Everyone struggles at different things. Small Business owners often struggle to get clients. This isn’t just a challenge, it can be the cause of a serious amount of stress and negative energy that distracts you from your goals.
The bottom line is that you are a small business and you need a sustainable flow of customers in order to keep your doors open.
One of the toughest things to do as you search for clients is to be honest with yourself about how well you are doing RIGHT NOW. It is too tempting and too easy and makes you feel not as bad about your month to take a look at your sales pipeline and convince yourself (or your spouse?) that things are looking good.
How many times have you looked at your list of potential customers, or people you have followed up with, and said to yourself, “I had a great conversation with him last week and he seems interested. If I got that deal it would be worth…X$” Or maybe you went to a networking event and you scheduled three coffee meetings with people, and two of those folks didn’t say no when you hinted that you might sign them up for your service. Are those people really in your pipeline?
They might be. They might not be. Do you have any way of telling whether they will buy your product or service in the next two weeks? 60 Days? 6 months?
You look at that list of potential customers (you DO have a list don’t you?) and you WANT them to close. You HOPE the people you met with will sit bolt upright in bed at 3 a.m. that night and whisper to themselves…”I must have it.”
What happens to that pipeline if you ask yourself questions…really direct and infuriating questions that your sales manager used to ask? Questions your spouse WILL ask you if you start talking about these as “deals.”
Questions like, “Is there a signed contract yet?”
“So that person you are talking to is THE decision maker?”
“What process do they have to go through to make that commitment?”
“What problem does this solve for THEM?”
“What questions do they stil have?”
There are more questions like these that, as a small business owner and as your own sales manager, you MUST ask yourself. Or maybe you should post them on your wall.
The really cool thing is, that when you go through your alleged pipeline and you drill down on those potential deals…you through some out. Put them in the dumpster and then see where the customer REALLY is. Where are you with them? Have you attracted these people to your service, but you really haven’t convinced them that you are credible? Maybe you are farther along than you think, but you just need to tweak HOW you move from having an informational conversation to closing the sale.
When you are honest with yourself, and your business about your pipeline, and you take the time to really understand WHERE your potential customers are in the marketing and sales flow…THEN you will have a pipeline you can forecast.
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