We’re always looking for new ways to increase sales. Here are three simple tactics to improve your bottom line.
1. Decrease the internal busywork for your sales staff.
Don’t bog your sales staff down with unnecessary meetings, reports, etc. The more time they spend talking to you or their direct supervisor, the less time they have to spend selling.
To cut down the busywork, you can decrease the number of meetings and reports required. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, you can find new software that will produce the reports you’re wanting. This should increase productivity, making your staff more efficient because they have the right tools.
The classic adage here is, “Work smarter, not harder.”
2. Have your sales staff position the product or service you’re selling as a verb rather than a noun.
Geoffrey James provides this example: “Suppose your company makes glue. If you’re selling “glue” (a noun), you’ll talk about product features. If you’re selling “gluing” (a verb), you’ll talk what your offering does for your customer’s business.”
This is a good way to look at things. People always want to know what you’re going to do for them. They don’t care about the features of a product or service. They want to know how using the product or service will make their life better or easier.
3. Look for ways to upsell within your current customer base.
There are various ways to increase the revenue coming from your current customers. One way to do this is to give them the inside scoop on upcoming sales or product launches through phone calls and emails.
Susan Ward from About.com relayed one of her buying experiences when this happened.
“Recently I was shopping at a retail housewares store. I had picked out an item and was mulling over whether to buy it or not when a salesperson came up to me and said, ‘I see you’re interested in that blender. We’re having a sale next week and all our blenders will be 20 percent off. You might want to come back then.’ Guess what? I did – and bought two other items as well.”
The employee showed Susan that he or she cared about saving her money, which increased Susan’s motivation to purchase products from that store. In the future, she’ll likely remember how well she was treated there and return to buy more goods.
You can also set up a customer rewards program. This could be as simple as punch cards (buy five products, get the sixth free) or you can create a tiered program where the more they buy in a certain time period, the higher discounts they receive.
You can also create a two-week sale that’s exclusively for your current customers. Restricted sales like this send the message that you care about them and want them to benefit from the relationship they’ve already created for you.
What are easy ways that you’ve increased sales?