As entrepreneurs and business owners we have big dreams. Dreams of serving others, dreams of wealth, dreams of making big impacts, and leaving big legacies. But how do we make those dreams a reality – and keep it that way? It starts with sales.
That’s the cold hard truth. Your dreams and gumption alone are not enough to propel your business. It’s our job to ensure that our business is built healthily from the foundation up – and that foundation starts with sales.
The establishment of predictable sales is the base level from which all else in your business stems. Just like food, water and oxygen for humans, your businesses require sales to live.
In the last months you have heard me talking about Fix This Next, explaining The Business Priority Pyramid (The BPP) – a simple system to pinpoint what your company needs from you now, and what it doesn’t. If you remember, the base level of this model is sales, followed by profit, order, impact and legacy. Let’s take a look at our big base level a bit more. It is after all, what everything else in your business is balancing on.
How do you establish sales and pave the way to all of the other levels? Well I am going to give you a sneak peek into Fix This Next and share a little more about how The Business Priority Pyramid works. It’s more than a diagram. It’s a compass to help you diagnose your business, fix what needs fixing, and navigate to the next level. Within The BPP, I created the vital needs to address within each level.
Level 1 – Lifestyle Congruence
Do you know what your company’s sales performance needs to be in order to support your personal comfort?
- How much monthly income do you (the business owner) need to maintain a basic, but comfortable lifestyle?
- How much revenue must the company generate to support your lifestyle?
- If you reduced expenses (including staff), what is the minimum monthly expense that the company can incur and still achieve the sales needed for Lifestyle Congruence.
- What percentage of annual sales make up your required target take-home income?
Level II – Prospect Attraction
Do you attract enough quality prospects to support your needed sales? 4 Have you identified the ideal prospect avatar?
- What percentage of your prospects are consistent with the avatar?
- Are there enough prospects to support the sales needed?
- What are your significant prospect sources (website, referrals, direct mailings, social media, etc.)?
- What volume of traffic do you bring to your source? 4 How many applications or inquiries do you get from your prospects weekly?
Level III – Client Conversion
Do you convert enough of the right prospects into clients to support your needed sales?
- Have you identified the ideal client avatar?
- What percentage of prospects become clients?
- What percentage of clients are ideal?
- What percentage of clients buy repeatedly?
Level IV – Delivering on Commitments
Do you fully deliver on your commitments to your clients?
- How consistently (on a percentage basis) does your company deliver its offering within specifications (time, quality, etc.)
- How often does your offering get returned or customers ask for a partial/full refund?
- How often do customers cancel their offer?
- How often is your service or product delivered later than the client expects?
Level V – Collecting on Commitments
Do your clients fully deliver on their commitments to you?
- Do your clients pay on time and in full?
- How often are projects delayed because you are waiting for clients to send you information/ images/copy/etc?
- What percentage of your clients (intentionally or not) cause delay to the project or compromise the quality of the experience?
Ask yourself these questions and take the time to answer them carefully and honestly, so you can correctly diagnose and fix any issues hindering you from maintaining a strong sales base. Keep The Business Priority Pyramid near your work space to remind yourself to always make sure your base level is met first. Establish your sales using The Business Priority Pyramid. You got this!
For more tips like this go to Mikemotorbike.com or Mikemichalowicz.com and click on Get the Tools for tons of tried and true resources for business help and how to run a truly profitable business. Let’s rock entrepreneurship!
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