In my series of articles in this magazine I’ve been revealing to you the 30 fundamentals required to build a successful business.

Last time, I briefed you on the fourth critical fundamental small business owners must have… creating a compelling message.

Now let’s discuss fundamental number five… developing an effective sales process.

So what exactly is a sales process? It’s a roadmap that defines a specific set of steps for marketing and selling your product or service. Each step consists of several key activities that produce a predictable, measurable outcome.

There are three basic components that define your sales process… lead generation, lead qualification and lead conversion.

Lead generation has the job of reaching your prospects with a laser-focused message aimed specifically at their hot buttons, and getting them to raise their hand and acknowledge their interested in what you sell. We discussed how to develop that laser-focused message last week.

Lead qualification has the job of separating those prospects into two different camps… those who WANT what you sell and those who NEED what you sell. You always want to focus on prospects who WANT your product or service. They will always be your target customers. It should be noted here that a well-designed and carefully crafted marketing message has the ability to do both of these vital components simultaneously… generate leads and qualify those leads.

Lead conversion has the job of transforming a prospect into a client by gaining their final commitment to buy what you sell. Again it should be noted here that with the right message aimed at your ideal prospect, converting that prospect into a paying client can be as simple as asking for the sale.

When executed properly, your sales process can increase your response rates… increase your conversion rates… improve your client retention… save you from making costly marketing mistakes… and provide your business with a roadmap that takes your prospects from ignorance to awareness, into the decision making process and through to the close.

When you know and understand lead generation, lead qualification and lead conversion, and the role they each play in your overall sales process you will position yourself light years ahead of your competition, and have a solid foundation upon which to build a competition-dominating marketing program.

The best way for you to get started is with the end in mind. So when we look at lead generation, lead qualification and lead conversion… lead conversion is where we must start. We have to first ask ourselves where the actual sale is most likely to take place. Often, that’s going to be in front of a salesperson or the business owner.

No one is going to agree to chiropractic services by going to the chiropractor’s website. You would never hire a kitchen remodeler and spend $40,000 with them by simply looking at a brochure. The patient will agree to the chiropractic services only AFTER speaking one-on-one with the doctor.

The homeowner will agree to hire the kitchen remodeler only AFTER speaking to the salesperson face-to-face. Knowing this upfront, you can now work backward to design the strategies and tactics required to walk a prospect from first contact to the final meeting.

The sales process for the chiropractor will look something like this. They would run a 30second ad on cable TV or perhaps a pay-per-click ad on Facebook that offers a free report specifically targeting the medical condition of the target customer. That free report is risk free, so more prospects will respond and request it.

When they do, they are directed to an online landing page where the prospect enters their first name and email address in order to download that free report. That report should inform and educate the prospect on the benefits the chiropractor offers their patients, and at the end offer them a complimentary exam and report of findings. Now the patient is sitting in front of the doctor so they can close the sale so to speak.

However, MOST of the prospects downloading that free report won’t read it. We’re simply too busy these days and things like a free report get pushed off for higher priority tasks. That’s when a “drip” campaign kicks in to continuously nurture each prospect by providing value along with a compelling offer to entice the prospect to come in for that complimentary exam.

All of these steps, when combined, make up a sales process… and for businesses that follow this process, they often dominate the market.

When you can help your client’s develop a powerful and compelling sales process, they will see immediate increases in both their revenue and profits.

In future articles, I’ll continue to reveal these critical fundamentals, and how their application will greatly impact the businesses you coach… both professionally and financially.

So until next time,

Adrian Ulsh