Have a Sales Plan

The ability to make sales of your product or service are vital to your long term operational success. Yet, organizations still struggle with communicating their product and initiating a sale. While many organizations collect plenty of data on their consumers, they struggle to utilize that for a strategic purpose. The cost of attracting a new consumer is higher than retaining an existing consumer, or moving an existing consumer to higher levels of brand attachment. This means every person entering your facility has the potential to be a new customer.

Once contact has been made with a prospect, what plan is in place to acquire them? When utilizing CRM software, it is important to customize the message and have a strategic follow up, which may take several touch points, according to ABC Financial's Aaron Verasammy. Each message should be customized to the prospect depending on their unique needs and interests regarding your product. Unfortunately, while the importance of sales is apparent to the industry, there is a lack of adequate training (Popp, Simmons, & McEvoy, 2017). If larger sport organizations suffer with sales training, how can smaller businesses succeed?

They can start with having a plan of how they collect consumer and prospect information and put that to use. When a potential consumer enters the facility, is there a schedule of events that an associate can reference? Are the staff members prepared to discuss the various programs and offers, or know who to refer these questions to in order to grow the consumer base? Does the business collect contact information and follow up with a customized message discussing the prospect's interests?

If not, why not? Many sales opportunities are lost by capitalizing on the engagement of a captive audience. Once the prospect leaves they may not come back. However, if there is a plan in place to capitalize on their engagement, a new consumer may be realized. This may come as a result of a targeted email thanking them for coming or visiting and providing information specific to their interests. Other options include an invitation and promotional offer for a future visit or program, referral of a friend, hashtag for social media posting if applicable and appropriate. Whatever follow up message is chosen, it is important to have one. If a prospect leaves without a prompt for a future visit they may be gone for good. Don't let that happen to you. Think about how you want to engage your prospects and employees, have a plan, train your team and implement the strategy to attract and grow your client base.

Do:
Have a plan
Train your staff
Customize your message to each potential customer

Don't:
Lose the opportunity
Neglect to train your staff
Hope the prospect will come back on their own

References
Popp, N., Simmons, J., & McEvoy, C. (2017). Sport ticket sales training: Perceived effectiveness and impact on ticket sales results. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 26, 99-109.
Verasammy, A. (2020). 5 must do's to accelerate growth. Club Industry Master Class Series.