10 Sales Boosters

Booster #1: Regular Communication With Your Existing Customers

Communicate with your existing customers. Work at the relationship – just like you need to work at personal relationships:

• Regular contact
• Quality communication
• Interesting communication
• Remember Birthdays / special occasions
• Look After Them – don’t go giving all the best offers to new customers

Your customers are people – develop quality relationships and they will respond, make them feel special and address their wants and needs.  When you do – they will respond by buying more but also they will be enthusiastic when recommending you to colleagues / friends / family.

Booster #2: Target Your Sales Message

Make sure your sales message is right for your customers / clients.  Too many of us advertise in the wrong places.  Worse we send the wrong advertising to the wrong target.  Two months ago I bought a new road bike for exercise – it’s a high end light weight performance bike.  Since then I have received two mail shots from the bicycle shop.  The first offered me a special deal on servicing bikes for the summer (I only just got mine??) the second one offered accessories for commuter bikes.  D Both of these marketing shots where wasted on me – a wasted of their money and my time.  In other words I was the wrong target for their sales message.  It is common for people to have different bikes for different occasions but I even told the guy this was the first bike I had owned in 8 years.    Capture your customers buying histories and then you can mail merge – by hand if it’s a small database the right opportunities to the right person.   Get the right target to the right person with new offers and opportunities and you will then see the difference on the bottom line.

Booster #3: Power Up Your Marketing

Are there other ways to reach your target market?  Usually yes.  Find them and you Power Up your Marketing.

Maybe it’s right under your nose.  A client of mine once asked me for additional ideas on marketing that would not be high risk nor add additional costs that could not be covered.    They already run small adverts in one or two publications – but never bothered with some of the others due to smaller circulation.  Once they did the maths and tested and measured they found the same add run in a lower circulation paper generated less business than the other ads but it also cost less than half the price to place – so in fact was more profitable.

Additional profit plus new customers on the database for running the same ad.

Here’s five more ideas to Power Up you marketing

1. Use headlines with benefits for your prospect
2. Always have an offer (10% or less off is not an offer)
3. Repeat what you are doing in the same target but smaller circulations
4. Use Host-Beneficiaries.  Another business with the same target as you but not competing
5. Give your past customers a reason to buy off you now.

Booster #4: Always Work On Life-Time-Value

This is how some businesses can afford to pay more to get a client than the actual price of the sale.  If you know that your average client will be with you for 2 years – buying twice a month – then spending more than 1 month’s money to get them to buy from you the first time  is surely just logical?  In fact how many months would you be prepared to spend to get on average two years of sales in this example?  It’s not about spending money though- it’s about making sure that your conversion percentage is as high as possible – else you’ll spend a lot and not get the conversions to make it worth-while. 

Booster #5: Want Referrals – ASK

Even if they don’t become customers – if you’ve spent time helping them choose who or what to buy – ask for the referral.  When to ask is all about emotion – e.g. when they feel good towards you or feel they ‘owe’ you something.  Asking for referrals is much better than waiting for them to arrive.  My recommendations are anyone who gives you a referral should provide you with the persons details for you to contact them – don’t wait for them to call you and certainly don’t wait for the referrer to ‘ok it’ – that can be done later.

When you meet someone referred to you they already have a need – else why are they there, but unlike a normal sale – they will trust you from the off.  However – trust is critical and once they have firmed up their need and your solution they will then come back to trust and look at you and your business to ‘see’ if they want to trust you.  This means you need to immediately learn from them what their need is, demonstrate your product or service can meet their need – then come back to building a relationship with them – the warm referral will only get you so far.

Booster #6: Organise a Special Event

Almost anything out of the ordinary works… I tested and measured for a business targeting other company directors  once and found they turn up most often for events that covered; how to legitimately pay less tax / VAT.  In your business almost anything that is ‘different’ will work – as long as you ensure it is of interest to your target market – or at least fun.  Working with clients has shown me the following have had great success:

• Celebrity launches / Personal appearances
• Skills contests
• In store / factory demo’s
• Open evenings / preferential invitations to view a new ‘product’
• Special occasions
• Sporting events linked to your product
• Visits to local un-usual / normally not available attractions (behind the scenes at a local airport was one I attended recently)
• Visits to manufacturers

Do lots of events and do them on a regular basis to build relationships and attract more people.

Booster #7: Build AND Acquire Mailing (off-line and on-line) Lists

Add people to your list EVERY day.  This list will be one of your most powerful marketing tools in your business.  Every time someone buys from you – get their details – if you don’t know who they are they are not a customer – just a buyer.  Even better since they already bought from you they are in your target market – no matter what you sell, even if it’s something like wall tiles for bathrooms that people only buy every 7 years or so…. they have a kitchen, maybe an on-suite and hopefully friends to refer.  So get everyone’s details and ask them if they are happy to be added to your mailing list (on or off line) to benefit from special offers for future purchase, referrals and special events.

Booster #8: Offer Payment Options

And use this to improve your immediate cashflow…  for example add credit cards take the money now instead of 30 days net.  Regular instalment payments – spread over weeks, months, years – are a great way of selling more high ticket item goods.

Booster #9: Always, but especially in a Recession ALWAYS Offer A Money Back / Buy Back Guarantee

First the money back…  This is something I always recommend (and ALWAYS do myself).  Not only that but in a recession people look to reduce their spending and fear that a purchase may not work out for them are very real… So guarantee to give them their money back if not entirely satisfied – removing the fear. 

Now this type of guarantee works well for say a 30, 60 or 90 day period but what about 1, 2, or 3 years?  The Buy Back Guarantee is just that – which is why in a recession it is so powerful.  How does it work?  You guarantee to buy back the product within a period of time at an attractive market value.  Concerned (fear) about the risk, concerned about losing out?  Ok.  So here are some guidelines: 

Your product needs to have genuine value in the period you are considering.  E.g. 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 40% in year 3.

You need to look at the uplift in sales generated through this guarantee – these additional sales will often help cover any risk. 

Re-sale of returned goods – do not be over optimistic – be realistic as to the value you can achieve.

If the product was purchased on finance – make sure you offer fits in with the numbers and any penalties

It can seem complicated – but the numbers around it are not that complex once you get into it.  Just take a look at the possibilities.  As with any marketing strategy – test and measure the buy back strategy BEFORE launching it full swing.  You will need to fine tune it at the very least.  To make this work – you need to have cash flow – so don’t over stretch your resources.

Booster #10: As Always TEST, TEST, TEST & Measure

I say this so many times – why?  Because failure to test and measure will cost you money and waste your time.  Don’t assume you know all you need to know.  The clients I have known who did not get the return in growth of their business they wanted fail more often than not because they are not testing and measuring.  How do you know you are in the right publication, with the right advert?  Testing and Measuring.

Regards

Peter