Increasing sales is the fastest way to grow your business. You have any better idea?
We all want to start business and watch it grow quickly. There is no overnight success stories but increasing sales volume is the only way to get the balloon fly in the air. You need to reach your breakeven figure first and then increase your profits margins.
‘Make an outrageous claim. Get attention. And then put your ass down to prove your claim’
What are your plans? Are you going to hire more sales people? Are you going to launch promotional product campaigns? You going to offer exclusive discounts? These are all good ideas. But there is more to sales than what meets eyes.
Let’s see what it takes to have sales increased and profit margins rocketed.
Increase Sales: 9 Sales Techniques That Work
Strategy 1: Use Content Marketing
Ideally the trick is not to call the decision maker. The trick is to have the decision maker call you.
But that’s ‘ideally’. Back in time, when we had a product or service to sell, what did you do to get the word out? In Pakistan, we had TV, cable, newspapers, billboards, wall chalking and posters, pamphlets, cold calls, outside sales teams. Even today our local business owners use only these media for sales. Problem with this strategy is: they are costly.
A small business cannot afford going out with a TV ad. Even a classified on major newspapers costs. Pamphlets, handouts, roadside banners seem fine. But today we can do better. We have internet. People pay attention to what they see on internet. They discuss in their circles about what they hear from internet.
And here is the opportunity for you. As a business owner, you can use content marketing to market your business and have your potential customers reach you. Besides, there are some things that are hard to ignore:
- Pre-qualified leads – you can easily find out who will be interested in your product/services
- Lower marketing costs – unlike TV ads, cable ads, roadside banners, this is cost effective.
- Higher conversion rates – There are better chances of closing more deals. With word of mouth, sales can grow even more rapidly.
- Higher customer satisfaction – It’s easy to address customers’ concerns and entertain them accordingly.
If you don’t have website, have it done ASAP. Make social pages for your fans. Share your latest promotions there and ask people to give you feedback. Things might go slowly in early days, but when moving in the right direction, you will start feeling the difference.
Strategy 2: Use Upsells Effectively
Do upsells. How many times you have purchased a mobile screen protector because the guy asked you, ‘wouldn’t it be better if you have a screen protector for your new mobile. It will save it from scratches.’
Just last week, I purchased PS4 from a shop in market. I bargained for 30 minutes to save 500. Once I made the purchase, the boy asked me ‘would you like to have some games too for your new PS4’ and I said, show me. I bought 4 games that costed me half of PS4 price. I was upsold. J
Upsells are important to increase sales. Once people buy from you, they are already in their spending mode. It’s just you who are not realizing the opportunity. While doing online business, you need to figure out what product complements the other product and how to sell them in combo, or in discounts.
Strategy 3: Create a Product Which Has Demand
My friend used to say, a salesman is a person who sells air conditioners in December and gas heaters in June.
Customers are always in need of something. They are willing to buy things that they need or want. Real question is: do they need what you are selling?
This is a no brainer. Understand what your customer really wants. Is there some product already in the market that delivers the solution to your prospective customer? If not, provide it!!!
If there is already a product or a solution, try to think of a better way to satisfy the needs of the customer. This can be in the form of a better quality product. You can even bring about a twist in the actual offering to make your product more attractive.
Strategy 4: Clever Pricing Is the Key
We people like to do shopping comparisons. It’s in our genes. We bargain. We argue. We negotiate. And we like it.
When you have a wonderful product and you know that everybody needs it. The only thing between you and your customers is ‘pricing’. Remember, we are not talking about brands, big brands. We are talking about small startups who have tough competition. However, if you price it insanely high compared to your competitor, you are going to find it hard to make decent sales (unless you are Apple).
5 strategies to price your product
- Do market research and understand your competitor pricing. With this data in-hand, either develop a product with lot more features and charge more, or develop the same quality product and price it lower
- High price can provide a sense of “high quality” since people have a deep rooted notion that higher the price, better the quality. If you price high, be prepared to deliver what your customer expects to get
- Similar to point #2, a lower price can indicate inferior quality. The best way is to charge higher prices by providing more value to your customer
- Price of a product is directly proportional to “perceived value”. If you can make you product seem superior to your competitor, you can charge a premium over your competitor
- Price is again proportional to perceived brand value. If you have a brand value attached to your product, people will more readily pay a higher price for your products or service
Strategy 5: Run a Customer Reward Program
Run promotions. Give discounts. Offer rewards program. You don’t have to be extraordinary. You just need to be caring enough that customers feel delightful about being your customer.
There is no rocket science behind it. Initially it might look as a cut in profit margins, but you would see that your sales volume would also increase. That’s the beauty of these customer reward programs. You give discounts to one customers. You get more sales out of these discounts.
Strategy 6: Give Out Free Samples
When you are new, people will be doubtful about you, your product or your services. They wouldn’t want to be the first ones until or unless they are not losing or spending any money. In these cases, sometimes it is better to give customers a free demo or a sample so that they may try it and decide if you are good guy to do business with.
Strategy 7: Reach Out To Your Customers
Sales is not inbound. It’s not outbound either. It’s a balance between both. Always be ready to reach out to your customers and talk to them about your product or service. Give them something to chew. Offer them some discounts that you have for new customers.
Strategy 8: Business or Brand Name
Product names or brand names are important. They should be easy to remember and pronounce. In online scenario, it starts from domain name. Choose a good domain, make sure it’s short, memorable and easily readable.
Initially you may not see the importance, but later you will realize that this is one piece of work that you did handsomely.
Strategy 9: Quality is King
Finally, quality is king. Never, ever compromise on the quality of your product. If your customer loses the trust on your brand, your business will collapse like a pack of cards.
Some people tend to sacrifice the quality to prevent price hikes. But, if needed increase the price and serve the same quality rather than producing a low quality product. You can also choose to serve less quantity for the same price.
If you plan to stick around with your business for a very long time, any compromise on quality will never get you even remotely close to your goals.