Sagging sales are frustrating. Life can be injected into them by simply following the Ten Sales Booster Strategic Plan as outlined below.
In a time like this, when the whole world is experiencing economic hardship, it is not surprising that you are losing your edge. Most of your products and services are attracting less attention from people. Fewer customers come in. What then can you do to boost sales? I have come up with the following to help ease out the trouble on your side and boost up your sales again.
1. Consider Making a Change. Change the way your place of business looks and feels. Display your products in a creative way. Repaint the walls. Move the shelves. Redesign your website and make it look better. Make small changes on a monthly basis, and other changes - for example, attractive displays - according to the season. Bigger changes such as remodeling your facilities can be done every few years because they cost more. The key is that changes, however small or big, will attract attention and possible new customers.
2. Check Your Stock. What kinds of titles do you have? Poor titles make poor sales. Build your business on good sellers that fit your mission and market, are well-crafted, well-designed, and priced right. They may sell slowly, but they bring in revenue year after year.
3. Know Your Customers. Who buys your products? Is it parents buying for their children? Is it pastors? The urban middle class? Youth? Market research can take many forms. Some are more elaborate but also more expensive. Others are simple, costing virtually nothing. You will serve your customers better if you know who they are and try to communicate with them. Online business executives can join forum online forums to know what people talk about. Give your website a new look, attach a form for your visitors to fill for onward contact.
4. Boost Your Staff. When things are not going well, check the work of your staff. Do they make customers feel welcome? Do they go out of their way to make customers happy? Do they love your products/services? Do they have selling skills and talent? Have they ever been to a short course or workshop on marketing strategies? Give your staff a boost.
5. Get Involved With The Community. Identify a concern that you are able to address. Perhaps you can team up with educators to promote your products/services in local areas or join some hosts of Internet communities. Whatever community activity you undertake, it should increase the exposure and appreciation of your company and its products.
6. Say "Yes" To Your Company Vision. Improve your social relations. Take a survey of the organizations and some key individuals in your area. Design a strategy. Plan some visits with the people in this group – especially their leaders. Show them samples of your stock. Invite them to your premises. Offer help. Look at these organizations and individuals as a key channel to potential customers. Getting into these organizations and winning over these individuals will give you a unique chance to show what you have to offer.
7. Go Mobile. If customers are not coming to you, go to them. A man I knew had more sales on crowded trains than many stationery sellers did on a regular basis. Sell your products/services at Churches, at conferences, on the streets. While this strategy will give a boost to your sales, it requires closer administration. There are many details: Getting the appropriate licenses, recruiting salespeople, and developing an accounting system. Online marketers can as well learn to drive more visitors to their sites - having more visitors means that 5 out of 20 visitors may become your customer.
8. Make the Headlines. Print and electronic media are often looking for new and unusual items that will attract their audience. Invite a celebrity or a political figure to say something about the value of your products. Get a popular marketer to speak on a theme of interest to the media. Newspaper, radio, and television personnel are generally willing to cooperate with people doing something good. Advertise your website by creating links to other popular sites.
9. Start a Newsletter. Improve communication with your customers. Announce new products/services. Publish comments from influential figures and from customers. Describe how you are improving your services. Include human interest stories. Keep your overall expenses to a minimum.
10. Give Choices To Your Customers. I remember two marketers who displayed a limited number of products. The first had a wide variety of books covering national politics, regional economics, Christian living and Computer Softwares, while the other displayed music and entertainment products. The latter was always crowded with enthusiastic customers while the former was virtually empty, and from what I gathered, the former was forced to close down. Declining sales indicate that something is running low in the life of your company. You need some boosters.
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