How to get your Sales and Marketing in order

How do revelations about a new product or service turn into a functioning business? Many people have no clue how to bridge the gap between new ideas to a fully-fledged business. The devil can be in the detail so making sure you have completed all your legal requirements, have a sound financial structure and a plan to promote and sell your business is a great start. How do you get "Sales" to talk to "Marketing" and keep these two pivotal function working together, Here are some basic tools you can put in place to help turn your business idea into a practical business.

Marketing and PR

VITAL

• Create a website to go with your domain name. You may choose a free website building company like Wix, Webbly, Strinkgly or Moonfruit. You may like to try creating your own on WordPress or Joomla. To make life easier you could also use a template for your website to add to your Joomla or WordPress sites. All the "creative" heavy lifting is done for you and you are left to include content/wording and images to your site. Check out Theme forest or YooTheme for some themes and colour schemes you may love.
• Decide on which advertising channels will work best for your business
• Create social media presence and manage it with a social media desk like Hoot Suite
• Identify clients and start to create a database of customers – use mailBANK to communicate offers, events, openings or new products to your customers via email marketing with a free 30 day trial
• Create advertising materials such as banners, flyers, email templates and pamphlets
• Create and post online advertising materials using free services like Canva

VERY HELPFUL

• Decide whether you will be surveying your customers (recommended) and register for Survey Monkey to gain customer insight and levels of customer satisfaction
• Create online invites to events, launches or openings using paid services like Paperless Post or emailing your customers direct using mailBANK
• Register for Google AdWords or hire the professionals to set up and manage this for you

Sales approach

VITAL

• Decide on your pricing model for your product or service
• Learn how to sell
• How will you invoice for your service? Make it easy for customers to pay using credit or debit card, online payments, cash cheque, cash, money orders, layby, payment plan, bPAY, Paypal
• Set up tools for estimating your jobs, e.g. Commonwealth Bank's Emmy compact payment terminal
• Hire sales staff and provide training
• Make a customer service plan to create standard business procedures for complaints or refunds
• Review your products and see what sells best and which have the best margins
• Create an approach to identify new customers e.g. soft selling, hard selling, consultative selling, solution selling, customer personality types or social selling, and then come up with a customer service plan. You may choose to use introductory offers, discounts, referral discounts to attract your customers with the sole aim for have customers buy or re-buy your product or service.

VERY HELPFUL

• Have an online business? Create a Shopify website which includes built-in ecommerce tools. Attach a Zen Desk account to your Shopify site to track any customer complaints or returns
• Starting an ecommerce business? This article it contains everything you need to know to pack, ship and fulfill your order
• Like your apps? Here are the Top 20 apps for small business

For other practical tips see post here