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Know Your Line to Sales!
If you can't see it, you can't follow it to success
Success in business relies on success with sales. Every proactive business has a line to their sales. The line extends from how prospective clients or customers become aware of a brand—its products or services—to the point at which they buy. Having a well-defined sales line is fundamental to sustained sales success.
Many business owners and sales leaders fail to truly understand the details of their sales line. This results in weak or incomplete sales efforts that lead to challenges in converting sales potential into sales. For those interested in reaching their greater sales potential, it's important to comprehend and optimize the line, or lines, relied upon for sales. Let's look more closely at sales lines.
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What Are Your Lines?
A sales line can be visualized as an imaginary bridge between two points. The line begins with a seller’s effort to engage prospective buyers, or how a sale is initiated. Commonly, businesses initiate sales in one or more of these ways:
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‌Advertisement
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Email
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Phone call
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Event
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Partnership
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Affiliate
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Tradeshow
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Social posts
Businesses often have multiple sales lines. At the other end of those lines is some means by which the business confirms its sales. Here are a few examples of points at which a sale may be considered confirmed:
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Payment processed (through a payment gateway on a website)
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Deposit received
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Check cleared
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Acceptance of delivery schedule
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Signed contract or agreement
Understanding the trajectory of a sales line is vital since each sales line accounts for how a business expects its sales to occur, and defines its sales processes.
All sales result from some series of steps, a process. Between the ends of every sales line are points where an opportunity for a sale advances, stalls, or is lost. These points must be recognized and supported, for sales efforts to be safeguarded. Three points are essential.
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Whatever process a business follows to sell, three things must occur for a sale to be possible. There is no sale without presence, presentation, and confirmation. This is true for all businesses that sell proactively. Let's consider each point:
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1. Presence: At this stage, whether through advertising, phone calls, email, or some other means, your prospective buyer becomes aware of your product or service. If your potential buyers don’t know you exist, it’ll be difficult to gain a sale from them!
2. Presentation: Once you've gained your prospect's attention, the next step is to present your offerings, differentiate yourself, or, in some other manner, communicate your value. This necessitates winning on two fronts: establishing trust and vying well against your competition.
3. Confirmation: The final stage is not as straightforward as you might think; securing a sale requires meeting the requirements or expectations of buyers for options, delivery, payment, etc. Additionally, addressing any remaining issues must conclude successfully, or you'll lose the sale. Your confirmation process includes addressing objections and concerns.
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Support Your Line to Sales Success!
Most who work in sales can articulate the primary steps of their sales process, which may be something like: prospect, outreach, engage, present, nurture, and secure. While the primary steps of conversion are central to sales, they are impossible to execute without a supportive workflow. A complete sales line is the combination of primary steps and the respective activities that empower those steps.
Another way to understand workflow: consider the primary steps of your sales process then recognize the work needed either in advance of or following from those steps that contribute to the success of each step.
These pre and post-activities, along with the primary steps, collectively comprise a sales line. They define a complete sales process and can include everything from lead generation and nurturing to post-sale follow-ups and customer retention services.
It’s important to recognize that a business can have multiple sales lines. Each line should be understood in its entirety, so that the activities that contribute to sales success may be optimized for the greatest results.
Action Items
Now that you’re clear about the sales line concept, it's time to take action toward your sales improvement. Here are a few actionable steps to empower your sales line and ability to grow sales:
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Identify each of your sales lines
Begin by recognizing your existing sales lines, such as advertisements, social posts, emails, phone calls to arrange meetings, etc.
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Account for the primary steps and related workflow for each line
Break down each sales line into its primary steps (those essential for converting sales potential) and the pre and post-activities of your workflow—the activities that support the primary steps. This will clarify what is involved with how you sell.
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Streamline
Assess your lines. Streamline each one to eliminate unnecessary complexities and to ensure a smooth course for sales. Important: establish a clear objective for each primary step.
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Raise your standards
As appropriate, establish baselines and targets for activities in your lines. Baselines help you identify improvements and know where improvements are needed. Targets will help you focus, which will promote better results. Consider setting key performance indicators (KPIs). Work toward higher reaching higher (but realistic) performance standards.
In the pursuit of optimal sales success, knowing your line(s) to sales is essential. A well-defined sales line is not just a theoretical concept; it's a practical solution for reliable and optimal sales success. By recognizing the primary steps of conversion, recognizing the supportive workflow, and optimizing all sales lines, you empower your sales operation! So, know your complete line to sales; its strength is your key to greater sales!
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If you need support creating or optimizing your sales lines, contact me through the Connect page on the SalesSuccess.club website.
Copyright © 2023 Steven Robert Young. All rights reserved.