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How to generate sales?

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11–17 of 17 posts

Re: How to generate sales?

#11
short of paying 7k/month (which I can't afford) to hire a real sales outsourcing service

The thing is, a direct sales process that works & functions predictably can be more akin to a production cost then a long winded marketing cost. If you run a training/consulting business a 'course' could cost you $A to prospect & sell $B to host & $C to teach. As long as $A stays more or less predictable & A+B+C still allows you to cover overheads, it works. 'Affording' shouldn't theoretically be an issue.

The part that is akin to an investment that you can afford or not is creating a system where A is predictable & reasonable. That might be achievable with a 7k/month outsourced sales. It may be achievable some other way. What you need to invest in (time and/or money) is finding it. So, your first couple of 7ks are an investment. An experiment. If it works, affording should no longer be part of the consideration.

There are companies that basically are a sales process just like there are companies that essentially are a product or a technology. If you are going to be a company that is a sales process or a big part of you is a sales process, then you probably need to be directly involved.

Re: How to generate sales?

#13

You need to first develop a sales road map, and the easiest way to do that is to sell yourself. Find out what works, what doesn't. Only then will you know how to show other sales people how to sell, whether it's part of an internal team or outsourced. For a more complete rationale on this, I encourage you to read Steve Blank's "4 Steps to the Epiphany" which is all about how to develop customers. -- Fred

Fred, thx for the reference to this book. Just ordered it on Amazon based on your review and tons of others I found.

Re: How to generate sales?

#14
I have a number of questions that you don't have to answer in public but you might want to give some thought to:

How did you price the product? If margins are huge is it priced to high? Do you take "Cost of Sales" into your margin calculation? Perhaps it's priced too low?

What alternatives do you compete against? Do they have a direct sales force or rely on one or more indirect channels? How do they recruit sales people and what compensation plan do they offer? How long is their sales cycle?

If you have a long sales cycle it may be difficult to hire a commission only sales rep.

What sales tools and materials did you provide your sales folks? How did you train them to sell your product?

It's not clear from your post if you are able to sell the product if you spend time on it: are you? If not, I would spend more time on that before trying to hire someone else.

Re: How to generate sales?

#16

Since you are selling something, why you keep that as a secret here? Someone here might buy your product. No hacker steals people's idea.

If a brief description on HN or a perusal of his website allows someone to steal his idea and take business away from him then he has more than a sales problem.
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