Making the leap from $300,000, $400,000 or $500,000 in sales to becoming a multimillion dollar distributor can take some hard reflecting, tough choices and most importantly lots of planning. What it comes down to is this: Are you willing to go outside your comfort zone, pursue major accounts and challenge your sales team to follow suit?
Let me tell you about Patrick and Brian Dinley and Bryce Fulton, co-owners of Proforma Communications Group. About five years ago, they were doing $500,000 in sales. They wanted to reach the next level of success and knew they had to reevaluate their business plan to get there. They took a good hard look at their strategies and took the following steps to help them reach more than $2 million in sales this year, more than tripling their sales.
- Redefine the types of clients you want to go after
Patrick, Brian and Bryce realized that building a multimillion dollar business one pen sale at a time wasn’t a very effective strategy. They took a look at their client list. They identified clients who needed complete business solutions and Patrick, Brian and Bryce began focusing on selling program-based solutions. - Fire some existing accounts
Focusing on large clients sometimes means you need to let go of the smaller ones. These accounts will end up costing you more than helping you. Patrick, Brian and Bryce knew they had to create a client list that would reflect the type of business they wanted to build. It can be tough, but you have to prune the bushes to help them grow, right? - Be aggressive
Building an aggressive marketing plan was a big part of how Patrick, Brian and Bryce were able to get their foot in the door with new major corporate clients. They developed a marketing campaign where they sent creative promotional ideas, specific to the prospect’s business every two weeks. Put those samples you receive from vendors to good use in a low-cost, highly effective marketing campaign. This strategy alone increased Patrick, Brian and Bryce’s sales by more than $1 million.
Take some time to put these strategies up against what you are currently doing to grow your business. Challenge your sales representatives to build these strategies into their growth plan. Push past the edge of your comfort zone and pursue those Fortune 500 companies that can benefit from program-focused solutions. I’m confident you’ll start to see exponential growth in your sales.
