There is one question every business person wants an answer to (even if they don’t yet know it!), whether they’re thinking of starting up, or have been operating for a while, and that is…

“… how do I turn my products and services in to cash?”

For those who’ve been in business a little while, you might add “… more cheaply and effectively than before?”

If you can’t turn products and services in to cash, then you don’t have a business.

You simply have an unfulfilled dream…

In my nearly 16 years of being in business every failure I’ve come across (including 1 or 2 of my own!) has suffered the fate you get when you don’t have a good enough answer to these questions.

And I’d go a little further – what ever this process is for turning products and services in to cash – you want to be able to repeat it time and time again…

… perhaps even teach others in your team to do the same…?

I highlighted the word ‘process’ just now because what you are looking for is a sales process, something that is

• Repeatable, so you can benefit from it time and time again, and also teach it to others if needed.
• Manageable, so you can figure out the best way to use and adapt it in order to get the most return for your efforts.
• Consistent, so that it works the same way and gives the same results when you use it the same way.
• Sequential, in that you follow a series of steps (like a recipe), one after the other, in order to increase the chances of sales success.

And I’ll just emphasise that last aspect: increase the chances of sales success.

Why? Because no sales process can guarantee a sale (well, no legal, moral one anyway!).

You know you can’t really force somebody to buy, and nor should you, in my book.

But you can make it more likely that they will buy from you, and enjoy doing so.

If you don’t have an effective, repeatable, manageable, consistent and sequential process for turning products and services in to cash, you’ll never know why or how you got the sales you did get. So when you do have success – and you will (if only a little) – you won’t know really what you need to do again to repeat that success. Sure, you can guess, and you may get lucky, but that’s a hell of a way to run a business!

And if you don’t have this kind of ‘handle’ on your sales process you won’t know what to do and where to do it in order to improve its effectiveness or its efficiency.

Why does this matter?

Well, the effectiveness speaks for itself in a sense – a more effective sales process simply is more likely to lead to success.

The efficiency bit is perhaps less obvious. Operating any process in business costs – if not straight cash then at least in terms of time, effort and opportunity. When you are working ‘Opportunity A’ you can’t necessarily be working ‘Opportunity B’ – and this last one just might bring in more profit…

You need a sales process that helps you target your resources at the best opportunities in order to get the best returns.

So anything you can do (within reason!) to reduce any/all of the costs associated with your sales process means you’ll end up with a bigger profit at the end of the day – more money for the same (or less!) effort.

I guess now you’ll be wondering where you get yourself a sales process from, and what they look like?

Well, you could buy one ‘off the shelf’ – plenty of people will sell you one. But is it right for you?

Possibly.

But probably not. At least, not enough.

So be prepared to build your own.

It will reflect your values and beliefs, the way you like to operate, and, if you have any sense, it will pay a lot of attention to the way your market likes to buy.

Buying is a process too – it may not feel like it sometimes…

And if your sales process is aligned with the way people buy, well, you certainly will be getting a higher chance of sales success!

In the next part of this series on turning products & services in to cash, I’ll be looking at the first steps to creating your own sales process.

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