Adventures in Business and CRM

       A big sentiment that rings true at the beginning of every New Year is developing and keeping goals, while taking the baby steps needed to actually make these things happen. Whether it’s personal or professional, every goal has a great impact on our lives…only if it is kept.  By not keeping goals, we are essentially accepting how things currently are, and are destined to remain stagnant in whatever category of our lives that we set that particular goal in. By trying to take on too many goals, we tend to overwhelm ourselves, and end up dropping all of the goals out of sheer frustration.

     As a business owner, I’ve learned that goals are better kept when they are dissected into bite-sized achievements. This method is very similar to David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” concept, except it is a bit re-focused on goals rather than smaller tasks.  The following information will help you achieve more sales in only 5 days, with a bit of time and dedication, of course. (Hey, no one said increasing sales would necessarily take no effort)

How does one achieve more sales? Breaking it down into manageable portions helps immensely, especially if you are a smaller business that’s working with less help and less hands to dictate tasks to. However, if you do happen to have a staff, you can really intensify your sales initiatives based on this 5-day goal list.

      Because it is now Monday, you have the rest of the week to figure out how to apply these small goals to your business during the following 5 business days. What better what to start out the New Year than with a solid game plan to achieve more sales?

A How-To Approach – 5 Days to Increasing Your Sales

• Day One: Rebrand Your Marketing Efforts. If you have old sales materials that you were using last year, toss them out initiate a complete re-design. Perhaps there are some new points that you need to drive home in this tough economy? If you sell cars, focus on those gas-efficient or hybrid models in your new campaign. The goal is to improve your Marketing message for the current climate in your industry. If need be, do some research. You may think you have it all figured out, but will end up being surprised at what you find. Figure out what is making your consumer tick…and go with it.  Dust off your business cards and ask yourself how they make you want to do business with yourself. On the Internet side, if you’ve established online marketing campaigns with designed or visual content, do some analyzing and figure out which concepts were most popular with your consumer. Hopefully you’ve installed some type of analytics, and email marketing campaign tracking management. Take that old email Newsletter and give it a more modern feel and a fresh layout that really gives the reader a call to action.
• Day Two:  Work on Building Your Credibility: If you have past clients who loved working with you, now is the time to contact them and see how they’re doing. Ask if they’d be willing to write Yahoo/Google reviews or site testimonials on their experiences with your product or service. Tap into those Social media networks such as LinkedIn, Myspace, and Twitter to request that past clients or customers to tell about their experiences with you. Building your brand’s credibility online and offline is the key to better conversions from the choosiest shoppers.  It’s proven that people buy from those they know and trust.  Place testimonials in marketing materials, along with real names and real web address or photos if available.
• Day Three:  Evaluate Your Sales Methods: If it wasn’t working last year, it’s not going to work this year. I hate to be so blunt, but it’s very true. If your sales team is using the same method of gaining leads with small conversion rates, perhaps there’s a better way to go about the sale. Processes that may have worked for you a few years ago may no longer be pulling in the satisfactory results that they were rendering before. Being flexible is a critical factor in increasing sales. Flexibility as a business includes learning to sell in a manner that gets people to buy at certain times. In a harsh economy, people are obviously harder to sell to than in better economical times. In other aspects, they may be more easily sold to if it has to do with saving money, gaining wealth, being happier, or some other type of security-based sell.  Like the waves moving in an ocean, you don’t move against them… you move with them. The same holds true for what’s happening around you and your business. Pay attention and change your strategy accordingly.
• Day Four: Create a Community Around Your Brand: Have you ever fantasized about a day when your brand or product had a whole set of rabid and avid users and fans? This product “evangelist” mentality runs thick in our culture today, and you too can own a brand that is commonly talked about in a positive manner. If you don’t see a reason that your brand could ever have this type of following, then perhaps it’s time to reavaluate your product/service offerings. Getting people to tell others about your product or service is the most effective and cost-efficient way to advertise. Getting a positive review along with a bit of ‘human interaction marketing’ is 10x more likely to render a solid sale, and a returning customer than traditional methods of marketing alone. Ways to create such communities could be installing a message board or support forum on your site, being active in social media, and taking a proactive approach to putting someone out there to interact with the public and the media on behalf of your company and your brand. Remember that this includes support, and essentially standing behind your product or service out there on the front lines.
• Day Five: Create Loyal Customers by Making their Experience a Memorable One: This is probably one of the most important goals of all. Your existing shoppers are the ones who have already deemed you worthy of their patronage, and already have some form of trust in your business. The key to a successful customer experience should be that it has been a memorable one on their end. Sending out a standard “Thank-You” email to everyone is just the start. With so many people vying for their business, now is the time to really show them why they chose you in the first place. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box on this one. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What can you do to get your customers to tell their friends about what happens when you purchase something from your company?

2. What can you do to elicit that much-needed conversation and friend-to-friend endorsement?

               The goal here is to really “wow” your customer sometime during or after the sales process. This doesn’t always mean it has to cost you a lot of money. Have you ever been to Cold Stone for Ice Cream? Have you ever decided to put a tip in the jar? If so, then you’ll know that all of the people (usually high-school aged girls) working behind the counter break into one of the cheesiest, but amusing songs. And that happens every time someone drops something into the tip jar. 

          I know a realtor in my area who helps families purchase their dream homes. She is really great at what she does, and based on that… it should be enough to keep her in business. However, she takes it a step further when herself and her husband (a verrry talented chef) come into the family’s new home (that she’s helped them purchase) and makes them a world-class dinner, along with entertainment and all. They are well-known in the area, and the dinner is the perfect opportunity to befriend their now former clients and obtain that “word-of-mouth” status. They keep contact with all of their former clients and invite them to dinner, gatherings, and summer BBQ’s to make friends, and to network.

      How can your business take it a step further for the New Year?

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