What is a Predictable Sales Machine?

Imagine you could turn on a tap and instead of water flowing new prospects would flow into your sales funnel. As the sales start to flow and you become busier engaging the prospects within your funnel you can choose to turn off the tap if you choose.

Then, when ready to fill your sales funnel again you can turn the tap on filling your funnel. And the joy of converting those prospects into clients would start over. And what a joy it is as your sales process is so well optimized that you know for every 20 new leads that enter your funnel one will convert into a sale.

So how do you make this nirvana a reality in your business? You build a Predictable Sales Machine. A Predictable Sales Machine is a repeatable, scalable business process that attracts new prospects and converts them into a client.

They key is the word repeatable. This isn’t a one-time event where you get lucky and get a hot lead. No, a Predictable Sales Machine is a dependable process which you have full control over that almost guarantees sales if you follow the steps.

There are three key components critical to a successful Predictable Sales Machine. They are:

  1. Scalable Lead Generation – You need to have a lead generation process that allows you to scale your business. To do this you need a way to pay for new leads. If you can’t pay for a lead then you can’t scale your business. Facebook Ads are the #1 way to pay for hot leads  at the moment and the platform we use to generate leads.
  2. Repeatable Sales Process  – You need a rock solid conversion tool. One that highlights your niches pain points convinces them that your solution is going to solve that pain and then pitches your offer in a way that makes the decision a no-brainer. It must be systematized and repeatable so anyone who follows the process can convert hot leads into clients
  3. Reliable Follow Up -When prospects enter your funnel they will be at difference stages of the buyer’s journey. You’ll need an optimized marketing funnel to ensure all leads are nurtured appropriately until they are ready to buy. Research says that leads need around 7-9 touch points before they make a buying decision. Automated follow-up campaigns are the best way to make  sure you reach the 9 touch points and don’t lose out on sales just because you gave up too early

I want to give you a high-level overview of the major components of a Predictable Sales Machine so you can see the flow a new lead will move through as they go from cold to hot prospect to a paying client.

Predictable Sales Machine Components

I want to give you a high-level overview of the major components of a Predictable Sales Machine so you can see the flow a new lead will move through as they go from cold to hot prospect to a paying client.

There are three major components to building a Predictable Sales Machine

1. Specialize

You need to focus in on a specific client also known as a niche if you want to build a scalable lead generation process. This is important because we will offer a specific prospect a single service to solve their #1 pain point.

Niche

Nailing a niche is critical to an effective Sales Engine. Trying to market your product or service to everyone is a waste of money and time and a trap that most businesses fall into. You may feel that by narrowing your potential audience you are limiting your potential revenue but that’s not the case.

By defining a niche you focus on one type of prospect who you can describe specifically.  When you know what your prospects specific pain points, job roles, wants and likes then you can target them using paid traffic platforms.

Offer

Once you know the pain points your niche is trying to overcome, then it is time to create an offer (your service or product) that solves this pain. Not all of your services will be relevant to this one niche. Don’t try to sell them everything just the one thing that solves the identified pain.

People will do almost anything to solve their pain. When the conversation is based on solving pain points then you can show how your solution reduces that pain.  If prospect identifies with this pain they and sees your offer as the remedy, the sales process becomes much easier. At times, the prospect will ask to purchase instead of you having to do the hard sell.

2. Attract

Next, we need to create a constant flow of new prospects for our funnel. We will use the niche and their #1 pain to attract them using Facebook Ads.

Lead magnet

A lead magnet is a piece of content you give away in exchange for a prospect’s email address and contact details. This is how the prospect will enter your sales funnel.

To be effective the lead magnet must speak to the niche’s #1 pain point, so they jump at the opportunity to sign up. If the lead magnet does not align with a pain point, then your conversion rate will be low and reduce the likelihood that your Sales Engine will generate enough leads to secure enough conversions to be profitable.

Paid Traffic

The only way to create a sales engine that scales is through paid traffic. Yes, SEO, blogging and other forms of content marketing are highly effective and work, but to drive the numbers of leads into the pipeline to allow conversions to occur you will need lots of leads. Content marketing is a good long term strategy but builds up lead flow over a long period of time.

I always recommend content marketing alongside paid traffic but never as a replacement for paid traffic if you want to build a scalable Sales Engine.

Google Adwords, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads, YouTube Ads and Facebook ads are all platforms which can work well for different target audiences. I have experience advertising on all platforms and I have found that the most cost-effective platform that provides leads for the widest range of businesses is Facebook Ads.

The targeting features on Facebook Ads is also the most powerful meaning you can specifically target your niche if it is defined well. And that is why Facebook Ads are so cost effective and reliable.

Many companies are moving their Google Adwords budget to Facebook Ads because the results are so much better.

My tip is to start with Facebook Ads as you will most likely get the best results fast. Some may think that the platform is specifically for B2C as it is very consumer focused. All my campaigns on Facebook have been for B2B, and my results have been better than any other platform. Remember CEO’s, business owners and managers are all on Facebook.

3. Convert

Finally, we need a reliable way to convert these prospects into clients. The sales process must be systematized, repeatable and optimized so no opportunity is wasted and maximum clients are won.

Conversion Tool

A conversion tool is your opportunity to turn your prospect into a paying client. The best conversion tools are:

  1. Webinars
  2. Live events
  3. One on one meetings
  4. Videos or Video series

At one of these events, you will discuss your client pain points in detail, find out what their goals are for the future, map your offer to each pain point and then ask for the sale.

It goes without saying that this step should be optimized so the process is smooth and effortless. Everything you have done so far is to get the prospect to this point. It takes time, practice, feedback and many changes to the conversion tool to get it right. It won’t be great the first time you do it, but the more you do it the better you will get.

There is a very clear way to structure a webinar to ensure you are leading the prospect in the direction of making the decision your offer is the next best step for them.

Follow-Up Campaign

Follow-up campaigns are usually automated sequences consisting of emails, SMSs and phone calls. Each sequence is pre-written and is triggered when a prospect takes a specific action like downloading an ebook, attending a webinar or responding to an email.

These automated sequences are important for two reasons:

Automated Follow-Up

They automate follow-up events which sales and marketing people can forget to do because they are busy. Studies have shown that it takes more than seven contact points before a prospect makes a buying decision. Many sales people do not last that long and quit before the first or second contact.

Nurture Prospects

Many new prospects in your funnel are not ready to make a buying decision the day they enter, so these follow-up sequences nurture them by educating, answering their questions and addressing their pain points until they are ready to buy. Great sequences also determine when a prospect is ready to purchase based on their actions and notifies a sales person. Software I like for these automations are:

  1. Infusionsoft – This is the expensive option that is the most full-featured marketing automation platform including shopping cart and affiliate program
  2. Active Campaign – The low-cost option that has pretty much all the marketing automation features 80% of businesses need. I use Active Campaign with my clients.

Summary

So no matter what type of business you are, B2C or B2B if you want to create a predictable, scalable way of attracting new prospects and converting them into clients you need to build a Sales Engine.

A Sales Engine is a business process you install into your business that can be turned on or off depending on how many prospects you can cope within your sales funnel.

Let me know in the comments below if you have been able to build a Predictable Sales Machine in your business that is effective, and what tactics you are using to bring it all together.

 

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