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HOW TO
ADVICE HOW TO...
BOOST SALES
Selling points
Generating sales is more important now than ever. Following a few simple steps can help to identify the right prospects and get the deal done
UDDENLY THE SALES OPERATIONS WITHIN OUR
Sbusinesses have changed. Although most of us have back-up plans for unforeseen circumstances, there is no contingency plan for our businesses post-Covid-19. Should you follow the same sales processes as before? Does your business need to start selling to a new market sector? Th e following tips will help you boost sales in the current market:
1
Identify new prospects Take the time initially to develop a sales strategy to make your sales activities more effi cient.
Identify your ideal customer profi le: the target company or person who is predicted to need your service or product. This could be your customers’ customers, the competitors of your customers, or a new industry sector within the supply chain. Identify the behaviours of your prospects, e.g. what social media channels they use. The more you fi nd out about your prospects, the easier they will be to sell to.
2
Identify the right channel Research and attention to detail are key skills that will help with the next steps for developing a relationship with a potential customer.
There are various avenues for contacting a prospect, e.g. telephone, email, post, videoconference, website enquiries, networking events, referrals, podcasts, social media and so on. A consistent approach across the various ‘touch points’ is essential. The sales process needs to be designed, analysed and adapted to meet the expectations of your potential customers.
3
Build rapport A prospect is likely to engage with you through the buying process if you take the time to listen and care about their values and interests. Building rapport should occur early on within the conversation, and can make the negotiation and closing easier.
To boost your sales in the current market, build a connection with your prospect by getting to know them. Actively listen to how they communicate with you (their tone of voice and body language etc). Share knowledge of mutual business relationships or a similar network.
4
Sell your service or product There are two areas to consider. First, can you sell (i.e. have you been trained to have an eŬ ective sales conversation and apply selling techniques)? Second, do you know the fi ner details of your service or product? It is crucial to learn and be passionate about it.
Pre-Covid-19, selling techniques included describing features and benefi ts. However, your business should now focus on the needs of a prospect: how your service or product will have a signifi cant impact on their business in current markets.
JAMIE MARTIN is Managing Director and Founder of Correct Careers Coaching and a sales trainer
5
Be ready for objections There could be several objections from the prospect. Before providing an answer to an objection, you need to fi nd out if it is the only one or if there is anything else.
Appreciate the objection, and respond with further needs-based selling techniques, e.g. ‘what if my service or product solved the problem?’ Deliver an anecdote of a similar situation with a previous customer. Explain it was the same objection, but after purchasing from you this customer experienced the benefi t of your service or product.
6
Make use of testimonials During the negotiation part of the conversation, highlight the value of your service or product using testimonials or case studies from previous customers. Relay the outcomes your service or product has had. The new prospect will relate more to hearing real feedback from others and will be more likely to proceed from fear of missing out.
After negotiating, follow-up with the prospect within 24-48 hours. The more time a prospect takes to decide whether to purchase, the higher the chances are they will not do so.
Illustration: Jamie Jones
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FIRST STEPS RESOURCES TO HELP YOUR START-UP SUCCEED
R&D SUPPORT
Innovative thinking
Th ere’s plenty of support for small fi rms that invest in new ways of doing things, which could come in handy in the current climate. Th e problem is not everyone knows about it, says Christian Doherty
HE UK STILL REPRESENTS “T a phenomenally good place to start up a business and it’s got a really rich ecosystem around R&D and innovation.” Th at’s the view of Nick Bassett, Head of Investor Partnerships at Innovate UK.
However, with Brexit and Covid-19, the UK has a challenge on its hands if it is to keep up with global competition. “Th ere is a huge gap between companies that can raise £10 million and earlier-stage companies,” Mr Bassett admits. Th e UK spends 1.7 per cent of GDP on R&D; contrast that with Germany (2.8 per cent), the US (2.4 per cent) and Austria (3.7 per cent).
Part of the issue is knowledge. Recent FSB research showed that 40 per cent of ‘incorporated new-to-market product innovators’ are not aware of R&D tax relief relevant to their business. Only 10 per cent of innovating smaller fi rms have accessed support from the Government.
“Companies struggle at their early stages,” says Mr Bassett. “Innovation doesn’t follow a straight line, so money has to be deployed at an early stage where there is the highest level of risk and where the highest returns can be.” An innovation support system with nine main providers of advice and funding doesn’t help.
Innovation support Th e complexity hasn’t stopped many start-ups from engaging with the innovation funding system. Euan Campbell started his medi-tech business Cohesion Medical seven years ago, and its digital patient management tools have become part of the NHS’s remote patient care system.
Cohesion benefi ted from a number of innovation schemes. “We managed to bootstrap with a combination of revenue and friend and family money at the beginning,” he says. Th e company was then able to access three Small Business Research Initiatives and won two awards from Innovate UK.
“Th e awards are like an exam - you need to study, and you might not pass fi rst time,” he explains.
