The Challenge of Creating a Consistent Sales Cycle in a New Business.

Starting a new business can be a rollercoaster. One minute you’re so busy you barely have time to grab lunch on the go. The next, everything grinds to a halt, and you’re wondering where your next lead is going to come from. 

Life would be so much easier if you could get some momentum going, but right now that seems like a pipe dream.

This scenario is common for new business owners, including sole operators such as coaches and trainers. You get caught up in the work you’re doing today that you neglect to make time for marketing, which is what got you so busy in the first place and will get you there tomorrow. As a result, your sales hit a wall, and you find yourself having to ramp up your marketing efforts from scratch.

Treat your Business like a Garden

So, how do you break this cycle to create a steadier pattern? In order to generate a more consistent flow of work, it helps to think of your marketing in gardening terms. That’s right: gardening! Just like tending a garden, marketing has three distinct phases: sowing, cultivating and harvesting. By following this principal, you’ll be working on your business while working in it. In other words, while you’re ‘harvesting’ a current project you’ll be performing other tasks (such as prospecting and blogging) to generate leads, ensuring you’ll have new business to harvest in the weeks and months to come.

You can develop consistency by performing tasks from all three phases every day. It helps to write a daily ‘to do’ list divided into three columns: SOW, CULTIVATE AND HARVEST. Every working day should include specific tasks listed under each column.

SOW

This is the prospecting phase. Prospecting is the process of sourcing new early stage leads to begin a sales process with.

To keep your name in front of customers, you must SOW the seed of your message in the minds of as many qualified prospects as possible every day. You should list three to five tasks every day to put your name in front of new prospects. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Online research, or researching an existing database of contacts.

Asking customers for referrals

Blogging (denotes you as an expert in your field)

Attending networking events

Interacting on relevant social media channels

Direct mail marketing

Cold-calling

Advertising online including social media

Advertising in print publications

CULTIVATE

This is the follow-up phase. Once you've made contact with prospects, it’s time to CULTIVATE the relationship. These people have already heard about you. Now you need ways to coax them closer to buying from you. The idea is to build as much rapport as possible with your prospects, which builds trust and gives them more and more reasons to do business with you. When they finally make the decision to buy, there will be no question in their minds that that want to buy from you rather than from your competitors. There are a number of ways to achieve this, including:

Follow-up phone calls

Follow-up meetings

Newsletters

Birthday and special occasion cards

Alerting prospects to special offers, new products or services, special events etc. that you may have. These announcements can be included in your newsletter, as a standalone newsletter, or via social media.

HARVEST

This is when you close the deal. By listing your deal-closing activities for each day, you boost your motivation to keep doing the prospecting and follow-up tasks you need to succeed. Harvest activities include things like:

delivering a quote or proposal

objection handling

negotiation

Just like tending a garden, you need to keep working in each of these three phases in your coaching and training business every day. Don’t wait until your vegetable crop is ready for harvesting before you sow the next crop! Keep sowing and cultivating your crops to ensure a steady and reliable harvest.

At Assess to Succeed, we've worked with coaches and trainers for many years. Talk to us about how our world-renowned HR products can deliver great results for your clients and help elevate your status as a coach or trainer.