Have you been live-selling for some time and want to do it full time? Have you got any doubts how to get down to it? This article contains useful tips on when and how to start turning your side sales job into a profitable business!
Look at numbers
Numbers are the core. Look at your income and sale regularity, then think if you can afford doing Facebook lives full time right now. Before you decide to start your full-time business, build solid foundations which will spare you unnecessary stress.
PS. Do you know that you can view your shop statistics in Selmo? Thanks to that, this step will be much easier... ;)
Get to know your customers
Get to know people you want to sell your products to. What are they interested in? When do they buy most often? What is their involvement during your transmission? Who buys from you on a regular basis and who does it from time to time? Why?
This is an important step when you create the initial outline of your “buyer persona”. You will use it to select the future activity direction. After all, you must appeal to your customers’ hearts!
Make a plan
Planning is of utmost importance. Think how fast your business can grow if you start acting right now. Look at the current growth rate and your competitors, as this will make it easier to make a specific plan.
How many hours a week will you spend doing specific tasks? Will you carry out marketing activities? Will you start your adventure with Facebook adverts? Or perhaps, do you want to invite influencers to cooperate?
When we speak of plan creation, don’t forget to set objectives!
Set objectives
Setting objectives will tell you how to measure your progress. One of objective-setting method is called SMART. This English acronym stands for:
- - Specific,
- - Measurable,
- - Achievable,
- - Realistic,
- - Time-bound.
This means that to identify your sales objectives effectively, you need to design them to be specific, measurable, achievable and time-bound relating to your assumed period.
Let’s assume your goal is to increase sales. To achieve it, develop it using the above model.
You want to earn PLN X a month (specific). This means you need to increase sales by 20% (measurable). To achieve it, you need to spend PLN Y on marketing, new products and live transmission (achievable and realistic).
Think what is missing in the above list.
Obviously, this is the time-bound aspect! It will be much easier to measure progress if you assume some deadline for achieving the intended effects.
Remember, however, that if you do not analyze your capabilities and resources carefully and you want to generate growth too soon, your objective will lose its achievable and realistic aspects! Depending on your existing results, you can plan to achieve the above objective in six months or a year. It is important, however, for your assumptions to be based on real data.
Start slowly
Rome was not built in a day. It might be some time before you come close to your dream stage. You might consider employment of some people to help you cope with the work. Start from analyzing your current revenue and statistics, make a marketing plan and get to know your customers. Build your business slowly but firmly – this will help you be successful in the long term! Analyze your funds on a regular basis. Look before you leap. Check your current revenues and expenses related to sales and marketing activities. Prevention is better than cure!
Use your strengths... and delegate the rest
Do you know what you are really good at and what is not your strength? To achieve better results, focus on your strengths (for example on your charismatic transmission hosting) and delegate the rest which will save you much time and stress.
PS. Do you know that you can delegate the less creative part of your sales-related work to our platform? Selmo allows you to automate such tasks as order collection, generation of invoices, receipts and courier labels and much more! Test Selmo today 7 days for free: selmo.io
Scale reasonably
Avoid excessive investments, in particular in the beginning. Start from some smaller ones and experiment. See what works before you spend large sums.
That’s true that a new iPhone or a mic will improve your transmission quality but do you really need it right now?
Avoid debts as well. The most important thing is to see your capabilities before you invest funds in your business. You develop it to earn, don’t you?
Keep statistics
We return to the subsection on objective setting using the SMART method. One of success factors is to measure your work results. Remember to keep your statistics on a regular basis to assess your progress easily.
In Selmo, you needn’t fill in any forms manually to follow your sales results. We’ll do it for you and present data on a dashboard which looks much friendlier than Excel.
Avoid burn-out
Enough is as good as a feast. Take care of your mental and physical health. Don’t let your work become all your life.
To keep on track and not to lose your motivation to achieve the intended goal, you must ensure that you don’t bust your hump. When you feel tired and don't feel like working, your customers will be quick to notice that (in particular during your transmission when you look sleepy), and your sales will suffer.
Talk to other sellers
Do you know the saying “two (or more) heads are better than one”? Use other sellers’ experience and learn how they coped with problems you are facing right now. To do it, you may join a Facebook group or look for advice in online forums. You can also contact them directly using Messenger or write an e-mail. Who knows, this might be the start of a sales-related friendship. ;) Don’t be afraid of other sellers. There are a lot of customers, and sellers’ experience may turn out priceless.
Learn from others’ mistakes instead of copying them!
Set a deadline
Appoint a deadline being the last day when the comprehensive analysis is carried out. Have you managed to achieve the set objectives? What was successful and what failed? What changes can you make? Or perhaps was the idea not successful and you need to choose a different strategy?
Remember: pivoting is not a failure. Some ideas work, but other don’t. This is not a reason to resign from your plans! This is a great opportunity to test different strategies and ideas!
Conclusions
Business development is a hard but exciting journey when you discover your capabilities anew. Don’t let small failures discourage you from further work. Remember that we are here to support you on the way! View our other posts where we shared valuable advice on Facebook sales: https://www.selmo.io/en/blog
Try Selmo free for 7 days and see that Facebook sales can be easy. Visit https://www.selmo.io/en and open your account today. Have good sales!
