Start Your Sales Engine!

Start Your Sales Engine!
by Kimberly Stevens

Does your business run on a sales engine or a sales effort?
A sales effort is something that has to be done every time
you want to make a sale. But, a sales engine is something
that, once put into place, can bring you sale after sale
without added effort. Here are a couple of examples …

A photographer gets to know a handful of bridal consultants
that refer every new bride they meet to him. Each time they
get a new client, he has the opportunity to get a phone call
from that bride without having lifted a finger.

A home cleaning company establishes a relationship with
organizations that provide temporary corporate housing for
companies with newly relocated employees. The temporary
housing companies contact the cleaning company each time
they have a person vacate one of their units so they can
prepare it for the next resident. Since the nature of the
residences is temporary, they have a continual need for
cleaning services.

In both of these examples, instead of spending valuable
(potentially billable) work time on marketing, these
companies are earning money. And during the time they
do spend on marketing, they are focused on developing
long-term relationships with sources of continual referral
instead of tracking down each individual purchaser.

In the cleaning company example, they could be running
classified ads, taking calls, visiting individual homes to
provide cleaning estimates, etc. But all that effort only
results in one job. There is an opportunity to clean each
temporary residence 3-4 times per year. Multiply that
figure by the number of units the temporary housing
company manages, and you've got some regular business
rolling in. And all from one relationship. Now, that's a
sales engine!

In the case of the photographer, the service is not being
performed for the bridal consultants. It's being performed
for their clients. So, rather than being a repeat-service
relationship, it is a referral relationship. However, it is
not reciprocal. By the time the photographer hears from
brides, they have already started planning the other
elements of their wedding, so it's too late to refer them to
the bridal consultants he knows. But, he could reward the
bridal consultants with a referral fee that he creates by
either discounting his services when dealing with those
brides they refer to him or by marking his services up
by 15%.

Despite all the stories you hear, most business owners are
honest people who have the desire to treat their customers
fairly. In the case of the photographer, the bridal
consultants provide the brides with a list of photographers
that they can choose from. This allows the bride to make
her own decision based on quality/price rather than being
pushed into a relationship with a particular photographer.

Would you prefer to invest your time in building a
relationship that brings you sale after sale or one that
brings you a one-shot sale? It's not magic. It's not a
get-rich quick scheme. It's a simple key to business
success.

So, the question is .. are you going to spend this afternoon
pitching one account that could lead to one job or building
a relationship that could lead to several jobs? Don't get
me wrong -- it can take more than an afternoon to establish
the most ideal relationships. But, in more cases than not,
it's no more difficult to form this one relationship than it is
to form any other.

Now, start your sales engine!

**Need Help Getting Started?** You can download "Start
Your Sales Engine in 6 Easy Steps!" at:
http://www.askthebizcoach.com/freebies.htm

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Kimberly Stevens created the FastTrack MBO (Mastering
Business Ownership) Program as a series of ebooks and
teleseminars to help business owners get more clients,
increase their sales & maximize their income. Sign-up for
a FREE 4-week FastTrack MBO MiniSeries by sending a
blank email to: mailto:kim4-20129@autocontactor.com or
at http://www.askthebizcoach.com/fasttrackmbo.htm