Five Successful Techniques for Generating Increased Sales
By Bob Hooey, Author, “Creating Time to Sell, Lead or Manage”
Funny thing, as selling professionals we need to consistently improve on our sales success. There is no static in selling! We need to be working on gaining new customers, repeat business and of course referrals just to keep current, let alone move up to the next level. Let’s explore five field-proven success techniques you can use to generate an increase in your sales. You’ll find them simple to use, and effective for building any business.
Adding Something New to ‘The Mix’
Every time you add something new to your business, products or service mix
you create another new opportunity to get more sales. For example, something
as simple as adding new information on your web site creates another selling
opportunity when prospects and customers visit your site to access or view
the new information. When was the last time you updated your web pages and
changed the dates?
Adding a new product or service to the list of those you already offer
usually produces a big increase in sales. The added service or product can
increase your sales opportunities in three different ways:
- It attracts ‘new’ customers who were not ‘initially’ interested in your current products and services It generates repeat sales from ‘existing’ customers who also want to have your new product or services
- It enables you to get ‘bigger’ sales by combining 2 or more items into
special package or bundle offers
Look for ways you can be a trusted resource for your prospects and customers. Supply them with relevant, free information on how to do something more effectively, enhance their business, or save money. Be able to refer them to allied professionals who can help them in areas you don’t cover or provide. You get another opportunity to sell something every time they come back to you for help. This enhances your credibility and builds a trust relationship. For example, with our ‘Secret Selling Tips’ we recently added a weekly ‘Motivational Sales Quotes’ service.
Separate Yourself from Your Competition
Find or create a reason for customers to do business with you instead of with someone else offering the same or similar products or services. What makes you ‘unique?’ For example, do you provide faster results, easier procedures, personal attention or a better guarantee?
Determine the unique sales proposition (USP) or advantage you offer to customers that your competitors do not offer. Promote that advantage/benefit in all of your advertising. Give your prospects valid reasons to do business with you instead of with your competition, and you’ll automatically get more sales.
Focus and Promote the End Result
Your customers don’t really want your product or service. They want the benefit produced by using it. They don’t really care about your background, your services or even your products. What they ‘really’ care about are the ‘results’ they get from using you instead of someone else.
For example, car buyers want convenient transportation with a certain image. Business opportunity seekers want personal and financial freedom for themselves and their family. Sales managers want successful programs that will help equip and motivate their sales teams to be more profitable in the selling game.
Make sure your web pages, sales letters, other sales materials or media are promoting the end result or true customer benefits your customers really want and need.
Anticipate and Prepare for Change
Change is the biggest challenge to your sales or business success. The days are history when a business could constantly grow by simply repeating what it did successfully in the past...or even recently. Aggressive, innovative, global competitors and rapidly changing technology make staying with the status quo impossible if you want to survive.
Think about some larger well-known firms that are in trouble or have gone out of business. In the majority of cases, their ‘failure’ was primarily due to ignoring changes in technology, customer needs, competition and changes in the market or other factors that might have been incorporated into their working environment. If they’d been awake, and willing to change, they might still be profitable. Now they are dead or near dead!
Expect change and actively prepare for it. Don’t wait until your income declines to take action. Develop the habit of looking for early warning signs that something is changing. Then confront it aggressively before you start to lose customers.
Hint: Insure yourself against the impact of change by increasing the number of complementary products and services you offer, and by using a variety of different marketing methods. Only a small portion of your total business will be affected, if the sales of one product fall off or the response to one marketing method declines. Always be adjusting what you do to be more effective in finding and keeping your customers.
How Many of These Five Field-Proven Techniques Have You Overlooked or Ignored? How Many of These Are Currently Being Used in Your Selling or Business Strategies?
Hopefully some of these techniques and success tips will serve as reminders or refreshers. Start using them today and you’ll see an immediate increase in your sales and your business will grow and be here in the future.
Bob Hooey’s “Ideas At Work!” have been successfully applied by thousands of sales leaders and selling professionals across North America. He is the prolific author of 10 books, including “Creating Time to Sell, Lead or Manage” and his articles appear in North American consumer, on-line and trade journals. Bob is also the creator of ‘Secret Selling Tips’ to help equip and motivate sales professionals to grow and succeed in the selling game. For article feedback, contact Bob at bob@secretsellingtips.com
