Hello, Folks
Each day I meet small IT companies suffering from low sales and lack of opportunities.
So here I give a few main steps you should implement in your company to start building the sales strategy and funnel.
The sales process for complicated technological products is generally divided in three main stages:
▻ Business development;
▻ Deal Closure;
▻ Management of accounts;
The reasons are obvious: you cannot explain your product to the customer in a few words. This is too complicated for understanding, thus, requiring step-by-step explanations in the series of communication sessions.
Each of three mentioned divisions should be managed by separate people. Mainly because each part requires much efforts.
A natural way for a small IT company would be to handle business development as a separate process. It could be taken on board by the third party (like GrowSpire Agency). The Deal Closure both with Account Management should be cared by company owner and project managers.
Important note, is that a Company Owner is the most responsible person for the company’s sales strategy and results. You will not be able to sit aside and wait for the clients. It would not be possible to get rid from this responsibility even if you hire a Sales Executive.
The Owner imposes limitations on company sales results via lack of sales experience and narrow outlook. If the Owner is a bad salesman, he or she is unable to hire a good salesmen to the company. The specific spirit of hunt and upcoming success is something, that could be felt only by true salesmen. The sales personnel should recruit another sales personnel. If you feel lack of experience in this area try to engage a buddy with such experience onto the recruitment process (or ask a colleague from a friendly venture).
A personal participation of the owner in all parts of the sales process will be inevitable. If you sell IT outsourcing, than you distribute an expert knowledge of your team (and not the goods from the warehouse). And who knows all peculiarities of your team, past portfolio, economics of the business? — you are, the owner. So you will be the last institution in the sales process — a deal closure guy. If you persuade the client — he buys, otherwise not.
You should also remember, that each member of your team takes part in a sales process: and everyone can spoil the deal at any stage of the sales funnel. The morose, gloomy engineers, that reflect lack of interest to your new client and project will not definitely persuade your client to pay. And if such takes place — the owner’s fail.
Anything to add here? — yes!
Pushing your boat:
There are pull and push marketing strategies. In IT outsourcing sales (like any other technology sales) the main strategy is a PUSH one. The active sales department (Push) is supported by content strategy and event marketing (Pull). The pure Pull strategy (when you receive leads only via your content and advertising) does not work for most IT products.
So get your hands out of the pocket and start building your active sales team!