Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:
How do you set up a sales strategy as a start-up with little to no money? And what are some good ways to sell to existing customers?
I am always thinking about finding new customers, but I have sold quite a bit to a decent number of people already. I am thinking I might do better focusing on getting those people coming back. What are some good ways to sell to existing customers without being annoying. Also – how can I do this with little to no money?
Although these are two very different questions, the answer is very similar.
One thing that I recommend to all my clients is to think with the end in mind. Take some time to answer the following question about your target market.
- Who are your ideal clients?
- What do they want?
- What do they need?
- Where do they live?
How do they live (what is their lifestyle, hobbies, friends, communities)?
After you have visualized your ideal client, create a clear and distinct “What I do” statement. If you cannot articulate a clean “What I do” statement in 25 words or less, then you either do not have a narrow enough niche or you do not fully understand what you can offer your niche.
Product Funnel
Once you have a narrow enough niche or target client, you can start to create what is called a Product Funnel. It’s a list of your products and services that leads your clients down your sales funnel. This list of products and services provide affordable services at various prices.
Consider offering free items to attract new clients. Once those clients are attracted and get to know you, you have Low-Priced items, then medium, high and premium priced items. You can also bundle several products together, to create the medium and high priced items.
How to create those products with little or no money?
Now that you have the end in mind (with your clearly defined Product Funnel), start productizing everything that you do. If you are doing and interview, record and create a podcast from it. If you are speaking at a function, record and create presentation slides that you can later convert into an ebook. If you are writing a series of articles, monetize that intellectual property by selling your articles or collecting them into an ebook or training package.
There are many ways to monetize and productize things that you are already doing.
If you need some assistance creating an appropriate Product Funnel or how to productize what you are already doing, please let me know. I can help you with that.
Conclusion:
Regardless of the situation, you can often attack the issue on multiple levels.
I go into more detail on how to create a Product Funnel in an earlier article (9/25/2015) “How can I grow my business with more services”
Product Funnels work well for non-profits as well. I do into further detail on this situation in a follow-up article.