Increase Sales with these 12 Sales & Marketing Strategies - Part 1
What is your plan for 2009? How are you going to increase sales or maintain a sustainable sales figure during a slow economy? I've created a list of 12 things every success-oriented business owner, sales manager, and sales person can do to make sure their sales figures do not sag regardless of a sagging economy.
This list is by no means comprehensive, but if you only tackle one of these each month (and incorporate it into your daily sales life), by the end of this year, you will have a sales system in place that is helping your company consistently increase revenues. I'll focus on the details of one item on this list every week. By the first part of April, you'll have the foundation for a solid sales and marketing plan to work through for the remainder of the year. But why wait until the 2nd quarter? If you feel like you need help now, I invite you to get in touch with The Surfside Group to discover how we may be the right fit for your sales and marketing solutions.
1. Get a plan - write your goals and how you will achieve these
2. Hire an expert - internal employee, outsource or a combination?
3. Define your process - what steps are taken during every phase of your sales cycle? Who is responsible for each step?
4. Organize your data - where is data stored and how is it managed?
5. Define & expand your market - who are your best clients? Where can you find more that are similar? Could you serve a different market to grow?
6. Be different - How are you different and better than your competition?
7. Communicate to your market - How do you let your prospects know about you so they can buy something?
8. Look at your web site - would you buy from you based upon what you see at your web site?
9. Ask for testimonials - It's doing a great thing multiplied by 3! (you, your customer, your customer's customer...)
10. Do a better job at networking - is the Chamber of Commerce really the best place for you?
11. Pick up the phone and call someone - increase sales activity on a regular basis
12. Write something - online articles, blogs, book, newspapers, magazines, etc.
The first thing to do, of course, is to get a plan. Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?
What are your goals for 2009? How do you plan to achieve them? Be realistic. If you are in the construction industry, you will probably not achieve 200% growth over 2008 numbers. However, you must write down some sort of achievable overall annual goal and then devise a plan for how to make it a reality via daily, weekly and monthly milestones. Otherwise you'll just flounder and earn some new business….or not. Your year will end up looking like a bad weekend in Vegas (think lots of lost money and very little sleep) rather than working from a plan.
Discuss your plan with someone you trust who will hold you accountable. This can be someone in your company, a business coach or mentor. You should talk about your plan and your results with this person on a regular basis. You'll be able to determine if you are on a clear path to success or if adjustments need to be made.
Document everything that you do so that you can eventually use the information to define your process (which happens to be Step #3).
So, what are you waiting for? Get started on your plan right now! If you have questions, I look forward to hearing from you.
Here's to having a successful year!
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