Sales training and your marketing efforts go hand in hand. If you own a business, then you are a marketer.  Whether or not you are physically doing the marketing you are still a marketer.  As a marketer you must understand that your sales force must be trained and integrated with your marketing to be successful.  Your marketing efforts are simply designed to bring prospects and leads into your sales funnel, and at some point interacting with your sales team for the close.

Your sales force is about human contact with customers and potential customers.  When your sales force talks to people it needs to integrate directly with your marketing.  If we think about the USP that we created in the previous chapter it’s easy to see that everybody in the company should understand the main message you’re trying to promote.  But businesses lose focus between marketing and their sales team.  This is something that you must integrate immediately,as it’s the only way to truly serve customers and prospects to build lifetime relationships.

As you’re probably aware studies show that you’ll have at least eight contacts with potential customers before the close of the sale.  What I am trying to get you to understand is that all of the eight contacts must be a combined effort between your marketing and your sales team.  So was we began to design your marketing plans we must also begin to figure out how to include your sales team in the entire process.

This really is a simple concept and it becomes easier to implement when you start seeing the entire process as a whole.  Now you have the ability to try new things and test their effectiveness.  You also get the added benefit of getting input about the marketing projects you have from your sales force.  This can be invaluable in many ways and will ultimately help you close more deals.

You’ll also need to broaden your outlook about who you consider a salesperson.  I will suggest any person within your organization that has contact with customers or prospects is part of the sales team.  Training these people on how to effectively communicate with your prospects and customers can be the difference between success and failure.  This can be accomplished fairly easily by also including them in your marketing and sales meetings, so they understand the overall goals you are trying to accomplish.  Then it becomes a simple matter of explaining to each of these individuals how you would like them to handle their contacts with customers.

I understand that every business is different, but I would also say that all businesses are the same.  If you begin to integrate your sales and marketing you will find it much easier to successfully build relationships with your prospects and current customers that position your company as the expert in your niche.  It is beyond the scope of this post to go into a detailed explanation of how to structure sales staffs and marketing plans, but is definitely within the scope of this article to open your mind to integrating sales and marketing.

So like I said at the beginning of this post you are marketer whether you want to be or not.  If someone else handles both of the roles of sales manager and marketing manager you still need to be the rudder of the ship.  Be sure that you’re steering their sales and marketing in the exact same direction.

LocalBiz Consultants

localbizconsultants.com

2522 Favretto Ave

Redding, CA 96001

(530) 221-3562

A unique selling proposition is the key to conveying this mindset to your organization and the people who do business with you.  Your entire focus needs to be spent on preaching the idea that your company has something unique to offer over your competitors.

If you are relying on the general momentum of your market to attract customers then you are possibly setting yourself up for a massive down fall. With today’s economy I fear that you may already be feeling the edge of this cliff rushing towards you.  It’s time to stop hiding your head in the sand and start making your business unique.

The first thing that you must think about when writing a USP is your customers.  When a customer comes across what your business the first thing that goes through their mind is WIIFM.  What does that mean?  What’s in it for me!  Subconsciously that’s exactly what they’re wondering.  Your unique selling proposition needs to tell them exactly what’s in it for them.  One of the greatest examples of of WIIFM is Domino’s pizzas USP “Fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less or it’s free”.  As you can see this tells customers exactly what’s in it for them.  They get fresh hot pizza.  Delivered in 30 minutes,  or they don’t have to pay for it.  I think it’s pretty easy to see how brilliant and concise as USP is.  Not one wasted word.  Your company needs to convey this kind of instant credibility and satisfaction immediately when a customer finds your offers.

The next thing that is crucially important in your USP is why should I do it now?  Why can’t I wait until later to decide?  You must give a compelling reason take action now.  In the Domino’s pizza example hungry people can get their food quickly fresh and hot. Take a look at another example that clearly shows why it’s important to make a decision now.” When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”.  We all know that that’s Federal Express and why we must use them now.

To help you write your USP I’m going to show you what I would do in different situations.  For the first example I am going to pretend that I’m an orthodontist who is trying to convey why braces or affordable and will give you a better smile.  Most people on the braces by having gotten yet are often fearful of the cost.  Everybody’s heard how braces and cost thousands of dollars.  But there is another fear at work that we can use to convey our message as well.  That’s the fear of an ugly smile.  We can use both of these fears to make a strong USP that also tells people why they should act now.  So here is what I came up with,” Get the smile you deserve at a price anyone can afford today”.  This immediately tells people that they deserve to have beautiful smile and that they can afford to have it now.

As another example we will choose a business that is universally feared by almost everyone.  Used car dealerships.  I don’t know a single person that enjoys walking onto a used car lot.  Immediately visions of high pressure salesman selling you a lemon dances across your mind.  To create a strong USP a used car dealership must convey  honesty and trust to earn somebody’s business.  In this example I might try something like this, “A car you can trust at prices you won’t believe parked in your driveway tonight”.  Again this addresses the fears and tells people that they should buy now if they need a car.

Finally I’ll share with you the USP for my business LocalBiz Consultants.” Your businesses profits increased by 15% or more within 90 days, guaranteed”.  The reason this USP is so effective is because business owners are bombarded with offers to help them market their business, but never offer any kind of performance guarantee.  This USP opens doors to allow me show my uniqueness and separates me from my competition.

It’s time to get out some paper to begin making your selling proposition unique.  Don’t wait until later get started while it’s fresh in your mind.  Use the examples above to come up with three possibilities for your USP.  Then get feedback from friends and relatives to help you choose the best one for your business.

LocalBiz Consultants is a Redding, Ca based consulting and marketing company which will increase your businesses profits by at least 15 percent in 90 days or less guaranteed 2522 Favretto Ave, Redding, CA 96001 (530) 221-3562‎