Here are 5 ways to improve sales just by leveraging your existing resources – in other words, you don’t have to spend a dime.
And, at the end of the post, is an example of a Revenue Calculator that will help you forecast the impact of improving your conversion rate and average order size. You can access the spreadsheet here and instructions are below.
1. Qualify, prioritize and focus on immediate need. All leads are not created equal so figure out how to quickly identify qualified leads with an immediate plan to buy. Then, assign them to your sales team so they can do what you hired them to do – sell, not prospect and hunt.
One of the most common processes that leads to wasted time and missed opportunities is treating all inquiries to your promotion as a qualified lead with an immediate need to buy.
Check out this earlier post on lead scoring.
2. Nurture qualified leads with a future plan to buy. Focus on low cost, personalized communications with appropriate content (messages and offers) that allow you to share information, build trust and position your business as the primary choice for the buyer when they are ready to buy. (This does not mean emailing a discount offer every couple of days on whatever you’re trying to sell – it means helping them understand your strengths and value and motivating them to share key information about themselves. The more you understand them, the better your content will become.)
Check out this earlier post – specifically the section about B.A.N.T.
3. Enforce a contact strategy with measurable objectives. Selling is a numbers game – and if your staff isn’t hitting the numbers, they won’t hit sales either. If your inside rep needs to make 100 contact attempts per day in order to identify 4 qualified leads with immediate needs, make sure they are making 100 contact attempts per week.
And if they are making the attempts but not producing the qualified leads, you have a coaching opportunity – or the opportunity to bring in someone that can.
4. Have a plan to up-sell and cross-sell. This requires asking questions, listening and understanding when to make the suggestion and when to just ring up the sale.
When I worked retail during college, it was as simple as accessorizing. You want to buy pants? Well, let’s look at a new belt. And socks. Oh, and a shirt. With a tie, of course.
Hell, if the 16-year-old working the counter at McDonald’s can ask “Do you want fries with that?”, your sales team can do the equivalent for your business.
5. Rewards program to motivate retention and more purchases. A 5% increase in customer retention could double your bottom line. And a program that increases retention AND motivates a large number of your customers to spend more with your business on an annual basis…you got a winner.
Check out his article for a great overview of options – but when it comes to rewards, try to focus on those things that [a] the customer values, and [b] your business can deliver at a low cost. Try to avoid discounts because these are buyers that already see the value of buying from you at full price and discounts just eat your margins.
So, that said, here’s another article to help.
Again, you can access the calculator here. Then, all you need to do is go to the “Assumptions” tab and answer 4 questions.
To see the projected impact, simply flip to the other 3 tabs in order to see the financial impact of [a] improving conversion rates by 10-20-30%, [b] improving average order size by 10-20-30% and [c] improving both the conversion rate and average order size. (If you have question, feel free to contact me.)
