6 Steps to Creating a Constantly-Improving Sales System

Sometimes, it helps to take a step back and look at the BIG picture of different areas of your business.  When it comes to sales systems, one big picture view that bears examination is the process by which a good sales system becomes a great sales system

If you follow these six steps with some degree of consistency you can’t help but see increasingly better results from your online selling efforts. Of course, the more consistent and focused you are the better your results will be.

Step 1: Plan

Before you start to build your sales system, give it a bit of thought. You don’t need an exhaustive plan, and it need not take you a long time, but make sure you know what you are building before you build it.

I’ve found that the easiest way to plan a sales system is to create a map, like this one…

If you are a VisiOlo member, you can use the set of template maps we have created for you. If not, no sweat, you can create a map easily with a pencil and paper.

Step 2: Build

This one is pretty clear, right? The next step after planning is building.  You’ve probably already built a sales system or two, but I can offer some advice from my experience.

First, it’s really critical to separate the Build process into stages; write the copy, design and format the pages, set up autoresponder, set up ecommerce system, test. When you are writing, for instance, do very minimal formatting, just enough so that it is clear where the headlines, sub-heads, and text emphasis should be.  For instance, if you want a box around a testimonial, don’t create the box, just put a note in brackets saying [box here]. You don’t want to lose any writing momentum you have built by switching suddenly into design and layout mode.

Second, many of the tasks in this stage are perfect for outsourcing. If you can afford to outsource anything, I would suggest starting with the design or ecommerce system setup. For instance, if you use Rapid Action Profits, John Burnette will do a complete setup for you, including testing, for just $45.  He’ll do a great job and you won’t have any of the headaches.

Step 3: Deploy

Now that your system is set up, you need to turn it on and start driving traffic to it.  For brand new systems, I’m not an advocate for a big ‘event type’ launch.  There are plenty of ways to do re-launches, or special events using launch tactics after you get rolling, but until a system is tested and refined a bit, I think glitches, mistakes, and missed opportunities absorb a lot of the launch energy.  Along those lines, many times, I prefer to have a ‘hidden’ launch before I open up the real thing.  A hidden launch is a private offer to previous customers or members of a certain community and it’s a good way to start momentum rolling for a new sales system.  Plus, you’ll get testimonials and some conversion rate history to share with possible JV partners.

After deployment, there is always traffic coming into your system through your promotional efforts, But the focus of this post is not really traffic generation. The Deploy step is more about getting the system up and running than anything else and it takes a bit of traffic to do that.

Step 4: Measure

Now that you have deployed your system you want to measure your results.  You’ll need data on at least two levels 1) a summary level that gives you key metrics and 2) a detail level that allows you to measure conversion rates for each step of your selling process and also how each traffic source is performing for you.  There are ways to get this data with various free tools, but, of course, VisiOlo makes it a lot easier.  This is, after all, what we are best at.  Regardless of how you get your data though, please don’t ignore the overwhelming significance of easy access to marketing metrics.

Step 5: Plan

Based on your measurements, you should be able to identify areas that you would like to target for optimization.  The biggest improvements come from making improvements to your offer pages — perhaps improved headlines, or a sweeter offer.  But there are many places in your sales system where you can either add offers, build feedback loops, remove extraneous steps, or communicate better. Target one part of your sales system and develop a plan for improvement.  Again, your plan does not have to be extensive, but just writing down a few steps will keep you focused.

Step 6: Optimize

With your plan in hand, all you need to do is make sure the steps get done.  If you do *anything* to improve your sales system after it is deployed, you will be miles ahead of most people. It can be a simple step, but any step toward improved performance will be well rewarded.

Now, simply repeat steps 4 through 6 consistently, and, over time, you will find you can make substantially more profit, and create substantially more satisfied customers if you follow this process.

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