The way a product or service is sold is the most important thing when creating a successful business. Having an idea, developing it, putting it down on paper and putting it into action is just the beginning of the journey. The basis for all this to be sustained over time is to achieve sales, and that is not so easy to achieve when you do not have the necessary marketing knowledge.
Large companies solve most of their needs by hiring people who are specialists in all areas, including marketing. However, entrepreneurs have limited operational and financial capacity to move forward with that same system of work, so they have to take care of practically everything.
This gives rise to a number of problems during the course of its operating life. And although there is a lot of free information available on the internet today, the biggest bottleneck is when it comes to marketing problems in companies.
It is easy to understand the origin of this. Entrepreneurs know a lot about their subject, about what they offer, but not about the strategies they need to follow to sell it. So they think that just opening a free account on a social network and uploading photos and videos every day is more than enough. Sooner or later, they realize that this is not the case and not everything is so simple.
Locating the ideal customer
Understanding your customer base is the first step to end this situation, but not many take the time to work on it. Understanding the customer is about recognizing what their ideas, beliefs and problems (related to the product or service) are and working on them in a way that they feel identified with.
When this customer communication base is designed, it is easier to reach them with the product or service to be sold, so that they feel understood and begin to picture it as a real solution for their problems that is worth investing in. They no longer shy away from the purchasing process, they are now interested in what they are being offered.
Entrepreneurs have the misconception that their product or service is the best in the world and that every human being on earth should be excited to hear about it, needless to say, own it. The reality is that people have a hard time earning their money and think twice before spending it on something they don’t have full trust in.
On the other hand, not everyone is interested in the same thing. A person without children, for example, has little interest in a childcare service. That is why it is so important to know what kind of audience you are targeting.
Focusing on benefits
The traditional way of selling is oriented to work on the characteristics of the products or services, but potential customers are interested in the benefits. It is necessary for any entrepreneur to answer the question, “How will this help me?”
A simple example is the sale of a diary. People do not buy one for the love of the cover, what interests them is that they will be able to have an organized life from its use. A practical exercise to ensure that the benefits are what dominate is to list all the features of the product or service, and then assign to each one the benefit it brings.
It is very important in certain areas to take into account the language being used for the sale because the words may come from a specialized jargon that the public does not fully understand. Once again, it is important to know the ideal customer well, as this will make it easier to explain what is being offered to them and ensure that they are able to assimilate it.
Creating a marketing plan
After having mastered the two previous points, it is time to get the marketing campaign underway and this is achieved thanks to the use of a marketing plan, which most entrepreneurs do not have. A plan is the document that brings together all the strategies that will be followed to make the product or service known in the market.
The problem is that the guidelines that a good plan should follow and the steps that should be taken to achieve each objective are unknown. In a marketing plan it is important to establish which social networks will be present and how they will be addressed, the functionality of the website, email marketing and even the actions that will be taken offline.
Opening accounts on all social networks and posting the same thing on each of them is not a marketing plan. Taking isolated actions after reading a post in an email is not a marketing plan. Copying reels and videos that have gone viral is not a marketing plan.
It is important to consider, however, that it is also not necessary to have a document with hundreds of pages that takes up more time than necessary. In fact, having one or two sheets of paper for an undertaking will be more than enough.
Sales training
The last aspect that needs to be emphasized in all of this is the importance of sales training, not only for the entrepreneur, but for all the people who play a role in their team. Having knowledge in the area of sales will help to make this process easier and to achieve a palpable increase in income.
Sales training covers many areas, from initial customer service to inventory management. With clear and up-to-date information, it will be much easier to achieve an escalation that translates into excellent economic benefits for the business.
Nowadays, there are many facilities available to ensure that an enterprise is born, grows and remains in time. The internet provides tools of the highest value, but you have to know how to take advantage of them in order to achieve your objectives.