Client Magnets Official Blog

We all have reached a crunch time in our lives. The crunch time is that point where we’re standing there trying to decide whether to purchase petrol or groceries with our last few dollars. That crunch time shouldn’t be our breaking point; it should be our turning point. That crunch time needs to be the point in which we take stock of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. That crunch time needs to be the time we reevaluate our selling practices and honestly decide what’s working and what’s not. That crunch time should be an opportunity for change.

In other words, crunch time should mean out with the old, in with the new. If something is not helping your business, why are you doing it? Take the traditional sales process. When someone else is paying your salary, you make calls, you prospect, you make appointments, you do your presentation and hope you close enough to make your target percentage.

That process is not going to work when you’re not pulling a salary. If you’re self-employed, time-consuming prospecting is not cost-effective and it doesn’t buy groceries and petrol. Time is money and if you’re just starting out, it’s likely you’re going to be short on both. You need to shorten the selling process; you need to shorten the time between that first contact and closing the deal.

Take a look at your last successful sale. Write down every single step you took to make that deal. Next to each step, rate it on a scale of 1-10 in how much it helped seal the deal. Take stock of the steps that rated highest on your list. Take stock of the steps that rated the lowest on your list. Can you remove those lower rated steps and shorten your sales process?

Ask yourself why you’re doing those lower rated steps. Is it because you’ve always done them in the past? Don’t do those steps just for the sake of doing. Do those steps that help you make your sale. Take a fresh look, reevaluate and keep an open mind.

Evaluating your selling process is not going to be easy. You’re taking everything you’ve ever learned in selling and starting fresh. You need to keep your mind open and be prepared to admit that your 1-2-3 selling process is not what’s going to make your business successful and it’s not going to pay the bills.

Remember, you don’t get paid to do cold calls. You don’t get paid for chatting up the gatekeeper. You don’t get paid for networking. These are time consuming and it’s grunt work. Eliminate the grunt work, set yourself up for attracting clients without these steps.
How? By getting the client to come to you. It’s just that simple. They call you. You need to attract clients to eliminate the steps that aren’t profitable and aren’t closing deals.

This isn’t going to be an overnight transformation. It can take weeks and months. But every decision you make needs to be aligned with getting yourself to that point. That point where you can forget about the grunt work and be a true Client Magnet.

One Response to “Crunch Time – Reevaluate Your Sales Process”