How do you close deals? How do you close your first business deal and grow income year on year?
This article explores how entrepreneurs can diversify, create new revenue streams, and close business deals using my own companies as examples. I’ll also share tips for closing deals.
Selling More: Diversifying Your Offering To Increase Revenue
Diversifying your offering will help you close more business deals.
Step 1: Understand your value proposition.
• Self-Assessment:
Evaluate the unique value of your product or service and identify what distinguishes you from competitors.
• Pricing Strategy:
Establish a consistent pricing model that reflects your value. Be transparent about the benefits to your clients and maintain stable rates. Initially, you might accept varied projects, but as your brand grows, price your services to reflect your expertise and market position.
Step 2: Create passive income streams.
This can be achieved by investing time into making digital products that can be sold passively to generate recurring revenue for the company.
• Digital Product Development:
The right digital products will continue earning revenue passively, long after their initial launch. For example, if an e-book written in 10 hours generates $120,000 in its first year, it effectively pays $12,000 per hour of effort.
My own company’s “Start Your Business in 30 Days” program is a prime example, attracting thousands of enrollments and proving highly impactful to entrepreneurs. It becomes even more interesting when you can create multiple products tailored to the different needs of your clients, as my Entrepreneurs.ng team has done with our online shop.
• Building Online Channels:
Another consideration with creating digital products is that there must be an online channel to funnel traffic to those products. Again, my team has achieved this with Entrepreneurs.ng—it’s a platform tailored to early-stage entrepreneurs seeking valuable resources to scale their businesses.
If you regularly produce engaging online content, you can draw a global audience and establish your authority in the industry. This approach not only boosts sales on various platforms but also helps grow your revenue steadily through consistent marketing and solid value propositions.
Step 3: Diversify your offerings.
Another useful means of growing revenue as a business is to diversify your offerings within your industry, leveraging your skills and expertise to explore other areas in your field. You can start by offering complimentary services, like I do with ReDahlia, which prides itself on being a “one-stop shop” for entrepreneurs.
After launching ReDahlia Workspaces, I and my team set up a legal unit to help entrepreneurs with business registration and intellectual property. Our interactions with various entrepreneurs led to the creation of Entrepreneurs.ng, which offers guidance on starting and managing businesses. We also introduced Complify to assist with tax and regulatory compliance.
By integrating our services, we can offer multiple solutions to the same client. For example, a company that registers through our legal unit can also use ReDahlia’s co-working spaces and Complify compliance services, as well as promote their offerings on Entrepreneurs.ng.
What we’ve achieved with this suite of offerings is a model that meets entrepreneurs at various stages of their journey and remains relevant to businesses at different stages of growth. Check out our different services here.
Tips For Closing Deals
You can only stay in business and grow organically if you close business deals constantly. Since it’s a skill, the art of closing deals can be learned and mastered.
Follow these steps and you will close more business deals.
1. Be real.
I have witnessed many charlatans parading as entrepreneurs on social media and scamming people. Do not use unethical or sketchy practices to “trick” customers into buying your product or service, as not only will they never become repeat customers, but they will share their bad experience with others.
Build relationships with your customers by being kind, respectful, honest and professional.
2. Be confident.
You know your business and the value you are offering. The customer is talking to you because they believe you can deliver a service they cannot do themselves.
Being confident in your ability, product or service is great, but you must also find a way to communicate that to the customer in everything you do. This includes your proposals, emails and in-person meetings. Particularly during sales meetings with clients, take the initiative to close the deal, and do not wait passively for the client to offer it.
3. Be excited.
If you are not enthusiastic about your product or service, why should anyone else be? You want to get your potential clients excited about hiring you, and this starts by exciting them with your pitch and your proposal. Be boisterous, with a palpable and infectious positive attitude and energy during any meeting or telephone conversation.
4. Appearance is key.
Your attire and attitude make a huge difference, so dress professionally and appropriately to exude confidence. In my experience, perception is more important than people like to admit, and people are more inclined to work with someone they perceive to be successful.
Always remember: The customer buys into you and your personality first, before any other thing you are selling.
5. Grow from your failures.
While not every business deal will be a success, each offers a valuable learning opportunity. Review these experiences critically through introspection and root cause analysis.
Determine any clear reasons for the loss, such as cost issues, lack of sufficient information or inadequacies in your portfolio. Aim to obtain client feedback to identify any gaps in interpersonal or relationship-building skills, which will help prepare you for future engagements.
Experiencing a bid loss can be disheartening, especially after considerable effort and hard work. My team has faced setbacks like this, like when we lost a partnership bid with a major international brand. Despite the thoroughness of our proposal and the disappointment of losing, we continued to focus on daily value creation without dwelling on the setback.
Remember, you are in business to make revenue—and not just revenue, but profit and impact. Go and master how to close business deals.
This piece was first published on Forbes.com by Florence Chikezie.
How We Can Help You Register Your Business And Comply With Taxes Monthly
Send us a message on WhatsApp- 08188122223 or 08038874148 to help you with your business registration and tax compliance.
Our Essential Compliance Service Covers:
Initial Registration for VAT/TIN Certificate: Complete facilitation of your initial VAT/TIN registration process with FIRS and LIRS.
Initial Registration for PAYE, Business Premises, and Development Levy.
Monthly PAYE: Computation of PAYE deductible, remittance of PAYE, and filing of monthly returns.
Monthly VAT: Computation of VAT payable, remittance of VAT, and filing of monthly returns, taking cognizance of applicable tax laws.
Annual Business Premises and Development Levy Renewal
On-Demand Premium Services
Should your business require our ProMAX Compliance Service, which includes account preparation, auditing, and TCC filing, please contact us directly. This premium service is tailored to your specific needs and billed upon request.
Why Choose Our Compliance Services?
Peace of Mind: With our expertise, you can rest assured that your compliance needs are in capable hands.
Cost Efficiency: Save on potential non-compliance penalties with our cost-effective services.
Expert Guidance: Our seasoned professionals keep your business compliant amidst regulatory changes.
Get in touch today by clicking the Contact Us page or sending us a message on WhatsApp: 08038874148 or 08188122223.
How I Can Work with You to Start And Grow Your Business
If you want to work with me to start a profitable and sustainable business, then enrol in the Start Your Business in 30 Days Program. I will take you from idea to starting your business in 30 days. At the end of the program, you will get a registered business with CAC, logo and brand assets, admin set-up, one-on-one consulting sessions and more. Click here to enrol.
Every week, I teach practical business lessons that have helped thousands of entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. If you want to benefit from my teachings, click to sign up for the weekly business lesson here.
Promote your business to over 12,000 business owners who are subscribed to my newsletter by sponsoring my newsletter. Get in touch- Ebere@entrepreneurs.ng or 08038874148.
I am an internationally trained award-winning entrepreneur running three profitable businesses and a member of the prestigious Forbes Coaches Council. If you work to consult me about your business, book a session with me through our ‘Ask An Expert’ service here.
Also, I work with companies and established corporations to scale their impact and revenue. Reach us at Business@entrepreneurs.ng if you would like to transform your business.
See the different ways we can help increase your business success.
