We run a job board for content writers and we reached an initial traction from hiring companies. Companies posts ~7 paid/promoted job posts a month.
Currently we do zero sales or paid ads. All organic SEO, SoMe and newsletters. And majority of our huge audience (probably 99,5%+) are content writers.
What could be a an effective way to scale the job post sales? Cold outreach? Paid ads? Does anybody have relevant experience?
In my experience, the best way to scale sales once you've gained traction is to focus on the same thing you did to gain traction in the first place: listening to your customers.
It may seem like a no-brainer, but it's easy to get caught up in focusing on what you want—and that's not necessarily what your customers want.
Now that you're getting traction, though, your customers are more likely to be willing to tell you what they need from YOU. So instead of making assumptions about what they want (and potentially missing an opportunity!), start asking questions and listening closely.
This doesn't mean that everything they say will be right or even useful—just make sure you're taking a moment to consider their perspective before deciding which direction to take things in.
Good point! Should we send them an email some time after the initial sale trying to start a conversation, maybe get a feedback and even potential reoccurring sales?
Talking about paid ads, you could create a "lookalike audience" on Facebook if you have more than 100 emails/phones of companies that posted on your site.
Google also has "lookalike audiences".
The whole point behind lookalike audiences is that Facebook/Google will match those emails/phones to actual users and then attempt to find other users with similar characteristics. For example, if all your users are employers who own companies with 10+ employees, Facebook/Google will try to find similar people.
Have you found any good guides on how to set this up correctly on FB?
Awesome tip! Do you know if this is also possible with LinkedIn?
Start a newsletter
You need to focus on the following three areas:
Structuring your sales team and processes
Building a network of customers, partners, and influencers
Managing the sales funnel
Would you recommend outsourcing/hiring sales from very early stages or rather doing it first ourselves?
I think the key to scaling sales is to figure out how you can automate the process. If you're in a super-salesy industry, this can be quite difficult. If you're selling software or services, though, it's much easier to streamline your processes and set up systems that will help you sustain growth without having to add a ton of additional resources.
I would recommend looking at how other companies have scaled their sales teams, and then look at what they did differently from you that made them successful. Then experiment with some of those ideas in your own business!
Thanks! Do you have any tips from your experience how to start a very early sales team or outsource sales?
Once you have gained traction, scaling sales can be tricky. One important thing to remember is that you will need to continue doing what got you to this point in the first place, but in a more effective way. For example:
-You might have started by targeting one industry and expanding from there. Now that you are established, it's time to expand your reach and target others.
-You may have gotten customers through word of mouth at first. Now that you have some money behind you, it's time to invest in targeted advertising campaigns that will get the attention of potential clients who are looking for what you offer.
-You may have been hesitant about hiring new employees at first because they were expensive investments at a time when profits were low or nonexistent. Now that there is more money flowing into your business, it makes sense to hire more people so that work can be done faster and better than before.
Good tips! Thanks.
The best way to scale sales once you've gained traction is to focus on the customer experience.
If you're just starting out, it's all about getting your product into as many hands as possible. But once you've gotten a foothold in the industry and established yourself as a leader, it's time to refocus on the customer experience.
If your sales process is too long or too complicated, customers will get frustrated and move on. You want them to feel like they can rely on you for help when they need it—and that means having a streamlined process that makes it easy for them to contact your company if they have questions or concerns.
I think there is quite a gap between "starting out" and being "established as an industry leader". At least in our case. We could keep improving customer experience at this point, but I think in our case we just don't get enough leads of this particular audience, while our other audience is thriving.
One thing as worked really well for the WBE Space. Using the current members to get new ones! You can ask them to recommend other peeps that might be interested.
In this podcast episode I explain a bit more in detailed how to achieve this
Thanks Tiago! Member advocacy is definitely an interesting path to explore. I think this could work with our writer members. However, with companies it's more transactional at the moment, we don't have them as members, they just come and post a paid job as they need to.
maybe you can give them a discount if they send you 3 other potential buyers
I might be wrong, but I think companies posting paid jobs don't have time and interest to get discounts. What we noticed they are not very price sensitive. If they are looking for the best writer they will pay.
This affiliate strategy might work better for the writer audience.
Maybe write articles targeting companies that need copywriting.
As of 2022-11-02 the "post a job" button link redirects incorrectly on https://bestwriting.com/jobs. I sent you an email about it.
My answer to this question is that you need to be able to scale your sales once you've gained traction.
I believe you can build a business on the strength of one person's personal charisma alone, but that's not ideal. If you want to grow, and grow quickly, it's necessary to have a system in place that allows you to scale your sales efforts.
