218: Best Sales Processes for Selling Hardware Products

March 21, 2024

With Wesleyne Whittaker, CEO of Transformed Sales

Hosted by Kevin Mako, President of MAKO Design + Invent

218 Best Sales Processes for Selling Hardware Products — 218: Best Sales Processes for Selling Hardware Products

Wesleyne Whittaker is the CEO of Transformed Sales, an esteemed organization dedicated to architecting sales methodologies that foster rapid and maximal growth with an impressive track record of collaborations with over 150 distinguished manufacturers and product brands. Today, Wesleyne will share the extensive knowledge she has accumulated on developing and effectively employing uniquely tailored sales processes pivotal to inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. She will elucidate the three overarching phases of the sales process for selling hardware products – outlining the role as well as the salient components of each stage – and afford astute guidance on adeptly executing said process to proliferate sales, client trust and retention, and expansion opportunities for your hardware product business.

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

What is a sales process?
A step-by-step process from start to finish, from initially garnering interest in your product from a potential customer to closing a deal.
There are three core stages: Prospect, Nurture, and Close.
Prospect involves figuring out how to attract customers.
Nurture is all about taking someone who is interested in your product and transforming them into a buyer by educating them and instilling trust.
Close entails getting that pen to paper so you can then work on developing loyalty to turn that customer into a repeat customer.
Prospecting includes identifying who your customers are and what channels are best for reaching them.
Educating potential customers is an incredibly important part of prospecting!
The biggest challenge for hardware entrepreneurs is getting the abundance of knowledge they have acquired out of their heads to inform customers.
Have a variety of different pieces of information prepared for your customer so you can cater to their learning preference and disseminate it using a variety of mediums.
One of the biggest objections you come across when selling hardware products is price, which typically means you haven’t done a good enough job educating your prospective buyers on why your product is worth it.
It’s okay to lose a sale, but not in the same way twice.
For direct-to-consumer, in order to close, you have to think about what the minimum viable product is to get someone to purchase your product, then leverage that relationship to sell them better products over time.
Communicate the value of the product, how it solves a key problem, and the risk of not buying your product.
Try selling to people who have no solution, then focus your efforts on educating them.

Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to the above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves.

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