Do you want to boost sales immediately? Well, that’s not an easy thing to do but it is doable. In reality, the sales profession is moving faster than ever today. In the blink of an eye, new competitors emerge, products similar to yours are released, and before you know it, it’s a race to the bottom. Right?
No matter what industry you’re in, what worked well a few years ago isn’t good enough today. This is no time for trial and error or order taking; this is a time to boost sales immediately by being smarter and different. From three best-selling books in sales:
- Stephan Schiffman’s 101 Successful Sales Strategies: Top Techniques to Boost Sales Today
- Stephan Schiffman, The 25 Sales Strategies That Will Boost Your Sales Today!
- Brian Tracy, The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible
I have come up with 10 effective ways to boost sales immediately. Implement them and witness the results.
1. Focus on what your customers REALLY want
Your customers really don’t want your products or services. They don’t even want what those products or services do for them. What they really want is to gain the specific feeling or benefit they get after buying and using your products or services.
Keep this in mind when you communicate with your customers. Emphasize the feelings produced by using your product instead of talking about what your product is – or how it works. Convert the benefits delivered by your product or service into vivid word pictures. Then put your prospect in the picture by dramatizing what it feels like to be enjoying those benefits. For example, if you sell financial products, describe what it feels like to enjoy an affluent life style without debt.
2. Get to know your target audience intimately
Do you know who your customers are – I mean do you really know who your customers are? Intimately knowing the target audience for your marketing messages is the first step in crafting effective advertising, social media campaigns, and more. Don’t waste your time and dollars hitting the wrong target. You must know who your customers really are, when they buy, why they buy, how they buy, and what exactly they buy. To boost sales immediately, you must know everything possible about your target customers.
3. Encourage questions
Questions from prospects may be irritating, sometimes. But answering them can be very profitable. Prospective customers only take time to ask questions when they have a high level of interest in your product or service. Providing a satisfactory answer to a prospect’s question often leads directly to a sale. Invite prospects to ask questions when in live selling situations. And make it easy for them to ask questions when they are not …such as at your web site. For example, list a phone number or email address where you or someone else can answer their questions. For example, you may include a “Questions and Answers” page on your web site with answers to frequently asked questions. It will reduce the number of questions you have to answer individually.
4. Pinpoint your unique selling proposition
Every business offers something unique to its customers. You may be providing the same kinds of products and services, but how you provide them differentiates you from the competition. First figure out what makes your business unique, then make sure your customers know what makes it unique too! I have previously discussed the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) concept in this interesting article here.
5. Build word of mouth into your product or service
Every business wants to build buzz about its products and services. Why? Because when your company’s fans talk, people listen. You can build word of mouth into your product or service by catering to brand ambassadors, creating an aura of exclusivity using added perks through loyalty and reward programs, and cultivating an “under the radar” vibe. This is sometimes underestimated; but in fact, it is one of the most powerful ways to boost sales. When people talk about your product or service, it may become a trend to use. And who knows, your sales may increase exponentially!
6. Gather assets, including testimonials
When you consider the assets you have in your business, you probably automatically think of such things as money, people, office furniture, and such. However, you have other important, but less obvious assets at your disposal, including marketing assets, social assets, customer testimonials, and more. Make a point of gathering and organizing these less obvious assets and using them to your advantage. Testimonials provide credibility to your products or services. It shows and proves your product or service’s reliability from the customer’s point of view.
7. Create brand ambassadors
As discussed in point 5 above, brand ambassadors are everyday customers who love your products or services so much that they just can’t help but tell everyone they meet about you. They’re the ones who say, “I’ve got the greatest CPA–you should have her do your taxes!” To start connecting with your own brand ambassadors, think about what it would take to make someone fall in love with your company–and then do it.
8. Respond to reviews, comments, and feedback
It may sound trivial, but it is a very powerful and effective way to boost sales. If your business attracts reviews in certain sites such as Yelp, or TripAdvisor, then be sure that you take the time to respond to those reviews. Doing so presents you with a great opportunity to reinforce your good reviews, and to manage your bad ones. The key is to be authentic and professional, and avoid being defensive or antagonistic.
And if your business has a Facebook page, Twitter, or Instagram account (a must these days), you should always reply to comments and posts by your customers. This is a great opportunity to connect with them, engage with them, and show them that you care. Doing so is so more important than having these accounts from the beginning.
9. Make Buying Easier
Look for ways you can make your buying procedure easier and faster. For example, many marketers use a multi-step shopping cart to get online orders when a simple online order form would do the job with just 1 or 2 quick clicks. Make buying easier, convenient, and customer centric. Don’t ask for unnecessary information during the ordering process. Instead, send a personalized “thank you” message after the sale and include a brief request for the information.
10. Forget location, location, location
With the advent of social media, your physical location is not as important as your online visibility. Work hard to develop a strong social media presence, and people will seek out your business. Surely, this all depends on your business type, products and service, and your target customer segment. But it is essential to have presence anywhere the customer is or may be in contact with your business, you personally, or your products or service. The point here it to connect with your customers at different levels and locations.
So what do you think? Do you agree on these 10 effective ways to boost sales? Please feel free to comment and share your experience.
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