Your sales model serves as the backbone for your business. It’s how your business makes money, which means figuring out your sales model isn’t something to take lightly. You need to make sure you find a sales model that fits the products your business offers and gives you the best chances of success. With all the different sales models out there, this can be tough to do. To help you choose, here are four of the most popular sales models businesses currently use.
Launching a Marketplace
In the marketplace model, your business is connecting buyers and sellers for a cut of every transaction. The obvious benefit here is that your business is simply a facilitator and doesn’t need to provide products. This doesn’t make it easy, though, as you still need to bring in sellers and customers, and you’ll likely need to settle the occasional dispute.
Perhaps the biggest example of this business model is eBay, which provides a marketplace for people to sell and buy whatever goods they want. To be successful with this model, you may want to focus on a specific niche. For example, the site Grailed is a marketplace solely for men’s clothing. Although it’s nowhere near as big as eBay, it succeeds because it often has a greater selection than eBay in that single area.
Providing a Subscription Service
With the subscription model, you’re providing something that the customer needs on a consistent basis. You charge the customer at certain predetermined intervals of time, such as monthly or every six weeks, and deliver the product or service on the same timeframe.
This business model is great for building a steady stream of income, and some businesses have road it to massive success. Netflix is one example that took a simple enough idea and built an empire from it. For physical products, there are all kinds of wine of the month and gift basket of the month services.
Direct Selling
Direct selling works exactly as the name suggests. You build a sales team for your business, and then they sell directly to customers. In many direct sales companies, salespeople reach out to their personal networks first, although the most successful salespeople will be those who know how to market and connect with new customers.
Avon is one of the biggest names in direct sales, although there have been many companies to use this model successfully. You benefit because you simply need to supply a quality product and let your sales team handle the rest, although it’s important to choose good salespeople who know what they’re doing and can represent your company professionally. Unfortunately, direct sales is often misunderstood, resulting in things like the supposed ACN scam. If you plan on following this model be prepared to inform people who don’t fully understand.
Going Freemium
The freemium model is the perfect way to show potential customers what you have to offer before they commit to a purchase. You offer a product or service to them free of charge, and then also include the option to upgrade and get more features by paying a fee.
This type of sales model is popular among dating apps and websites. For example, with the dating app Tinder, you can use it for free, but if you want certain features, such as unlimited swiping to find more matches, you’ll need to pay a monthly fee to upgrade to Tinder Plus. Of course, there are ways you can adapt just about any business to this model.
Check out the sales models above to see which might be right for your business. Remember also that you can combine multiple sales models instead of sticking with one.
Author´s Bio: This is a guest post by Kara Masterson, a freelance writer from Utah. She enjoys Tennis and spending time with her family.
