Seven Ways To Boost Your Small Business' Sales

May 30, 2019

Money holds a lot of power, especially where the business world is concerned. It’s the fuel that keeps your dreams alive and your venture up and running. Unless you have enough money, you won’t be able to pay overheads, which could cause your company to crumble. This means that, when sales begin to drop, and you find yourself low in funds, it can be quite stressful. All businesses face these slow periods, but that doesn’t mean that you’re helpless. No matter your budget, there is always something that you can do to boost sales. Here are seven clever ideas.

Build Better Customer Relationships

The customers that you currently have are one of your very best resources for increasing revenue. After all, it’s much easier to sell to someone already familiar with your business than it is to someone new. Customers like to know that you care about them, rather than just the money that they can give you, so you should work on nurturing customer relationships. Responding to queries quickly, offering discounts, and personalizing the shopping experience all help with this.

Establish An Indirect Channel

When you don’t already have loyal customers that you can turn to, tapping into an existing customer base can be beneficial. With that in mind, you should consider establishing an indirect sales channel and working with resellers. This is usually a very cost-efficient option, although you will need to look into MDF and the cost of vendor marketing. By using the recognition of other brands, you can reach many more customers, which, in turn, results in a higher number of sales.

Pick The Right Price

There are a number of factors that affect whether or not we choose to buy something, but one of the most important is definitely the price. A product could be the best in the world, but, if the price isn’t right, then no one will buy it. For this reason, you must ensure that your costs match up to the budgets of your target customers. You can do this by conducting market research. That being said, you shouldn’t undersell your products, as this will cause many problems too.

Run A Special Promotion

When consumers are on the fence about whether or not to buy from you, one of the best ways to convert them to customers is to run a promotion. Putting a time limit on your offers creates a sense of urgency, making it more likely that sales will be made now, rather than later. Just make sure that you don’t discount your products by too much. This also is underselling and means that you’ll struggle to generate a large enough profit, despite how many more sales you are making.

Ask For Customer Referrals

Customers trust other customers much more than they ever will you. This means that, if a customer is saying how great your products are, others a likely to listen. Because of this, you should ask your customers to leave a review every time they shop with you. They can post these reviews online, and you can use them in marketing materials. You should also ask that they refer you to their friends. Some businesses provide incentives to motivate customers to do this.

Turn To Social Media

The whole world is on social media these days, making it an invaluable tool for businesses. Whether you want to answer customer queries, collect consumer feedback, or promote a new product, you can do it all on Facebook, Twitter, and all other platforms. Social media also allows you to post behind-the-scenes content on your business, illustrating how it works and introducing those behind it. This adds a personal touch, which many consumers will appreciate.

Learn From The Competition

Most business owners view competition as the enemy, but it can actually be incredibly helpful. Rather than ignoring the successes of competing companies, you should look for what caused them. This can provide you with ideas on ways to improve your own business. You shouldn’t copy these ideas, of course, but you can take inspiration from them. You can also look at businesses that aren’t doing very good, to ensure that you don’t make their mistakes.

You should never launch a business for financial gain alone, but that doesn’t change the fact that your venture does need to make money. If it doesn’t, after all, it won’t cover your overheads. Boosting sales can be difficult, but, hopefully, the tips above make the challenge a little easier.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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