Overview

Whether you are a sole trader or a corporate giant, ‘sales’ are the lifeblood of any organisation. Sales operations have a direct effect on revenue generation and therefore a direct effect on your future. Whether you are a purist and believe that sales is a part of marketing, or a pragmatist that knows its potential impact on your business (for good or ill), it’s the area where you need to excel.

More detailed information about ibd’s  expertise in the many different aspects of sales may be found by exploring the above links.

There are so many definitions of a sale, that it would be impossible to cover all its variants; so we will state that it is the transfer of goods or services, in exchange for financial reward (preferably profitable).

The most effective way to ‘sell’, is through communication of:

1. Individual skills or knowledge that you possess i.e. your abilities, natural or experiential.
2. By employing teamwork within your business – asking yourself ‘what is our competitive advantage’ (it could be technology for example).
3. Sell by being the ambassador of your organisation. Create joint relationship synergies (where possible) and build these for the short, medium and long term. These relationships can of course be either internal or external business drivers.
4. Become expert at the creation, development and maintenance of profitable business relationships. A USP (unique selling point) to gain competitive advantage.
5. Learn how to win, develop and retain customers. It is proven that it costs less money to retain customers than to create them.
6. Generate Revenue.

Here are some typical benefits companies can realize from engaging in Sales:

• Understanding what your target market is and how to engage it
• Setting business objectives (e.g. plans) driven by your business resources to exploit market opportunities
• Creating new business development tactics and strategies to drive your business forward
• Sales operations – know how to manage your business once you have secured a sale by developing joint business plans
• Retain your customers for the long-term future and keep them coming back to you in favour of your competition.
• Cashflow!

Engaging Support

At ibd we have an immense advisor ‘bank’ with sales expertise as just one of its disciplines, from those with experience of B2B, B2C markets to not-for-profit organisations. We can cover any sector specialism a company might require from channel to product, for example, computer software to healthcare, utilities or FMCG markets. We are able to pool teams of advisors where a client might require a breadth of support, whether it may be sales, business planning, marketing or quality control.

We want to make it straightforward and simple to engage with ibd advisers:

• The first step is to create a brief for a prospective advisor, whether it is a one-off project or a longer-term relationship that is required.
• Via ibd head office, make contact with an individual or number of prospective advisors with whom you’d like to open discussions.

The timeline for creating a shortlist and taking a decision is dependant on your own company processes. You may want to invite an advisor to your offices so they can get a feel for your business and meet any additional members of our management team.

Need to know more?

If you would like to know more about this specific subject area, please contact the ibd head office on 08448 223660.