Startups founder needs to master diverse skills during the initial stages of starting a company.
And why not, he has the sole responsibility of managing multiple tasks on his own for carrying out various business activities.
He has to set his business as an example of starting a company.
The primary goal is to get the first few accounts and then turn that into repeat business.
This part is difficult without adequate resources and planning.
Moreover, the absence of the sales process can escalate the difficulty.
That’s why a failproof sales pitch is necessary for businesses hunting for new deals.
Also, creating and following a proper sales methodology is necessary to stay on track.
It provides direction to reach your goals and later on helps in guiding your sales team.
The aforementioned points are also important to follow because they will help you with pushing new deals into the sales pipeline.
Being an entrepreneur, you need to pay attention to the following points:
understanding your market
buyer’s behavior
various challenges of sales
initiating contact
filter the contacts through the sales funnel
Google search trends
The graph here shows how popular the term “startups” has been worldwide.
Goes on to show that you are not alone on the ship of founder and CEO!
Create a sales process
The first step towards achieving success in sales is, having a systematic sales process.
A well-defined sales process helps you in selling successfully.
Before focusing on your sales process, you need to know what are your USPs and strategize in which direction you intend to go.
1. Plan out your sales process
Planning is a crucial step of the sales process.
It is necessary to build the route to creating a successful startup.
For that, you must define your value propositions and identify your target audience.
Define your value proposition
Know your strengths before approaching your customers as the market is crowded with competitors.
Startups companies must stand out of the competition by impressively displaying your competitive strengths.
You must give your potential customer a strong reason to close the deal with you.
For doing that, you need to find answers to the following questions
What’s the unique selling point of your product?
What are the benefits you are providing to prospects?
Why should any company invest in your product?
How will your solution address the pain points?
How will your product or service increase their productivity?
While approaching the prospects, you need to ensure your sales script is client-centric.
Though you have found out your strengths while presenting it to the prospects you cannot just keep bragging about it.
You need to show your potential prospects how will your product benefit them.
How will it solve their issue?
If you have sales reps in your team then train them to be sales consultants and not a traditional “salesman”.
Win their trust by assuring them you are here to give a solution rather than just selling a product.
Identify your target audience and create a list of prospects
The primary task is finding the best fit for your solution.
You cannot afford to spend your time and resources on a deal that won’t turn into sales.
Do some research and find out which segment of the market you should target.
Also, list out the benefits your product will offer to them.
Set some search criteria like –
Industry
Business size
Geographical location
Annual turn over
Number of branches
Number of employees
After knowing your target audience, invest time in building a directory of the prospect.
Though it is a time-consuming task once you have a list in front of you it will be easy to connect and move forward.
Once you know your strengths and target audience, it is time to enter the ground of sales.
To succeed in it, arm yourself with a powerful contact management tool that will support your sales efforts.
2. Implement a CRM system
CRM is a complete sales solution preferred by businesses of all sizes. With this advanced technology, you can-
Manage your sales process
Streamline your workflow
Keep your data organized
Manage your leads
Keep a tab on lead’s activities
Track the emails
Automate processes
Integrate with your favorite apps
Create insightful reports
Forecast your sales
3. Qualify your leads
After applying the best marketing strategies to capture the best of leads it is time to evaluate and qualify them.
It is necessary to find out if the lead is a potential prospect worth pursuing.
Ask some qualifying questions that will give you a better understanding of the quality standards of the lead.
Qualifying questions you should be asking-
What business issues are you trying to address with this offering?
What challenges are you facing in overcoming that issue?
Have you tried any other solution in the past to solve the problem? If yes then please name them
Are there any specific features you are looking for in a solution?
Have you decided on a specific budget for finding a solution?
Can you brief me on the decision process in your company?
Along with you who all are involved in the decision-making process?
What concerns will the decision-maker likely have?
Based on the information you have got so far; do you think our offering will help you in solving your business issue?
Based on the answers to these questions you can identify and filter high potential prospects who are really interested in your offering.