FIRST STEPS R&D SUPPORT
“As long as you ask why you didn’t get a certain question right, and go back with an improved 10% something Mr Campbell urges others to follow. “We’ve learned more about it since we answer, you start realising you’ve got not just the Th e proportion started. Often that’s taking free advice from right answer but a really of innovating HMRC: they can tell you good answer.” fi rms that what is R&D, what’s Innovate UK runs competitions around a have accessed allowable and what we can claim.” broad range of technical fi nancial For 20 years, the tax challenges and off ers support from credit system has been funding grants to businesses that can the Government the foundation of governments’ eff orts to demonstrate suitability. encourage innovation. Companies must meet Th ere are a number of the criteria and pass diff erent versions of the viability tests to win. tax credit, and many smaller companies
Mr Campbell believes the benefi t goes will qualify for SME R&D relief. Th is beyond the fi nancial. “Th is process allows them to deduct an extra 130 per forces you to ask if you’re doing the cent of qualifying costs from their yearly right things, whether you can articulate profi t, as well as the normal 100 per cent what your business does and how you deduction. Th ey can also claim a tax credit will move it forward.” if the company is loss-making, worth up to 14.5 per cent of the surrender-able loss. Taking credit “Many small businesses don’t even Cohesion supplemented its innovation know they’re doing R&D,” says Mr funding with R&D tax credits, Campbell. “Th at period when you’re not earning any money? Th at’s when you should be doing R&D.” Th ere are also issues around what counts. “A huge number of small businesses engage with ‘new to fi rm’ innovation but not ‘new to market’ innovation,” says Chinara Rustamova, Senior Policy Advisor for Innovation and Skills at FSB. “HMRC cites the latter as eligible, not the former.” Th ere are hopes that as part of its ‘R&D Roadmap’, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will allow a broader application of the rules to ensure more activity falls under the R&D tax regime.
Knowledge gap Guy Bridge, Managing Director of funding platform Finpoint, which runs FSB Funding Platform, helps small and start-up businesses understand the support. In his view, knowledge of what’s available is poor, although many companies have heard of R&D tax credits. “Many companies don’t feel they are eligible,” he says. “A company has to have less than 500 staff and a turnover of less than £100 million. However, companies that spend money developing new products, processes or services, or enhancing existing ones, are eligible for R&D tax relief.”
If you’re spending on innovation, you can make an R&D tax credit claim to receive a corporation tax reduction and/ or cash payment. “If you’re claiming for the fi rst time, you can typically claim R&D tax relief for your last two completed accounting periods,” says Mr Bridge.
Jenny Tragner, a director at R&D consultancy ForrestBrown and member of HMRC’s R&D consultative committee, says that getting the right help is crucial. “Any reputable advisor will be regulated. Th ey’ve spent time studying the tax system to adhere to ethical codes. If you engage with unregulated advisors, you don’t have much protection. Th en it’s about working with an advisor that will partner with you on the process. Th ere are lots of ways to prepare a claim.”
With many advisors off ering a ‘no-win, no-fee’ service, the perception of R&D tax credits applications as risk-free has grown. Not so, says Ms Tragner. “You can outsource the process, but not the risk. HMRC has identifi ed abuse in the system, and that’s led to a hardening of their approach, so you need to be sure you’re working with a reputable fi rm.”
For Euan Campbell, the benefi ts of innovation funding go beyond fi nancial. “It does make you start thinking more innovatively,” he says. “You start looking for diff erent ways to do things. Cultural change can be the biggest thing.”
CHRISTIAN DOHERTY i s a f r e e l a n c e b u s i n e s s j o u r n a l i s t
3 ways small businesses can get smarter about how they sell this autumn
You’re likely sick of reading it. We all know that the last few months have turned the world upside down and left millions of small business owners in the dark, wondering how to proceed.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Lockdowns and economic shifts have forced us all to get that little bit more creative. We’ve seen restaurants become takeaways, chippys become grocers and pubs become cocktail delivery services.
In a time where nothing makes sense, small business owners have been rolling up their sleeves, burning the midnight oil and fi nding ways to stay open.
With more than 2 million small businesses around the world using SumUp to get paid, we saw fi rst-hand how resilient they can be when faced with dių culty. Not only did they redefi ne the way they work, they also adopted new ways to get their products out there. One family-run pizza business even strapped one of our card readers onto a pizza peel so they could accept socially distanced payments.
Pizza payments aside, here are a few tips on how you can start selling smarter.
Get inventive
Business plans across the UK have to evolve. Food truck owners started
off ering collection and delivery services. Outside of the culinary sphere, we saw hairdressers, barbers and beauticians move their work to the online realm by selling care and wellness products, and some gyms even started selling fi tness apparel to compensate for the lack of joggers running through their doors.
Get online
At the start of lockdown, our team looked beyond our usual contactless card payments solutions and worked to release a series of products and services that would help our merchants continue to do business. One of those products was Online Store Starter, a customisable tool that you can set up in minutes so you can start selling your products online.
Street food vendors who began using Online Store Starter even saw an increase in revenue of 260% compared to February’s pre-lockdown fi gures. Beauty merchants and barbers acquired 76% of their total revenue from the product in May alone.
So, what does this all mean? E-commerce doesn’t have to be complicated or scary and, now more than ever, developing an online presence is imperative.
Having a website is the fi rst step, but don’t forget to spread the word across social media, too.
Get remote
We can’t rely on in-person payments alone anymore. Sure, businesses have the go-ahead to open, but not everybody feels comfortable out and about just yet. Don’t want to miss out on that demographic? In comes remote payment solutions.
We saw a need for a multitude of ‘get paid anywhere’ products. Our small business owners are now able to sell gift cards online, get paid by sending a link, take payments over the phone and choose from a variety of online store packages tailored to their needs.
How things will be in a month or two may not be clear at the moment, but fi nding a way to get paid can be.
If you’re a small business looking for more tips, tricks, or even an aff ordable, easy-to-use payment
solution, visit sumup.co.uk/fsb
