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paul slater

  • Posts: 6
sales is the key for starters
« on: January 28, 2013, 10:28:13 am »
i have been in the cleaning game for a number of years, and the printing industry in sales and marketing also. And the key to any success in your business needs to be sales driven. No sales no business

 Sure you need good staff thats a given, no good making contracts and loosing them at the back end. You also need to be totally professional in todays enviroment. embracing technology, training, marketing. But above all sales. if your not good at it, get good at it. for you success. Thats my take on it. Anyone want to add anything in agreement, or disagreement please do so.

pristineclean

  • Posts: 192
Re: sales is the key for starters
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2013, 04:50:59 pm »
I think I'd have agreed with that statement a few years ago but my reluctant belief now is that marketing is the key to business success. I say reluctant because I don't really like marketing services and I'm not that fond of marketing professionals, by and large, although I now have a couple of people who are doing what needs to be done.

Sales and marketing in smaller companies tends to be carried out by the same people and I'm not sure that the two functions require the same skill set. A good salesperson understands pricing, operations, likes people, enjoys variety and being away from the office. A good marketing person, in the techno age, will be fully conversant with SEO optimisation, keyword advantages, competitor activity, market analysis and, ideally, economic efficiency. In short, someone who's good at marketing is generally going to be someone who quite likes the office, enjoys routine, understands numbers and the business model without necessarily understanding the business as a whole.


The last time I checked the Keynote and Mint reports, the commercial cleaning market had an approximate UK value of £6.5bn - there are tens of thousands of companies making up that number and it's very, very difficult for a small company to distinguish itself from those round about it. A good marketing campaign will generate enquiries, and enquiries are vital to feed the sales machine.

Interestingly (or perhaps not), the ready reckoner for marketing puts conversion from enquiry ratios at about 5% - it's typically vague, but the trickle down works along the principles as below:

Enquiry to sales lead conversion - 40%
Lead to prospect conversion - 38%
Prospect to sale conversion - 35%

As a rough maths guide, 1000 enquiries generates 400 leads, creating 150 prospects, creating 45 sales.

All that by saying that my company money is best spent on marketing if I'm going to give the sales people a decent amount of material to work with.

paul slater

  • Posts: 6
Re: sales is the key for starters
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2013, 08:36:38 am »
hi pristineclean good to see we are on the same page re this subject cheers paul

paul slater

  • Posts: 6
Re: sales is the key for starters
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2013, 08:38:26 am »
also thanks for your data re sales info cheers paul

nice-n-white.co.uk

  • Posts: 20
Re: sales is the key for starters
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2013, 04:15:29 pm »
How did you come by this enquiries to leads data,I've recently aquired a mass of prospect data,with those calc's should be rich this year.
Craig Slight from nice-n-white will help you out,if not, know a man who can.

pristineclean

  • Posts: 192
Re: sales is the key for starters
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2013, 11:26:09 am »
I've discussed the data a few times and seen reference to it online - as in all things marketing, the vague nature of the wording is all. An enquiry is defined as a positive response by a prospective customer to an approach made by the company - an approach itself being defined as anything from your web site presence to a telemarketing campaign.
The positive interaction is where the chain kicks in so, if your prospect data is composed of people who have contacted you and the conversion ratio of 5% puts you in the money then that's where you're going to be.

Bear in mind when you read this that I buy marketing, I don't sell it, so that what you're getting is the answers which I've been given by marketing people I talk to - I tend to cross check answers with others in the same field to see whether I'm getting the same replies (as I'm sure we all do) so I'm happy personally to accept these as a rough and ready guide when I'm deciding my market budgets.