I recently joined a new gym.

Every time I head out the door, I tell my wife, “I’m going to find Dwayne.”  LOL. (as in Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.)  Because inside me, I’m trying to find a stronger version of myself.

After my first few weeks of futzing around in the gym, I decided to do what I tell everyone else to do…

Go find someone that’s accomplished what you want and hire them to get you there faster.  So, I did.  Christian built my first 5-week plan to get me moving, help me work on my form, and help me take advantage of this “rare opportunity” as he puts it to lose fat while also building muscle.

If I had to boil down his advice into one word it would be this:

CONSISTENCY.

There. I just saved you a ton of money on personal training and coaching.  You’re welcome. LOL.

The same can be said for sales inside of your agency.  Sales are about consistency…

… consistency in leads generation

… consistency in nurture / relationship building

… consistency in the sales process

… consistency in follow up

So, why do sales not happen consistently for some agencies?  Well, it’s usually due to one of the above items being broken or out of whack.

So, if you’re feeling sales aren’t consistent then here are my top tips for getting consistent sales in your agency:

#1: Leads – Always have the “lead faucet” turned on

Leads are the lifeblood of a business but many businesses put up with the unpredictable lead flow.  Think of it this way – if a restaurant had nobody walk in the front door for a day, two, three days… How many days do you think would go by before the owner decided to do something about it?

Your agency should be generating leads every day and don’t put up with anything less than that.

#2: Nurture – Don’t wait for a rainy day to start nurturing your leads

Sales require trust. When you want to sell something to your potential clients, do they trust you?  Do they know you?  

Too many people think that just because a lead reaches out to them that they are ready to buy and then they are surprised when they don’t. Lots of leads don’t buy because they don’t yet know enough about you or trust you enough to buy.  This is what is called a “cold lead.”

Nurturing your clients over time is about warming them up and establishing more trust as they get to know you better.  Warm them up with emails telling stories and making offers to help them.  Run webinars, and provide lots of education and value.  An agency that masters the skill of warming up cold leads will have as many deals as they could ever want or need.

#3: Sales Process – Most agencies don’t have a process they stick to

Are you following the same steps each time you take a prospective client through the sales process or do you feel like you’re winging it?  Here’s what I mean… sometimes you give a proposal, sometimes you just quote a price over the phone.  Sometimes you’ll use the same proposal as before, but other times you’re reinventing or rewriting your proposal.

If every time you went to your favorite restaurant to order your favorite meal, the chef decided to totally change the recipe, would you come back again and again?  Probably not.

Create a sales process.  Stick to it.  This is the only way you can make continuous improvement.  If this is changing all the time it’s really hard to tell what is working,

#4: Follow Up – How many times (and how) do you follow up?

I was on a coaching call recently where a student had already decided the client probably wasn’t going to hire him.  Why? The client didn’t pick up the phone at the agreed-upon time they scheduled for a follow-up call.  The last time they spoke the prospect mentioned they were in the process of getting other bids.  He decided to jump to the conclusion that the deal was dead.

Is the deal dead?  Absolutely not.  But, in his mind, it might as well have been.  (Or close to it.)  

It’s thinking like this that causes us to stop our follow-ups with clients.  The belief that the client isn’t going to hire us, doesn’t have money or is a time-waster is often the reason agencies give themselves permission to skip or slack off on client follow-up.  Follow up with your clients, and if you’re not doing real follow-up, ask yourself, “why?”

Bonus Tip: Use a CRM!

One of the best ways to ensure that sales are consistent is to use a CRM.  A CRM’s job is to help you to be consistent with leads, nurture, sales and follow up.

Lots of deals are lost because they get forgotten about or they don’t follow a process.  A sheet of paper, your email inbox, or a spreadsheet is not a CRM.  Use a purpose-built tool to help you with your consistency and watch your sales flow in.

The bottom line is: Give me any agency in the world that’s having problems with generating consistent sales and I promise you it will fall into leads, nurture, sales or follow up.

And, that’s great news because that makes the job of finding strategies to get sales flowing again a heck of a lot easier.

If you want more help with selling and generating consistent sales results in your agency, I offer you to apply for a call with our director of coaching. We can help you to put together a sales plan that is tailored specifically for your agency.