Strategy for selling? What is the first word that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘’sell’’? In my opinion, I would say Customers and then followed by the word Marketing. These are the two things that I think of when I am about to sell a service or product in the market.
As a Field Service Business owner, are you selling your service to customers or just hoping that the business will make some sales by the end of the month?
Most Field Service Businesses, especially those with a team of under 10 people rely on the owner to do the marketing and sales. While this sounds like a great strategy, having the most passionate person, the owner, do the sales comes at a risk.
The risk is that the owner has more work to do than anyone else, and just hoping that the owner will handle the marketing is not a clear strategy to increase sales in the business.
Sole Trade Service Business Owners also face the same risk factor when they wear many hats to keep the business afloat. The problem with doing everything by yourself will only make you busier, and as I mentioned in my previous article- Being Busy is not a Badge of Honour, the sooner Field Service Business Owners realize it the sooner they can implement an effective strategy.
So how can they reduce the time they spend marketing and selling and increase the conversion rate?
- 50% of prospects are ‘’Tyre Kickers’’, they are not likely to ever buy the product or service you offer, but they will watch your marketing and sales tactics.
- 7.5% of prospects are going to buy a product or service that you offer, from you or your competitors. They are ‘’Hot Prospects.’’ These are the people who we spend most of our time focusing on delivering the sales pitch and the services.
- 42.5% of prospects buy later, they will buy the product or service you offer from you or your competitor over the next month or couple of years. These are the ‘’Prospects we should nurture.’’
The problem is that we don’t know how to categorize the people that interact with our business? Are they ‘’Hot Prospects’’ ‘’Prospects we should nurture’’ or just ‘’ Tyre Kickers’’
The Lead Flow
LinkedIn has found from their data reports that businesses that are active on social media have 45% higher selling opportunities.
Your customers will with no doubt check your social profiles to find more information or to inquire about a service. Business owners who invest their time in creating ‘’Great Impressions’’ on social media platforms are likely to increase their customer’s awareness and convert inquiries to sales.
Harvard Business Review found that the companies that respond to an online inquiry within 1 hour are 7 times more likely to move the inquiry to a successful lead.
And, a marketing agency called Woodpecker found when analysing their results, that following up on an inquiry or quotation increased the conversion rate by 22%! Also, they recommend that 3 or 4 follow-ups are optimum
The question you need to ask yourself as a Field Service Business Owner is how many of these strategies do you do?
Top 5 Tips to Make a Strategy for Selling
#1. Be active on social media
Establishing an online presence for your business is an important factor for Trade Business Owners to grow their sales. Everything is shifting online with technological advancements, so if you as a Field Service Technician or Business Owner start posting about your work on your business social media pages then you have a high chance of getting inquiries and feedback from your customers.
However, it is important to understand that the platform will depend upon where your prospects spend their time. For example, If you are a landscaper then they will be on Instagram or Pinterest, so post pictures of your work there.
As I have previously mentioned in my article- Cash is King, as Business Owner, an effective way to market your business on social media is to outsource or assign teams to work and monitor the social media platforms, this way you won’t be missing any inquiries or waste time doing everything by yourself.
#2. Return phone calls and online inquiries quickly
#3. Maintain Professionalism
By providing a professional service you will get high-quality customers. Customers who search for good quality services for a great price will expect professional services from you.
Make sure you are professional in your approach to the sales process. You present your business the same way you would expect your ideal client to do so, and provide you quotations that reflect that as well. If you want quality customers then you need to look professional in your appearance, your work vehicle and the quotations that you provide. Like I said earlier, Great Impressions help you achieve sales goals.
#4. Follow up with your customers
#5. Have a nurture sequence that continues over the long term.
To end it on a positive note, did you find these sales tips useful? If so you can start with building a productive strategy and follow my 5 steps to boost your sales.
Before I leave you to it let me ask you this,
So what are you doing to increase the sales conversions in your business?
Hot off the press!
With our cutting-edge technology and in-depth knowledge of how the Field Service Management sector operates, the i4TGlobal Team loves to share industry insights to help streamline your business processes and generate new leads. We are driven by innovation and are passionate about delivering solutions that are transparent, compliant, efficient and safe for all stakeholders and across all touch points.
