vickioneill

From this episode:

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Sales is the life line of any business. Without sales, the business simply doesn't exist.

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In this episode of Connect the Dots, I review 3 simple strategies that any business owner, entrepreneur or department leader can use to make an impact NOW toward generating sales opportunities. Those strategies are:

 

1. Networking

2. Lead Magnets

3. COGS.

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1. Networking – Networking can be in-person or online. If you’re B2B, your ideal customers are most likely spending the majority of their time on LinkedIn. If you’re B2C they could be any of the platforms. The important point here:  Know who your ideal customer is and where they are spending time.​  Things you can do while you're on a platform
 

• Create helpful content – short form, thought provoking questions, top 10 list, tech/industry updates – find ways to be extremely helpful so your ideal customers are intrigued to respond and engage with you.
   

• Comment on other’s posts – In your feed you will see your 1st connections content as well as content they are commenting on – 2nd and 3rd level connections. These are GREAT opportunities to see who they are connected to, the type of content they are liking or engaging with as well as opportunities to expand your content
   

• Create videos, longer form content - long form content such as articles on LinkedIn or Groups on Facebook. Longer form content should be something like a guide they can download, how-to tips or something they can take action on right now. Videos could just be a tip of the week type post or maybe it’s an industry or technology update that you want to give a quick review.

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2. Lead Magnet - A lead magnet is an offer that you have on your website that visitors or prospects can download in exchange for their email.

• Lead magnets can be a PDF document, how-to, 3-part video training series, white paper, ebook

• Successful lead magnets inspire action that they can use right away

• For example, I have lead magnets you can download:

  • How To Align Marketing and Sales Guide

  • B2B Persona Template

  • If you need help, contact me - I can help!

• The more relevant and helpful the lead magnet the more likely they will generate sales opportunities.

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3. KPIs – Tracking how well you execute your goals. Below are KPI examples for small businesses: 
 

• Revenue – Your yearly business plan should have revenue benchmarks –most likely including monthly, quarterly and of course annually.

  • You need more than just a % markup from the last year as your revenue goal:  you need to define how you are generating that revenue, i.e. products, services and when

  • With a plan you can then determine what marketing and sales focus you need throughout the year. This allows you as the business owner to have confidence in the amount of time you’re spending on sales and the rest of the business. If you don’t have a plan, you may feel overwhelmed and chaotic at time. So have a plan with KPIs then compare results to projections and stay in how you’re doing
     

• Customer retention – you most likely want more of the type of customers you have currently. In order to do that, it’s helpful to look at data associated with your existing customer base and determine how and where you can replicate that. Using data on your existing helps you build on the prospects.
   

• Cost of goods sold (COGS): Tracking your COGS to verify the method for how you’ve priced a product or service is pushing your business forward. This includes expenses directly related to making a product or service. You need to know this so you can make sure your price is higher than your COGS. If not, you’ll lose money on every sale. If you’re not sure what to price your product, start with COGS, determine what margin you need then look at the competition to see if you are priced fairly. COGS and margin are most important for your business – the competitor’s pricing is more to make sure you aren’t under or over pricing. Just be sure to look at what the competitor’s pricing includes!
   

You can start with any of these in order to start creating more sales opportunities. Any of these are good for reducing stress levels for you and across your team. 

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Three take-away's:

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1. When you plan time to engage in other's content as well as post intriguing content of your own - short form or long form - you increase the chances your ideal target customer will engage with you 

2. Creating opportunities for your ideal target customers to see how you can help them by providing downloadable documents they can take action on now, i.e. lead magnets

3. Having ideal target customers defined, i.e. Personas, it allows you to attract more relevant prospects similar to your existing customer base (if you use your existing data to define ideal target customers).

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Which one resonates the most with you to inspire action? Click the links to download the document and get started NOW!

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