Start Your Sales Engine! by Kimberly StevensDoes your business run on a sales engine or a sales effort? A sales effort is something that has to be done every time you want to make a sale. But, a sales engine is something that, once put into place, can bring you sale after sale without added effort. Here are a couple of examples …
A photographer gets to know a handful of bridal consultants that refer every new bride they meet to him. Each time they get a new client, he has opportunity to get a phone call from that bride without having lifted a finger.
A home cleaning company establishes a relationship with organizations that provide temporary corporate housing for companies with newly relocated employees. The temporary housing companies contact cleaning company each time they have a person vacate one of their units so they can prepare it for next resident. Since nature of residences is temporary, they have a continual need for cleaning services.
In both of these examples, instead of spending valuable (potentially billable) work time on marketing, these companies are earning money. And during time they do spend on marketing, they are focused on developing long-term relationships with sources of continual referral instead of tracking down each individual purchaser.
In cleaning company example, they could be running classified ads, taking calls, visiting individual homes to provide cleaning estimates, etc. But all that effort only results in one job. There is an opportunity to clean each temporary residence 3-4 times per year. Multiply that figure by number of units temporary housing company manages, and you've got some regular business rolling in. And all from one relationship. Now, that's a sales engine!
In case of photographer, service is not being performed for bridal consultants. It's being performed for their clients. So, rather than being a repeat-service relationship, it is a referral relationship. However, it is not reciprocal. By time photographer hears from brides, they have already started planning other elements of their wedding, so it's too late to refer them to bridal consultants he knows. But, he could reward bridal consultants with a referral fee that he creates by either discounting his services when dealing with those brides they refer to him or by marking his services up by 15%.