4. Meeting them for a product demo
’’Seeing is believing’’; meeting a prospect is necessary to build trust and remove ambiguity.
So, use your convincing skills to set an appointment for giving a demonstration of your product.
A demo of your solution will aid in understanding how your offering will help them in addressing their specific needs.
Instead of just focusing on its impeccable features.
Try to show them its value and potential to solve their business challenges.
Objectives of product demonstration:
Stimulating interest
Addressing product-related concern
Understanding their expectations
Creating a positive attitude toward your solution
Turning desire into a decision
5. Handling objection
After meeting a client this is the crucial stage where you can make or break the deal.
You need to stay calm and listen to their objections before handling them. Ask relevant questions to discover their concerns.
Understand what is bothering them and present a neutral recommendation to resolve it for moving forward.
How to handle the objection?
Always stay prepared for objections. Analyze the common objection and find a strong answer to address it.
Empathize with their objection, show your prospect that you understand their concerns
If the price is a concern then justify the value of your product or offer discounts
Back up your statements with client’s testimonial to provide credibility
If they hesitate to move forward as you are a startup then display you value proposition impactfully
6. Close the deal
After coming this far you cannot afford to lose the deal.
You need to close it by hook or by crook.
Be confident and choose your words wisely to ensure you do not miss the opportunity.
Don’t allow them to stretch it for too long, try to close it as soon as possible.
If required then create a need for urgency.
“One tactic that works well with most products or services is to create a strong sense of urgency. This can be accomplished through a limited-time offer or a discount. If you can make the prospect feel as though they are going to miss out on something special, and they are strongly considering purchasing the product anyway, you can get them to act faster and close the deal.”- Janis Krums
7. Track, measure and make continuous adjustments
Your job doesn’t end by just creating and following a sales process.
Your sales plan needs continuous improvements.
Review it regularly to measure its success level.
Keep altering it according to your experience and customer feedback.
Conduct regular meetings to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Understand what’s working and which areas need more effort.
Along with capturing new opportunities, you even need to focus on retaining existing customers.
Speak to them and try to know if they are facing any difficulties while using your solution.
Work on enhancing your user experience.
Old customers are the route to new ones; so, ensure you are providing utmost customer satisfaction.
Closing thought
As a start-up, surviving in the market filled with competition seems difficult but isn’t impossible.
You just need to stay focused and keep exploring new ways to grow your business.
Implement new techniques and technologies to increase your sales and revenue.
Technology like Salesmate can be of great help.
Not only does it help in managing your sales but it also helps in maintaining customer relationships.
It does everything; from tracking your leads to automating your daily chores and help you follow up on-time.
Coreen Menezes
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In the first four phases of this sales funnel series, we covered the significant aspects of the AARRR framework – Acquisition, Activation, Retention, and Referral of the users.The series is used with
A sales funnel is crucial for every business to improve conversion and increase revenue. It helps marketing and sales professionals in understanding the buyer’s journey from the initial awareness stag
Startups founder needs to master diverse skills during the initial stages of starting a company.
And why not, he has the sole responsibility of managing multiple tasks on his own for carrying out various business activities.
He has to set his business as an example of starting a company.
The primary goal is to get the first few accounts and then turn that into repeat business.
This part is difficult without adequate resources and planning.
Moreover, the absence of the sales process can escalate the difficulty.
That’s why a failproof sales pitch is necessary for businesses hunting for new deals.
Also, creating and following a proper sales methodology is necessary to stay on track.
It provides direction to reach your goals and later on helps in guiding your sales team.
The aforementioned points are also important to follow because they will help you with pushing new deals into the sales pipeline.
Being an entrepreneur, you need to pay attention to the following points:
The graph here shows how popular the term “startups” has been worldwide.
Goes on to show that you are not alone on the ship of founder and CEO!
Create a sales process
The first step towards achieving success in sales is, having a systematic sales process.
A well-defined sales process helps you in selling successfully.
Before focusing on your sales process, you need to know what are your USPs and strategize in which direction you intend to go.
1. Plan out your sales process
Planning is a crucial step of the sales process.
