Whether you're a new business owner or a seasoned veteran, one of the most important things you can do for your company is to set goals for growth.
However, it's not enough to just quickly list out what you want to accomplish. You also have to determine ways to get there. Experts recommend setting SMART goals to help set you up for success.
Regardless of your industry, one of your SMART goals will surely be related to finding new ways to increase sales this year.
Well, we're here to help give you a jump start on your progress to sell smarter!
Keep reading to learn about the best tips for increasing sales so you can make more money and grow your business this year and beyond.
1. Revisit Your Current Sales Process
Even if you are generating decent sales currently, it's a good idea to revisit your sales process and see if there's room for improvement.
That's not to say that you should abandon what's working; just re-evaluate to see if there's anything that you could do better.
For example, is there any new online software that could help you with prospecting? Are you using your CRM to the best of your abilities? What's your follow-up process like?
By evaluating what you're currently doing, it'll be easier for you to decide what's working and what you should tweak going forward. And remember, your sales process should continue to evolve, so conduct this "audit" of sorts once a year, at a minimum.
2. Incorporate a New Pricing Strategy
No matter what you sell, your prospects have a set idea in their mind of what it should cost. The problem is, if their expectation doesn't meet reality, you'll have a hard time converting those prospects to customers.
And, the hard truth is that prospects often underestimate costs. So, how can you help them to prepare for the true cost of your product? Incorporate a strategy called price conditioning.
This means you set realistic pricing expectations for your customers from the get-go. By knowing how to use price conditioning, you'll help prevent the feeling of "sticker shock" and weed out unqualified prospects in the process.
3. Explore New Marketing Methods
As a business owner, it's easy to push marketing to the back burner, especially when sales are good. But what happens when the sales funnel dries up? You'll be wishing you had spent more time on marketing back when business was booming.
Start by evaluating your current marketing methods. Are you relying primarily on word-of-mouth referrals or are you actively spreading the word about your business through ads and various campaigns?
Depending on your industry, it could be worth exploring some newer digital marketing strategies, like influencer marketing.
You should also consider running digital ad campaigns, either through Google, Bing, Facebook, and/or Instagram.
You might be surprised by how quickly trying new strategies can lead to increased sales.
4. Show How You Solve Your Audience's Pain Points
You know what your target audience's pain points are and you know how your product or service solves them. But, is the solution clear to your target audience?
Go out of your way to prove to potential customers how you can help them solve their problems. One of the best ways to do this is to display before and after stories on your website.
For example, if you're a bathroom renovation company, there should be a section of your website dedicated to showing high-quality before and after pictures of your projects.
But even if you don't have a visual product or service, you can still use this strategy. If you're a software company, incorporate charts that show data about how your customer's business improved after using your product.
Prospects like seeing tangible proof that you can do what you say you will.
5. Build Credibility
You can believe you're the best in the business at what you do, but that doesn't really matter unless prospective clients also believe it. Building up your credibility is an important part of growing your business.
You can do this in a number of ways, including:
• Updating your website to be mobile-responsive and easy-to-use
• Highlighting customer testimonials on your site
• Producing case studies with meaningful data
• Writing high-quality, informative content in the form of blog posts or FAQs
• Showcasing any industry awards you may have won
If a prospect feels like they can trust you from the first time they visit your website, closing the sale becomes that much easier.
6. Solicit Feedback from Current Customers
One of the best ways to see areas for improvement is to get external feedback. And what better place to get it than from the people you already serve?
Send out simple, short customer surveys to get feedback about what you're getting right and what you can do differently.
While you can ask specific questions with multiple-choice responses, you should also leave an optional text box to get more specific feedback from your customers.
If you receive negative responses, take the time to reach out to those customers and see what you can do to make it right. And don't forget to ask for consent to use the positive responses as customer testimonials on your website.
7. Change up your CTAs
When's the last time you re-examined the calls-to-action (CTAs) on your website? If you're not getting as many sales as you'd like, it could be that your CTAs aren't compelling prospects to take the action you want.
Try changing up the wording on CTA buttons, changing the color and placement of the buttons, etc. for a set amount of time and see if you start getting more lead generation and purchase requests.
And don't limit these selling experiments to your website. Change up CTAs in your email marketing messages and on social media to see what works and what doesn't for your sales data.
Surefire Ways to Increase Sales
Now that you've read through the best ways to increase sales for your business, it's time to get to work! Continue to reference this list throughout the year as you work on your goals and you're sure to get more sales before you know it. Close the deal!
Looking for more ideas on how to grow your business through stronger sales? Bookmark this page and come back to read new informative sales strategy articles every day.
