The biggest challenge for startups is a lack of revenue. There are usually not enough customers, referrals, or inbound leads for the typical Business-to-Business (B2B) startup. This is why you should teach all your employees to sell. That sounds easier to implement than it actually is. Sales often does not come easy to financial, operational, or technical staff, but that doesn’t mean you can’t teach your employees to sell.
This blog outlines a tips steps on how to teach selling to all your employees:
1. Share Your Revenue Targets and Progress With the Whole Team
I don’t know why more companies don’t share this kind of data with their employees. Having the employees understand where revenue short falls may be will help with a sense or urgency to be more proactive with a sales effort.
2. Everyone in the Company Should Understand Your Value Proposition
What do you do and what are the benefits you can bring to your customers. They should be able to articulate this in about 30 seconds. As an example, while I was golfing one day we had a stranger join our group and towards the end of the round we talked about where we worked and what we did. We eventually signed that client.
3. Ensure That the Team Understands What Makes a Good Prospect
Defining your target prospect by vertical, size, geography, and other factors. If your developer talks to his/her neighbour about your company, sets up a meeting and it is not a good fit, they may be discouraged to do it again.
4. Make Sure They Know the Next Step in the Sales Cycle
The team should know what do and who to engage once there is some interest. I was working with a client recently and a developer found an opportunity with a large consumer brand for a smart phone application. They got excited and started working on some mock-ups and then got busy. The lead was passed on three months later. I followed up with the contact and they had left the business. Opportunity wasted.
5. When Working With Clients, Ask the Right Questions
Many companies have their operational or technical employees working directly with clients. The best source of future business is existing customers. There should be questions on future projects, other business pain, and other contacts within the company.
6. Get All Employees on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the best social media tool for B2B sales. Having employees active on LinkedIn will help with research for prospecting and inbound marketing. We have posted some advice on our blog Network to grow your B2B sales- The LinkedIn Game Plan
These steps should your employees to sell and help your team find more leads, get more referrals, and translate into more revenue for your startup.