The best way to do this is by creating a great product that solves a problem for customers—and then making sure the entire team understands how important it is for them to understand the customer and their needs. This will allow everyone in your organization to focus on bringing in new customers rather than just getting people through the door.
Once you have this foundation in place, it's time to figure out how exactly you'll scale your sales efforts. There are several options here: hiring more people; using automation tools like email automation software; using social media advertising; or simply making sure that everyone who works for you has access to great marketing materials so they can communicate with customers on their own time as well as yours!
I think that once you've gained traction in your sales, you need to focus on scaling your sales team.
When you're just starting out and trying to gain traction, it's important to focus on building a small team that can handle the workload and help you meet your goals. Once that happens, it's time to start looking at ways of increasing the number of people on your team so that your reach can expand.
One way of accomplishing this is through outsourcing roles that do not require high levels of expertise. For example, if you need someone to answer phones or take down orders, you can hire someone off an online job board who has experience answering phones or taking orders at another company. This person may not have high-level sales skills but they will be able to do these tasks well enough for them not to be a liability for your business.
Another option is hiring full-time employees who are willing to work remotely from home offices or coffee shops rather than office space. This allows companies like yours more flexibility when it comes time for hiring and firing because there are no expensive real estate costs involved with setting up an office space just for one employee (or even multiple employees).
Thanks for the advice!
In our case we are really just starting out. Would you recommend starting with maybe one sales person part time? Also what about regular sales compared to affiliate/performance-based sales?
Once you have gained traction, you can scale your sales by making sure that you have the right processes in place to support your growth.
In most cases, this means that you need to make sure that your team is equipped with all of the tools they need to accomplish their goals. This includes things like having a CRM system set up and using it effectively so that everyone has access to the same information at any given time.
It also means that you need to make sure your team is trained on how to use these tools. It's important for everyone on your team to be as educated about each piece of technology as possible so that they can use it effectively throughout every stage of the sales process from beginning to end.
We don't yet have a sales team. We are interested in scaling sales a bit more without yet having a sales team. At least not internally. Maybe we should use some outsourced sales service? 🤔
Always start with cold outreach. It's simple (not easy) to get going and can ramp to scale with your business.
Let me know if you need help to get started.
I wrote a post about getting started: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/story-how-to-make-your-first-sales-23867fad6a
Thanks! It's something new for us and we have to learn. Thanks for the link!
You’re welcome 😇
Hey :)
I think cold outreach could be effective. Make sure to identify the ICP, reach out to the decision maker and sell bulk packages.
I'd also try to double or triple down on what already works to drive leads (for example for SEO, creating different landing pages, comparison pages, bottom of the funnel content like "Best job boards for SEO / Content, ...",
On another note - I could potentially be interested in a sponsorship slot (if you sell these) for our product ManyRequests (lots of content writing agencies use us!) -- Do you know where I can reach out to you guys?
Hi Robin! Yes we were thinking about cold outreach via emails or LinkedIn. We both never done direct sales, so we suck at it and not sure how to start :D It's something to explore more and talk with hiring managers on LinkedIn.
More content/landing pages focused on hiring companies is also a great idea. Something we talked about and plan to do. And comparison pages!
What about paid ads, do you have any experience with those on LinkedIn or Google?
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Dropped you a quick email regarding sponsorships!
I've been in sales for years, and I've seen a lot of companies grow. There's a point where you start to get traction, and you need to figure out how to scale your sales efforts. There are a few different ways you can do this.
The first is by hiring more salespeople. This is great if you have the money and resources available to hire more people—but it also has some downsides. For example, it's expensive and time-consuming: it takes time to screen candidates, interview them, schedule training sessions, etc., so this has a negative effect on both profit margins and customer service levels.
The second option is to create an automated system that can scale the sales process for you. By automating the process instead of having humans doing it manually all day long (which might be pricey), you can save on costs and increase efficiency dramatically!
Once your sales start to gain traction, it's time to think about scaling.
But what does that mean?
Scaling can be a daunting task, but when you're able to do it well, the rewards are great.
One way to scale sales is by identifying what works for your company and doing more of it. If you're selling a product and people respond well to one type of advertisement, then you should try more of those types of advertisements to see if they improve your results even further.
Another way to scale sales is by expanding your reach. If you've been selling in one region and want to expand into another region, this will require some market research and planning on how best to introduce your products into that new market. Once established there, then you'll need tools like CRM software or customer support software so that customers can get the help they need when they need it.
When you have gained traction, it is important to scale your sales. You need to make sure that you are getting the most out of your sales team and that they are able to grow at the same rate as your products.
You need to make sure that you have the right people in place who can help you with this growth. It is important to have someone who has experience in scaling up a business and who can help make sure you don't miss anything important during this process.