one but skip the starter sale and go for the BIG sale, it will result is a LOW conversion rate.

DON’T DO THIS!

The main goal here is to build trust by charging a very low fee in return the customer receives HUGE value, we over deliver.

Then when you move to the next step the sale is nearly automatic.

STEP 2 - THE STARTER SALE

CONVERTING A PROSPECT INTO A CUSTOMER

EXAMPLE:

‣ NetFlix - Pay only $1 for another free month

‣ Spotify - Pay $1 for a premium subscription for 90 days.

‣ La Finca - Wine tasting and menu sample for 10 euros a person.

‣ Legal - you got the guy in for a face to face meeting for a very low rate, accountant - first tax return for reduced fee.



Goal:

‣ Turn prospect into customer

‣ Get customer to appreciate the value of the product by paying a small amount

‣ Get the customers hooked on the product



This is where most people start the sales process and it results in HUGE marketing costs and a very LOW conversion rate. They go in and try to sell them on the big sale, and what happens?

It results in a 20% conversion rate if you’re lucky. NOT SO GREAT!

When you go back to a customer that already paid something the conversion rate is on average over 90%. For Netflix its 93%.

Making this sale is KEY for creating a long term profitable customer.

‣ You need a WOW factor at this point, this is the place you lock the customer in for life

‣ This sale should cover the costs of the first TWO steps and allow you to invest more in marketing

‣ The real profit comes from the next two steps in this process

‣ Again you want to over deliver on the promises at this point

STEP 3 - THE MILESTONE SALE

FIRST REAL BIG MONEY SALE

EXAMPLE:



GOAL:

‣ Acquire the customer

‣ Building the relationship

‣ Building revenue to re-invest in marketing



Up to now all we have been doing is acquiring customers. Its time to make money off the customers we acquired.

We do this by up selling or cross selling. This sale is made immediately after the MILESTONE SALE. Now we take advantage of the needs and wants of the customer.

You should aim to make this sale RIGHT AWAY. Customer is in a BUYING MENTALITY, they already like you and it’s a good way to build the relationship more.

Super important is to ASK for the sale.

Don’t UPSELL before they made the initial purchase decision in step 3. You will scare them away and lose the FIRST REAL SALE.

STEP 4 - PROFIT MULTIPLIER

TIME TO MAKE REAL PROFITS

EXAMPLE:



GOAL:

Is very simple - Extract profit from your customer when they are in a buying mode. 30% of customers will buy an additional product if it complements the main product they are buying.

IMPORTANT - don’t over charge with cross or up sales - people know that game and you will sell 100X more if your fair in your pricing.



▸ This part is so huge, and it amazes me how many business fail to do this. Customers that have purchased from you once and were happy are very likely to come back again and again

▸ This step will multiply your sales

▸ Its simple - it involves keeping in touch with your customers and communicating

▸ First place you should look for business growth

STEP 5 - CONSTANT COMMUNICATION

GET YOUR CUSTOMERS MONEY AGAIN AND AGAIN

STEPS AND EXAMPLES:

1. Communication - staying in touch with your customers, keeping them updated about your business, your staff, what you’re doing

2. Loyalty programs - keep your customers coming back by giving them an incentive to do so

3. Product line expansions - offer more products your customer base needs

4. Community programs – get involved in your community

STEP 5 - CONSTANT COMMUNICATION

GET YOUR CUSTOMERS MONEY AGAIN AND AGAIN

HOW SCALING IMPACTS YOUR BOTTOM LINE?

VERY SIMPLE EXAMPLE

▸ Your business which makes: £7,500 a month

▸ Imagine you used steps 1-3 to get 3X the customers: £22,500 a month

▸ Implementing - up selling or cross selling and grew your business by 3X: £67,500 per month

▸ Now get the customer to come back 3X as often by communication: £202,500 per month

Total profit: £2,430,000

“THE SECRET OF GETTING AHEAD IS GETTING STARTED.”

Mark Twain