Lessons from a lousy sales week

By Andrew Neitlich | April 30, 2004 | Selling Web Design Services

Last week was a bad week for me sales wise. Two prospects that I thought had a great chance of converting into actual clients turned me away. I didn

Written By:

Andrew Neitlich

Andrew's consulting practice focuses on helping professionals and entrepreneurs build successful businesses. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991. You can get his books, sign up for his free newsletters, and learn more about him at www.fastmarketingresults.com. Andrew also maintains Down to Business: SitePoint's Small Web Business Management blog.

{ 5 comments }

RockyShark May 2, 2004 at 2:06 am: On the getting referrals bit – when we finish a site for a client we post them a bottle of bubbly with our label on it, a “thank you and congratulations”. The gesture is really appreciated and we generally have no trouble getting referrals, and we don’t offer monetary payments or discounts to get them. If you look after clients and surprise them with little incentives, referrals are not hard to come by!
type0 May 2, 2004 at 1:04 am: webmonster:
Instead of giving them a discount, give them a bonus. Give them free service or give them money…a percentage of the sale.
type0 May 2, 2004 at 12:46 am: I completly agree with keeping your pipeline full. It’s the most important point. We survive from our prospects that turn into customers. And our customers are the people who support our business and life.
I like this Blog a lot. Keep up the excellent posts.
webmonster April 30, 2004 at 4:45 pm: Andrew, you mention that you get your most referrals from current and past clients if you ask the right way. My question is what is the best way to ask for referrals? My partner and I have established a very nice service for businesses in a particular industry and we have had trouble getting sales. We know we have a great service but have not been able to make enough sales. We tried asking the clients we currently have to refer business to us and we would give them $XX off of their current cost or dropping their subscription rate XX% and nothing has worked. What kinds of things should we offer to our clients to entice them into helping us make more sales? Please advise. Thanks!
bwarrene April 30, 2004 at 4:36 pm: While I am not in charge of sales – what I have learned is that no matter how well we know our products – we have to learn how to tune into what the prospect is hinting at but not really saying and plug our solutions into those needs. Our lost sales (on the software side – web-based middleware / quasi open-sourced i.e. source comes with purchase) resulted from us talking about the features and benefits without learning what the potential buyer really needed out of us.