It is necessary to build the route to creating a successful startup.
For that, you must define your value propositions and identify your target audience.
Define your value proposition
Know your strengths before approaching your customers as the market is crowded with competitors.
Startups companies must stand out of the competition by impressively displaying your competitive strengths.
You must give your potential customer a strong reason to close the deal with you.
For doing that, you need to find answers to the following questions
While approaching the prospects, you need to ensure your sales script is client-centric.
Though you have found out your strengths while presenting it to the prospects you cannot just keep bragging about it.
You need to show your potential prospects how will your product benefit them.
How will it solve their issue?
If you have sales reps in your team then train them to be sales consultants and not a traditional “salesman”.
Win their trust by assuring them you are here to give a solution rather than just selling a product.
Identify your target audience and create a list of prospects
The primary task is finding the best fit for your solution.
You cannot afford to spend your time and resources on a deal that won’t turn into sales.
Do some research and find out which segment of the market you should target.
Also, list out the benefits your product will offer to them.
Set some search criteria like –
After knowing your target audience, invest time in building a directory of the prospect.
Though it is a time-consuming task once you have a list in front of you it will be easy to connect and move forward.
Once you know your strengths and target audience, it is time to enter the ground of sales.
To succeed in it, arm yourself with a powerful contact management tool that will support your sales efforts.
2. Implement a CRM system
CRM is a complete sales solution preferred by businesses of all sizes. With this advanced technology, you can-
3. Qualify your leads
After applying the best marketing strategies to capture the best of leads it is time to evaluate and qualify them.
It is necessary to find out if the lead is a potential prospect worth pursuing.
Ask some qualifying questions that will give you a better understanding of the quality standards of the lead.
Qualifying questions you should be asking-
Based on the answers to these questions you can identify and filter high potential prospects who are really interested in your offering.
4. Meeting them for a product demo
’’Seeing is believing’’; meeting a prospect is necessary to build trust and remove ambiguity.
So, use your convincing skills to set an appointment for giving a demonstration of your product.
A demo of your solution will aid in understanding how your offering will help them in addressing their specific needs.
Instead of just focusing on its impeccable features.
Try to show them its value and potential to solve their business challenges.
Objectives of product demonstration:
5. Handling objection
After meeting a client this is the crucial stage where you can make or break the deal.
You need to stay calm and listen to their objections before handling them. Ask relevant questions to discover their concerns.
Understand what is bothering them and present a neutral recommendation to resolve it for moving forward.
How to handle the objection?
6. Close the deal
After coming this far you cannot afford to lose the deal.
You need to close it by hook or by crook.
Be confident and choose your words wisely to ensure you do not miss the opportunity.
Don’t allow them to stretch it for too long, try to close it as soon as possible.
If required then create a need for urgency.
“One tactic that works well with most products or services is to create a strong sense of urgency. This can be accomplished through a limited-time offer or a discount. If you can make the prospect feel as though they are going to miss out on something special, and they are strongly considering purchasing the product anyway, you can get them to act faster and close the deal.”- Janis Krums
7. Track, measure and make continuous adjustments
Your job doesn’t end by just creating and following a sales process.
Your sales plan needs continuous improvements.
Review it regularly to measure its success level.
Keep altering it according to your experience and customer feedback.
Conduct regular meetings to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Understand what’s working and which areas need more effort.
Along with capturing new opportunities, you even need to focus on retaining existing customers.
Speak to them and try to know if they are facing any difficulties while using your solution.
Work on enhancing your user experience.
Old customers are the route to new ones; so, ensure you are providing utmost customer satisfaction.
Closing thought
As a start-up, surviving in the market filled with competition seems difficult but isn’t impossible.
You just need to stay focused and keep exploring new ways to grow your business.
Implement new techniques and technologies to increase your sales and revenue.
Technology like Salesmate can be of great help.
Not only does it help in managing your sales but it also helps in maintaining customer relationships.
It does everything; from tracking your leads to automating your daily chores and help you follow up on-time.
Coreen Menezes