FIVE SECRETS to Growing Sales
One of the most common challenges small businesses face is the need for more customers and more profit. Without sales, you have no customers, and with no customers, you make no profit. If sales are something you struggle with in your business, you need to invest some time in understanding the sales cycle and fine-tuning your sales pitch.
Think about the marketing campaigns you are running now. You could be throwing away hundreds if not thousands of dollars per month out of your business if you’re not measuring what impact your campaign is having on sales.
One of the simplest things you can do to put money back on your bottom line is to stop doing stuff that doesn’t work, figure out what does and replicate it. Marketing budgets for small companies are already too tight, so you need to make every cent count.
1. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS
To get more customers, it’s vital to know where your current customers are coming from. Most business owners aren’t measuring the effectiveness of their current marketing (if they do any) and have no idea how their customers end up at their door.
One of the most powerful tools to improve your marketing and your sales is to ask your customers how they came across your business. Why did they choose you? This gives you the first piece of the marketing puzzle to be able to create a strategy that’ll get customers coming through your door.
2. LISTEN
Too often, we ask a question and then answer our own question before anyone else has a chance to say anything. We need to give our customers a chance to talk. The more they talk and the more you listen, the more valuable information they’ll share. Those insights are the key to really getting to know your customers and being able to exceed their expectations.
3. STAY IN CONTROL
If you’re meeting with a potential new customer, you want to stay in control of the sales conversation. You easily lose control when you’re no longer the one asking the questions. The key way to avoid this is to prepare properly. Research your new customer before you meet them so you can figure out how best to pitch to them. A good sales conversation is a balancing act between asking questions, staying in control and making sure you listen. One size hardly ever fits all.
4. DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR REPEAT CUSTOMERS
Customers often have a great initial sales experience, but they’re soon forgotten about as business owners focus on getting new business through the door. The most valuable people we can market to are those who’ve already had a great experience with us. Take a look at your current customer base and see if there are any customers who used to use your business regularly but don’t anymore. Take action to hook them back in and boost your sales with repeat business. It costs ten times as much to attract a new customer than retain an old one.
5. MAKE IT EASY
There’s nothing worse than wanting to make a purchase and then standing at an empty checkout. Even in the online world, customers are often left searching around for what they want to buy or for someone to ask a question. Make it easy for your customers to find you and make their purchase.
