How Sales Systems Can Increase Mobile’s Top Line Results

How do you increase your sales results through mobile?

What’s the most important part of your mobile solution?  I got several notes from entrepreneurs telling me that they think that developing systems for their business is crazy. They don’t need to systemize their business to succeed.  They told me systems thinking is something out of an earlier century. People need to be free if you want to get great results from their efforts.  These are very good questions and comments. I’m asked these questions a lot when I work with clients on increasing the sales value of their businesses.

My 30 years of buying and selling businesses has taught me that businesses that have good systems are worth way more than those with charismatic leaders, great sales professionals, or superior operations teams. Here’s why, if I’m buying a business, I want to know that I’ll get the same, if not better, results than you are getting now.  If I have to count on you for my results, it’s not a great investment for my organization.

If I’m going to invest my money I want to know that I can replicate your results over and over again. I can’t be sure how many of your key employees I might retain. I’ve seen employee losses of between 10-20% when I come in with new ownership.  Sometimes it’s because of a company’s reputation and sometimes it’s the loyalty your team feels for you. It can also be the industry you’re in. The problem for the buying company is we can’t always change how many people leave. We may be able to develop compensation programs to convince employees to stay until we can better understand a business’s clients. We might also be able pay out bonuses to key team members.  But even with those tools, key employees decide to leave.  So this aspect of buying a business is risky. Many conservative buyers don’t assume this level of risk when buying a company. A company without a sales process has limited appeal to most B2B buyers.

Now, what’s the alternative? If a company has a sales process, and has documented their sales systems, their business is more valuable. When a buyer looks at a process and then the results that process produces they find comfort in knowing how this business works. They can see what their cost of sales will be, how much profit is made, who their marquee customers are, and what margins they should expect from the sales team and investments.   They also can determine where they might be able to add significant value to the sales transaction.  Because there is a standard process in place, the buyer can determine who they should retain and who they might want to let go. This reduces their fears and allows them to better understand the company’s true value.

You should consider doing the same thing with your mobile technology investments. Since mobile is so new, the more systems you have that you can share with potential buyers, the more confidence the buyer has in mobile sales results. Your mobile sales efforts need to be integrated with your overall sales process.

A lot of smaller businesses pay a lot of money for meager sales results. Having a sales system supported by a measurement process helps you know where to invest your sales and marketing dollars.

So if you’re a business owner, what can you do about this? I suggest you begin with the end in mind.  Start from the very beginning of the business to quantify all aspects of your business. If you begin by putting processes in place, your team will be used to working within a performance based business.

Thank you for joining us for this series on creating your mobile strategy.  Please continue to follow us later this week as we continue exploring on to increase your business’s value.  Next week, we will talk about creating and implementing an overall sales system for your business which includes mobile.

Join us this week on Thursday for inspiration on how to become a stronger leader.