Blog
My Sales Plan
In this week's blog I'm going to show you my typical sales plans. Like many service based businesses we have peaks and troughs during the year such as eveybody wanting websites around Christmas and nobody does business in January because they're on holiday.
The image to the right is a quick snapshot of payments to Spinning Planet from 2007 - 2011. As you can see there's a really big dip at the start of the year but it's also quieter from April to July. There's many reasons for that such as April and June being the end of many businesses financial year and also because it's colder which means less people out buying and the money isn't trickling through the business community.
So, now isn't the time to go into hybernation. In fact you need to do the opposite and make sure that you're at the top of other businesses minds and also show them why now is a good time to do business so they're prepared for the Christmas rush. Here's the sales channels that I'll be concentrating on this Quarter:
Sales Channels
Like my last Q4 Sales Plan I'll be using many sales channels such as meetings and workshops. However, I gained some important insights from my last sales plan that has helped me refine this plan:
- Meetings are our best converter. 84% of people that come up to our office and experience our processes and expertise become our clients so we need to do more meetings at the office.
- On average our Internet Marketing Workshop gets one client per workshop but better than that it creates Spinning Planet fans that talk to other businesses about us.
- Even though we only have around 100 followers on LinkedIn and 355 on Facebook, LinkedIn is the one that has the most referrals so I will spend a lot more time in LinkedIn.
- My Blogs are getting good coverage and people even talk to me about them at industry events.
Meetings
Most of our contracts come from “face to face” meetings. The more meetings we have; the more clients we'll get.
Frequency: A minimum of 6 meetings per month
Goal: 4 new contracts per month
Acquisition:- Contact all clients and ask if they’d like to come in for a free meeting to assess whether their website and Internet marketing are meeting their goals. We do this every three months.
- Contact potential “Connectors” on LinkedIN and offer a free lunch to do networking - Connectors are business people that network a lot with other business people and provide many referrals to Spinning Planet.
- Follow-up meetings after our Internet Marketing Workshops.
- Invite people from industry events.
Events
Events are an excellent opportunity for Spinning Planet to discuss our latest technology and services to other businesses in a relaxed environment.
Frequency: 2 events per month
Goal: 1 meeting or a signup to our Internet marketing workshop for each event
Acquisition:- Manawatu Chamber of Commerce After 5’s
- Vision Manawatu Business Events Calendar
- Offer to present at key events such as After 5’s, BNZ Connect, Massey, UCOL, etc.
Workshops
Our Internet Marketing Workshops are an excellent way to meet new business and work well to educate business that we are the leaders in our field.
Frequency: 1 workshop per month
Goal: 1 client per workshop
Acquisition:- All events listed above
- Promote on Social Networks and ask my contacts to LIKE so it is shared with their networks.
Offline media
We don’t get a lot of sales through offline media but they do give us more brand recognition which has been noted by our clients and prospects.
Goal: Top of mind awareness
Acquisition:- Aid Media outdoor banner advertising on our building and at the Palmerston North Airport
Online media
Online media is our primary avenue for marketing because of it’s success and the low cost.
Frequency: Continuous
Goal: 2 clients per month
Acquisition:- 1 Google Adwords campaign for 3 months
- 1 LinkedIN Sponsored Update per month
- 1 Blog per week
- 1 E-Newsletter per month
- Search Engine Optimisation with Landing Pages targeted at increasing our prospects database through free offers such as E-Books, free Website Strategy Meetings and free Internet Marketing Workshops.
Conclusion
This isn't as big as my Q4 Sales Plan but it's enough to significantly increase sales in a quiet time of the year. If you'd like some advice on how to do your sales plan feel free to contact me for a free meeting.
brynn :-)
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Brynn