Sales Sales Sales-Thats where the money is?

[killah]

I want to start my own business and sales make the company successful as more you sell the more you earn, just want to know as a newbie how do i and what's the best way to sell services, such as Web Design, Graphic Design and basically any design service.

I have no sales experience at all and wondering how to generate sales on a daily basis i know that if everyone knew that but just looking for some advice really from the sales people on here.

Thank you

 

[existere]

Start with your friends, those whom are interested in your services, then make th cicle gets bigger by making allowing them to introduce you to others and so on,,, at the same time,,, try hiring freelancers, on cut base, no over heads on you,,, ,, all the above will take some time to create a word of mouth in your area before you start expanding out the border,,,, thats one of the ways )

 

[killah]

Thanks for the reply.....I plan on running the business using some of that method as i don't know allot of different areas of coding such as PHP. Would it be right running a business this way? As i see it better doing it that way as i can add whatever service to my company then and i don't have to waste time learning how to do a certain area of work.

Any other type of businesses use this method to success?

 

[Olliver]

When we started out as a SEO Company in Germany we had the same problems as you. How to generate sales?

What we found was that word of mouth was the biggest sales driver in our industry. Yes of course we ranked ourselves for seo related keywords but by doing that we could only reach a small amount of customers. Lots of companies were not aware that they really needed us. They didn't see the benefits.

That's why we believed that we needed word of mouth over any other marketing. We started going around all the local shops offering free trial periods for SEO to get a foot in. As soon as people started to see the effects they were keen to stay with us (of course not all, you get those that hop from one freebie to the next...).

That still didn't solve our problems of actually generating more clients though. So we started a sort of affiliate scheme with those clients that had opted for the free trial. We offered them half a month free SEO for every client they could bring to us.

You would be surprised how many business owners know each other. So what can you learn out of this for your own business?

While you cannot go around and offer people free websites in the hope that they will then buy another one you could offer small design services for fee. For example offer them a logo, to redesign their menu (if its a restaurant) or similar services before you approach them with bigger jobs. Tell them that if they can get you another customer you will do their website redesign for half price.

 

[killah]

Great advice thank you, as a Graduate i sometimes feel that i am not good enough yet to start my own business and that I don't know enough does that really matter?
And good idea about the brochure might get designing some now and post them about.

 

[existere]

You are starting a new buisness , which means , that you have the guts for it and the brains,,, take it slow yet steady,, try not to invest except on that with a high secured ROI,,,

The way I described you earlier,,, will allow you to first, spread the word around (word of mouth), check the market inregards to clients need best,, as well as no money paid,,,

Yellow pages is important to send a well prepared introduction of your company and its services including a price list,,, it only take few minutes to mail such a portiflio to hundreds of companies,,,

 

[Olliver]

Great advice thank you, as a Graduate i sometimes feel that i am not good enough yet to start my own business and that I don't know enough does that really matter?
And good idea about the brochure might get designing some now and post them about.

Don't feel frightened. As a offline consultant I spent many hours with business owners and believe me I know some that are making a very decent amount every month and never even finished high school.

 

[eventdomain]

Well, you need some clients first - get some and then basically display them and use that to help sell your business. Its rare to pick up sales from an unestablished biz, and with no track record, which is how you'll be seen for the next 12 months or so.

Suggest you get a website to help do this, just something basic will do, a single page or something. Then add text saying what you do, and why its useful etc - and then promote the web page in the search engines, directories and Yellow Pages to begin with.

Dont make the mistake of plunging thousands into this - you dont know if its going to work yet.

 

[More Sales Performance]

Sales well done well can be a science in itself and can take many years to learn. I find it's all too often understated and undervalued and there's a HUGE difference between a good structured professional and a less competetent sales person.

Companies like mine are there to train in basic sales principles, right up to advanced sales methodologies and many offer professional sales training FREE as part of schemes run with business link et al....(for the time being at least until the government cuts kick in) or for a relatively small cost for a more specialised 121 service. Selling a service for example is very different from selling a product.

Another idea is to equip yourself with a good book and research the subject. Amazon have some great books on sales...

Also subscribe to sales related newsletters free each month on good business and sales related websites such as BNet, Jeffrey Gittomer etc and sales training companies websites such as mine and salestraining.co.uk, and many others for some really useful up to date sales tips...

 

[Penny Haywood]

Most business owners are smart enough to avoid paying for your learning curve so you need to show people what you can do, and as a designer, you're in a better position than most.
Create really nice designs that people want and use them on business cards and anything else you can afford. Spread the word around contacts and also network like crazy on and off-line. Use free social media as a showcase e.g. Flickr, Slideshare, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - and exploit the ability to link many of them up to save time.
Encourage any clients to spread the word - word of mouth recommendations is the most powerful and persuasive publicity you can get.
When you get praise from clients, it's important to ask if you can quote a short phrase of that praise as a testimonial for use on your own website to give others confidence in your abilities.
I'd recommend spell-checking everything you type to demonstrate you will carefully handle clients' details on business cards, websites etc. It'll give you the edge over a better designer who is sloppy about the little things that matter, like getting a telephone number right. There's no point in making clients look great if their content is riddled with mistakes as Google downgrades websites with poor spelling and grammar. It's those little extra touches that will help you stand out from the crowd and get recommended ahead of more experienced designers who just do the minimum they can to get the money.
You can also link up with people in related areas like SEO and social media marketing to give each other business referrals: but don't recommend anyone you have doubts about as any disasters will reflect badly on you.
Build your reputation with excellent service and delivery: work leads to other work if you listen hard and deliver what the client wants within the agreed time and budget.