As a business owner or manager, it can be difficult to know which types of income generating activities to put your focus into. Here are 4.
4 Types Of Income Generating Activities:
- Face To Face
- Sales Call, Consultation, of Strategy Session
- Sales Webinar
- Be A Guest
I’ve written before about the fact that the types of income generating activities we spend our time on should have a direct relationship to revenue. But, what does this mean exactly?
The clearest way to explain this kind of activity is that it boils down to speaking to another human being. Whether you’re in an actual face-to-face sales meeting or consultation, you are having some kind of conversation that has the potential to lead to a sale.
This does not mean that other types of activities are not important. Yes, it’s important for you to make sure your website is pleasing to the eye and running properly. Yes, it’s helpful to start and have a blog if it works for your product or service. Sales emails and offers are important to have ready to go at a moment’s notice and your continued research and training for all-things-your-business have value.
As important as the items mentioned above are, you have to prioritize the same twenty-four hour period all of us have in a way that gives you the most income generating leverage. You CAN do this! Read on.
Now let’s move on to the meat and potatoes! Here are the eight types of income generating activities you’ll want to put most of your time into.
Face To Face
Human interaction is what this is all about! This doesn’t mean you have to spend hours and hours with a potential customer. If you have a clear idea of the following things, you can cut the fat and get to the main, so to speak. Have the following at the ready:
- What do you have to offer?
Whether you have a product or service, you have to be familiar with all the minute details. I mean, it is your product, right? You should already know this. But, what if you’re a manager and you’ve been tasked with this kind of sales activity? Know what you’re selling! I don’t want to sound rough, but it doesn’t get more basic than this.
- What do they need?
What does your ideal client or customer need and how can you help them with that? If you have the kind of grasp on this as you should, you’ll be able to take some time for yourself to come up with a way to articulate this. Although you will need to be flexible enough to pivot for the more trivial areas, your main purpose won’t change because that is your product. Be clear about the ‘what’ of it all.
- How can you help them?
If you’re clear about the first two ‘what’ items above, this will be easy to identify for you. Your client or customer will be easily able to recognize the value in what you’re offering. Then it’s all about the next step.
- What will it take?
So, what will it take to close this deal? Seems simple, but this can be more complicated. People are people. We’re all in different situations and positions. Are you dealing with the owner of a business, or someone in management? Are you absolutely clear about your numbers and margins so that you can be flexible? Are you aware of what is possible for you and what is NOT up for negotiation?
You will inevitably be involved in a situation where someone tries to charm the pants off of you. Are you ready for that? Are you sure you’ve done everything you can to package items and services together that give the most bang for someone’s buck?
I don’t know who originally said this, but it’s brilliant so I’ll leave it right here.
“Price is only an issue in the absence of value.” – unknown
Sales Call, Consultation, or Strategy Session
Let’s start with sales calls. 15 minutes is all it should take. In this amount of time, you should be able to introduce yourself, show and tell about what you have to offer, find out what they need, tell them how you can help, and close a deal. Or at least leave them with something to consider. You should definitely follow up if you don’t close at first.
There have been a few times I can remember when I just wasn’t ready to make a final decision and then some smooth talker (and not even always that smooth), comes in and gets me to jump off whatever doubt I was standing on. I actually feel a little bit bad about myself right now.
What about consultations? Generally speaking, if you’re in a consultation, you’ve already identified an ideal customer and you know you have what they need. At this point, it’s about baseline and additional offers.
This is a very basic example, but you can apply it to anything you’re doing. I used to run an events center. I dealt mostly with clients who were already booked for an event. I would do a consultation where we would discuss what they needed specifically for their event and I would offer them extras (at extra cost), that always seemed valuable to them.
It took me longer to realize this than it should have, but one thing my clients always wanted was outdoor heaters.
I realized that instead of outsourcing this, I should buy some and charge for them. In doing this, I made it easier for them and cheaper than it would be to rent and have them delivered, etc. I added value. And those heaters paid for themselves over and over again. It was residual.
Strategy Sessions. What is this? Simply put, this is the time you set aside for planning. Plan goals and timeframes in which goals, markers and milestones should be completed. This is generally done with customers who have been onboarded already. You will have had or are starting to form a working relationship. This is not time to slack off, of course. This time and face-to-face relationship should produce results. Results that you can ultimately show off to get even more business.
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Sales Webinar
Sales webinars can be great fun and a great way to cast a wide net where you have the opportunity to make multiple sales at one time. It’s really the same as doing a face-to-face interaction, just with more people. So, make sure you have all the same ducks in a row and you’ll be off to a great start. You’ll want to figure out how to handle the sales offer at the end in this situation.
I think the best way to handle this is to make a follow-up call. To sweeten the pot, I’d give the attendees a special code for attending that gives them an additional percentage off if they purchase or book within a specific amount of time post-webinar.
I’m a fan of anything that gives me the chance to check off multiple boxes at once. So, this is one of my favorite types of income generating activities!
Be A Guest
I have that Beauty & The Beast song in my head. Now you do too. Sorry for that. This can be fun though. Find podcasts, YouTubers, and Facebookers (for Facebook Live), or webinars, that fit into the same or similar spaces as you. It can be very beneficial to find others with which to collaborate; both for you and for them. Ask to be a guest. You likely won’t strike gold at first, but keep trying. Ask enough of them and I’m sure you’ll find someone who is willing to work with you.
For this kind of activity, I can’t emphasize the importance of total preparedness. You NEED TO KNOW what you’re selling and how it can help your audience. Also, you must end this activity by making a sales offer at the end. Always. After all, you’re trying to dedicate yourself to focusing on types of income generating activities.
For more information and a free PDF with types of income generating activities that have a direct relationship to revenue, CLICK HERE.
Remember, you don’t have to conquer the whole income generating world at once. You can do it by picking one or two to work on at a time and you’ll find your flow.
Let us know how things are working for you. We’d love to hear from you!