Typically, a SBO is an expert in their field of work: a locksmith knows locks, residential roofers know shingles, shake, metal, etc. and a screen printer knows the ins and outs of burning screens, the kinds of ink for the type of surface to be printed upon and so forth. These business owners may be some of the best there is, but to be very successful at what they do they need to be more – they need to be sales-minded.
What is sales minded-ness?
First, sales mindedness begins with the realization that everyone in your organization is in Sales before they’re in…let’s say, Service. Before Sam Smith is a service tech, he is in sales representing the company. Donna Jones is the HR Director, but first she has to realize she is in Sales. Why? Because…
Sales is Service and Service is Sales
I can have the tops sales person in the industry working for me and she closes everything she touches. However, if the new client gets over to Service to be set up just to have a horrible experience with our service and support people, that company isn’t going to last long.
From an infographic produced and published in a blog post entitled, Customer Acquisition vs Retention Costs – Statistics And Trends By Khalid Saleh, Founder and CEO of Invesp, a Sales/Marketing consulting firm. https://www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-acquisition-retention/
According to Invesp, a consulting firm specializing in marketing, it costs five times (5x) to acquire a new customer what it does to retain an existing one. They say that the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% while the chances of selling a new prospect is 5-20%.
Yet, companies continue to throw money at new acquisition, trying everything they can to boost conversions without tending to the rest of the sales department (i.e. Accounting, Service, HR, ER, Operations, etc).
Providing a smooth, professional and informative transition to your company as a new supplier is the benchmark of what we mean when se say, “sales is service”. Maintaining the high standards of customer service throughout every step of the conversion process and into the many years of professional relationship that await your company is what we mean when we say “service is sales”.
That is part of what “Sales Mindedness” is.
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