Sales are the lifeblood of every business and most small business are struggling and looking for ways to increase their sales in a highly competitive business space. We are going to be looking at steps, ways and strategies a small business can adopt to increase their sales.
Introduce New Products or Services
To increase sales for your small business you may have to introduce new products or service to cater for varying customer’s needs and preferences. This also gives them more options to choose from and can significantly increase sales.
You can also have varying packages and product offerings for the customers or prospects to actually choose from and buy from you rather than your competitors. Introducing a new product or service often attracts new customers and lead to a boost in sales especially during the first days of launching.
Reduce Your Price
One easy way of increasing sales is by reducing your price and beating your competitor’s price as it tends to increase demand for your products or services but this must be done with extra caution. Reducing your price might end up eating into your profit margins and can end up backfiring for the business and can end up making losses.
Price has to be well-thought and set as it often affects your perceived value of what you are selling. It is important that you set the right price for what you are selling by factoring in your costs, mark-up and also what your competitors are charging without necessarily trying to be lower but by selling value you can still make more sales.
Offer Discounts
Offering discounts help increase sales by attracting customers which in turn result in increased sales. Discounts not only act in acquiring new customers but can help in retaining repeat and loyal customers which in turn also lead to better brand loyalty that can also lead to increased sales in the future too.
Discounts also help in increasing sales quickly as they are often limited in time and customers often want to benefit from them and save money hence they purchase sooner.
Streamline Your Marketing Strategy
Marketing drives sales and it is important that the marketing strategies for your small business is streamlined to meet the business sales strategy and goals.
The marketing must essentially address the core needs or pain points of the customers through the sales process by following the critical processes of being able to connect, convince and collaborate.
All your marketing activities for example social media, SEO, SEM, advertising, content marketing must be working towards increasing the sales of the business.
Invest in Customer Service
Customer service when done right can significantly help in increasing the business’s sales. This is achieved by gathering feedback on the products and processes, upselling other services and products, help in answering FAQ, predicting product trends, reducing the customer’s effort, etc.
Your customer service team is usually the first contact with your customers hence they should leave lasting impressions on the customers which should make them considering making a sale or be repeat customers.
The customer sales team must be well trained, friendly, responsive, knowledgeable, well cultured and mannered.
Offer a Unique Value Proposition
Your unique value proposition is a concise and clear statement that communicates the unique benefit or advantage that your products or services offer to its customers.
A good example of a powerful unique value proposition is that of Canva which goes like “Empowering the world to design”
Such statements can help make more sales by setting the business from the rest of the competition.
Your unique value proposition basically communicates value and why the customers should buy from you or choose your brand. It should basically be relevant focusing on how the products or services solve the customers’ problems or make their lives better.
Focus On Repeat and Existing Customers
The costs of acquiring a new customer is often higher than focusing on repeat or existing customers. Of course no any business can grow without new customers but it is often cheaper and easier to retain existing customers.
You can get more repeat customers by offering incentives, discounts and promotions to existing and repeat customers. It is also important to act on customer feedback and focus on customer service if you are to retain repeat and existing customers.
Build a Community
Building a community around your business can be one effective marketing strategy that can set you apart of your competition and eventually lead to more and consistent sales.
It helps you build and establish real connections and show that you care and passionate about your business. The community should be one that your customers find value in and would want to be part of. With a community you can also leverage and source user generated content which is often more trusted and can help drive more leads and sales.
