Business Coaching for The Hobbyist #5 Sales

Introduction

I understand that for some reason you don't think of yourself as a business person, but you are. You made money at this thing right? There are a couple of things you can do to get this up and going, but you are going to have to begin thinking like a business owner rather than a hobbyist.

Everybody has insecurities and uncertainties when dealing with this sort of thing, just take it one step at a time, focus on improving each area before moving onto the next.

What you are going to need at this stage of your business falls into one of six areas;

• Level of Commitment
• Your Offering
• Your Marketing Message
• Lead Generation
• Sales
• Partnerships

In order to get a business moving in the right direction you need to look at the six areas with me. It really is going back and fixing how you think about business fundamentals.

Sales Pipeline

Create your own sales pipeline; I always recommend creating an outline of your sales process before you begin selling. Ultimately, it is your prospect who will decide when he is ready for the closing of the sale. A question you must answer is what progression of actions and commitments do you need from your prospect in order to arrive at a monetary exchange?

A sales process should contain the following four principles or stages:

1.) Preliminaries

These are actions taken with the intention of building rapport before the sale.

2.) Investigating

This is the part of the sales process when interviews are being conducted with the prospect, in attempts to understand the prospect's pain and the implications of that pain.

3.) Demonstrating Capabilities

This is the stage when the product's or services' core capabilities are being demonstrated.

4.) Obtaining Commitment

This is the phase where the commitment is obtained. In a less expensive sale this could be the closing of the sale, and in a larger sale, this could translate into the agreement of smaller commitments.

Sales

Sell, sell, sell, you should work hard to get in front of those people who are looking for your genre of products or services.  This becomes easier as you perfect your marketing campaign.  The best campaigns bring sales ready leads to you. Work hard on understanding your prospects' buying cycles, decision makers, and the time lines for their purchases.

If you are not getting in front of enough prospects, than you need to focus more on lead generation activities. Knowing where to focus your attention and intention is half the battle.

Having your FREE evaluation with a business coach is a $500 value.