If your sales in your small business aren't hitting your monthly goals, think about devoting more time to developing sales. When you're a 1 person business, it's on you to wear all the hats in your business - including marketing, operations, human resources, and sales, etc. Since cloning is not an option at this point, you must make the best use of the time you spend in your business, with sales at the top of the list. Here are 4 ways to help you find more time for sales in your small business.
1.Make It a Priority
Every element of your business screams for your attention, but few have nearly the impact that sales do. To that end, make sure it's priority for you and move things around so you can focus on increasing sales.
2.Find Extra Time
Before you laugh at the idea of finding an extra second in your overstuffed schedule, hear me out. So many of us waste part of our days on the wrong activities, and it's not even obvious until we really pay attention.
For one week, write everything you do in a calendar, including how much time you spend on each activity. So Monday might look like:
•8-8:30 am: checked emails and responded to them
•8:30-8:45 am: coffee break
•8:45-10 am: wrote blog posts
•10-10:30 am: aimlessly surfed Facebook [time waster!]
•10:30-11 am: spoke to client
You get my drift. The goal here is to find those spots of time when you're not doing things that will contribute to the growth of your company. This exercise will also help you assess what tasks you could hand off to others. In this example, you could hire a freelance writer to take over the blogging and free yourself up tremendously.
3. Set Your Sales Goals
Simply being dissatisfied with your current sales isn't enough. You have to clearly define what it is you actually want. How much do you want to increase them? Which products do you want to sell more of? By setting your intention, you can go a long way to dedicating more energy toward your sales and actually helping them increase.
4. Set Up Strategy Sessions
If sales don't cross your mind until you see each quarter's low numbers, move it to the front of your mind by putting it on your calendar. Whether you schedule a sales strategy session with co-workers or just yourself, this time should be spent assessing current efforts and coming up with ideas to boost sales. If you have a marketing department, rope them in so the conversation can really dig in to how both sales and marketing can work together toward common goals.
If you still could use some help with your sales, I have a terrific free gift for you. Creating a sales process is the key to creating a sustainable business. I -- along with one of my favorite sales experts in the world, Jeffrey Gitomer -- am offering you a free webinar series called, "How to Really Make Sales." Jeffrey is an authority on sales, and I know you'll benefit tremendously from his knowledge and mine during the "How to Really Make Sales" five-part webinar series.
Register here: http://www.getsales14.com
Mark your calendar: The Webinar series will take place LIVE on GoToMeeting at 1pm and replay at 4pm and 7pm that same day.
1.Wednesday November 12, 1pm ET - How to Make a Sales Call
2.Thursday November 20, 1pm ET - How to Close a Sale
3.Thursday December 4th, 1pm ET - How to Build a Relationship
If you miss one, not to worry, it will replay twice after it's recorded, so it will be available for you when you are ready to learn.
Here's how you can get your gift:
1.Visit this link: http://www.getsales14.com
2.Enter your first name in the registration box
3.Enter your email address beneath that
4.Attend all five FREE sessions on attracting the right clients and customers into your business.
We only have 1,000 spots open for this series. I want you to get in before we reach capacity. Register here today.
Article originally published under the title How to Make More Time for Sales in Your Business at www.succeedasyourownboss.com
Melinda F. Emerson, SmallBizLady is America's #1 small business expert. She is an author, speaker and small business coach whose areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She writes a weekly column for the New York Times, publishes a resource blog, www.succeedasyourownboss.com which is syndicated through the Huffington Post. She also hosts a weekly talk show on Twitter called #SmallBizChat for small business owners. As a brand, she reaches 1.5 million entrepreneurs a week on the internet. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. Forbes Magazine named Melinda Emerson one of the #1 Woman for Entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Melinda has been featured on MSNBC, Fox News, NBC Nightly News, and in Fortune, The Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise. She is the bestselling author of "Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works," and the ebook How to Become a Social Media Ninja; 101 Ways to Dominate Your Competition Online.