Which Sales Method Is Most Effective?

A recent survey asks the question, ‘If you could only use one sales method then what would it be?’

 

When asked what was ‘the most effective sales method’…. small and growing businesses put

• Face-to-face selling, and
• Referrals and customer recommendations

at the top of the list at Number One and Number Two. 

As a matter of detail, a number of respondents commented on the artificial nature of the question and that the most powerful sales method was actually a combination of two or three techniques
eg exhibitions and face-to face selling and telesales. 

I agree. Our purpose was a ‘finger in the air’ response rather than an in-depth academic study.  And now we can use the table below as a starting point, a springboard to get businesses to think about how they can improve their sales performance.

 

The results of the survey suggest a number of questions:

• Do I know which sales methods are the most effective in my business?
• Do I allocate sales effort in the most effective manner?
• Do I know how much it costs to acquire one new client?
• Do I know the average life-time value of a new client?
• How much is the average new customer worth to us?
• If the 80/20 rule exists in my business (20% of efforts
  generate 80% of profits) then is this true with sales methods (ie 20% of sales methods generate 80% of sales)? What am I doing about it?
• Has every part of my sales pipeline/system been measured,
  tested and systematised? If not, why not?

Most businesses interviewed claimed that they were sales or customer-focused, but in reality, they spend little of their time systematically reviewing and improving their sales system. Curious!

CAN WE DO BETTER?

 
Most respondents (85%) agreed that better selling skills and behaviour is necessary to move their organisation forwards.  The key issue is whether the organisations (and individuals) are prepared to pay the price for such activity (ie make the changes required). 

BARRIERS (to being more effective at selling)

In a nutshell, key barriers are:

• Bad use of… or lack of….. time, appropriate systems, tools, techniques
• Initiative fatigue – some staff are tired of being put through business initiatives which are supposed to transform their businesses
• Lack of desire to make it happen
• A feeling that selling is somehow ‘dirty’.

ENABLERS (to become more effective at selling)

For effective selling to become a fundamental part of how things are done, there needs to be a belief that better selling technique will boost sales to the right sort of customers.  We expect some combination of the following to be present to precipitate successful selling behaviour:

• Appropriate skills/training, tested measurement and delivery systems
• Attitude - A ‘can do…’, ‘yes, and…’, ‘blame-free’ culture that recognises that success and failure go hand-in-hand - a ‘willingness to pay the price’
• Rewards and systems that motivate the individuals concerned
• Employing the right people, adopting the right strategy and putting it all together so that it really works.

SELLING AND TRAINING - Can selling be taught? 

Certainly, businesses (and individuals) can be coached, nurtured, coaxed and developed to become more selling-aware.  Technical skill gaps are easier to identify and hence easier to address in training.  All this needs to be done in a thought out and well-researched environment.

Even those that believe that selling is a crucial quality have done little (or nothing) to systematically assess or nurture attitudes towards the craft…. or to really understand the needs and behaviour of their target customers.

ACTION POINTS

• Where do you put your sales time and money at the moment?
• Where do you get your best results?
• Where should you spend your time and money?

Summary of the research

• The results of the survey suggest that the most effective sales method are of the old-fashioned ‘pressing the flesh’ variety.  No surprises there!
• The survey doesn’t ‘say’ anything about what you should do in your business.  It just lists the preferred sales method of 247 businesses – for your business there may be a combination of techniques that you find most effective.
• The survey doesn’t show the interconnection between pre-sales and the sales process.  For many the exhibitions lead to the face-to-face sales meeting.

We knew that the survey’s findings were flawed when we put together the results but we still felt that the results were of value as a starting point to get people to think hard about the return on their investment of time and money.

POST SCRIPT The Time-Money Continuum

The survey also confirmed to us that a generalisation existed: For quick results you need to spend money (on advertisements, exhibitions and mailshots). On the other hand, if you have the time to spend and can be patient then you can get results with little expenditure … but this method does take time.

 

NOTES

The Directors’ Centre carried out a simple qualitative survey in Quarter 1 of 2004, asking:
If you could only use one sales method then what would it be?
It comprised a combination of questionnaires, surveys and interviews with a total of 247 directors and owner-managers from a cross-section of organisations of less than 100 employees.  The style of the report was informal and not highly scientific to satisfy specific client needs – originally to ‘confirm or refute findings and research found elsewhere’.

 

about the author

 Robert Craven is a keynote speaker and author of the best-selling business books ‘Kick-Start Your Business’ and ‘Customer Is King’. As MD of The Directors’ Centre www.directorscentre.com, the consultancy for growing businesses, he works with ambitious owner-managers to break through constraints on business growth. He can be contacted at rc@directorscentre.com +44 (0)1225 851044.

Robert Craven©2005, Better Business Magazine

publication details

First published in Better Business, 2005.
Also published by Istaris.