Never let the gas go out on your sales activity if you want to avoid feast and famine

Most professional service companies, from strategy boutiques through to creative agencies, are founded by bright, ambitious people getting together to start something of their own. Striking out means finally being listened to, and an end to making money for other people. Often it happens with the help of one or two clients who are fans and have promised to support the new venture. 

The founding group, or lone entrepreneur, becomes so focused on the first few projects, and producing a high standard of work, that there’s no pipeline of new business. With only a finite amount of work available from the original source, at best this work keeps flowing to become a one client firm, and at worst, the projects end entirely. 

The emergency sales strategy. 

With a few months’ profit in the bank, the team gets together with their little black books and creates a sales battle plan. This results in some difficulties: 

• People who hate selling are asked to do it regardless, and inevitably resent it
• People who don't have the right kind of networks are asked to call up their friends and try and sell to them
• The one or two natural or nurtured sellers generate the first leads, but it takes a couple of months to land the work they pitch 

The flow of work then picks up again, and those appointed sales people revert to account and project management, and recruit new team members. When the current round of projects comes to an end once more, the process begins again, only with extra people on the payroll, the stakes are higher.

How do you break the cycle?

Smooth the curve by making 5 sales efforts a week - and that’s every week, regardless of how busy the delivery machine is.  Ensure everyone does their part, no matter how small each effort is. 

• Publish useful content for your prospects to engage them with your brand
• Visit contacts, no matter how far flung the location. Sounds like a pain in the posterior? It will do to your competitors too. So you have the opportunity to do what they won’t, and build goodwill in spades
• Encourage practitioners to contribute to blogs and comment on topical issues in the appropriate forums to raise company visibility
• Reach out and connect with people when you don’t need their business
• Offer value without invoicing for your help – provide introductions, send useful links or give advice and useful conversation 

Make a habit of consistently moving the sales and marketing efforts forward in good times, rather than lean, and new work will always flow. Waiting until the cupboard is bare to desperately drive sales is what separates the fragile from the fantastic. 

Sell when you’re winning, and win more often with Metis.

Metis was built by a small team of entrepreneurs who have founded, grown and sold companies like yours. We know what it’s like to manage all stages - from when there are just two of you, to when you’re dealing with hundreds of people in multiple teams. Metis is the distillation of the lessons we have learned along the way. Our mission is to make businesses like yours more successful. If you’d like to hear more about how we can help, get in touch.