Partnership

Whether that’s a service, a product, or a piece of valuable information.

But the only way a business succeeds is by earning customers and growing sales from that service, product, or information.

You can’t just hope someone will stumble upon your product and purchase it, though.

An increase in sales doesn’t just happen, it’s the result of thoughtful sales strategies that are planned and executed.

In order to increase sales, especially your end-of-year sales, you have to increase the number of customers you’re selling to, enhance what you’re selling, improve your messaging, or all of the above.  

If you can improve every step of your sales process by even a little, you can increase sales by a lot. Here are 21 ways to boost sales and see better profits in your business.

Increase Sales By Increasing Leads

One powerful way to increase sales is to increase leads. 

The more people who have access to your point of sales system or place of business means more people have the possibility of buying from you and increasing your profits. 

Here are four ways to generate more leads to boost sales and increase profits.

Clearly Define Your Customer 

First, you need to know who you’re targeting. Who is the person who would most likely buy your product and buy it immediately?

Create an avatar of that customer. Ask yourself specific questions about them:

• How old are they?
• Are they male or female?
• Do they have children?
• How much money do they make?
• What are they interested in?
• What are their priorities?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you create more accurate messaging around your product and target the right audience in your marketing efforts.

Identify The Problem You’re Trying To Solve

When you’re sure you have a clear understanding of your ideal customer, their pain points, and their desires, then you can understand how you can help.  This is commonly referred to as consultative selling, where you consult with the customer and find out what they need.

What problem does your product or service solve? How does it address the pain point of your customer?

If you have identified your customer correctly, and know how your product helps solve their problem, they’ll buy it from you. If, however, the customer you have defined doesn’t have this problem, they won’t buy your product. 

All great success and all great fortunes come from serving people with what they want and are willing to pay for better than someone else. By adopting a “help” rather than “sell” mindset, you can understand how to serve people better and provide incredible customer service.

Utilize Ads

Sometimes it makes sense to spend money in order to make money, but it doesn’t have to take a lot. With the right ad, even a small budget can be effective and increase leads. You just have to know who your audience is, where you want to reach them, and for how long. Consider Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads, depending on where your customer is at. 

When utilizing ads as part of your strategy to increase sales, it’s a good idea to run tests. Ad tests will help you learn the process of creating ads, help you better understand your audience, and ensure your budget is put to good use.

Increase Sales By Connecting With Your Customers

Establishing trust with your customers is key to ultimately persuading them to purchase what you’re selling. Even in an increasingly virtual world, there are many ways to connect with your customers, establish trust, and gain influence.

Here are three ways to improve sales by connecting with your customers.

Utilize Social Media

Social media is a free space where you can connect with your customers daily. If your customer is using social media, you need to be using social media. This will keep you top of mind when they consider what they want or need to buy. 

As you use social media posts, such as photos, videos, and captions, be sure to provide valuable information; avoid talking “at” your customers and instead try to teach them or explain something to them that is in line with what your product or service is all about.

You can also use social media as a space to show proof that your product or service actually works, such as before and after stats, photos, or testimonials as well as videos of the product or service at work.

Don’t forget to respond to comments and answer questions. This is an amazing way to help sell to new leads. 

Remember to be friendly and conversational as you approach your customers and potential customers in this space. If you use it correctly, you can establish trust and increase your leads.

Promote “Insider Information”

Everyone loves a good deal, and when they feel like they have the inside scoop on an upcoming sale, or receive early access, your customers will develop greater trust in and loyalty to your business. They may even buy more because of it.

This doesn’t only go for sales and special offers. Keep current and repeat customers in the loop with upcoming launches and business news too, and soon, they’ll develop a vested interest in the business.

Maintain Relationships

“Once a customer, always a customer” — this should be your motto if you want to learn how to increase sales in business. 

Once a customer has purchased your product, it should not be the end of your interaction with them.

Focus on maintaining a strong relationship with your customer by making them feel valued so that they stick around, and get others to become customers as well. A forever customer will do more for your business than 10 one-time customers.  

Implement A Referral Program

Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and a great way to make your customers feel valued is to reward them for referring their friends and family members.

Use future discounts, rewards points, freebies, special access, etc. to incentivize current customers to hold the flag for you.

Not only will this help maintain your relationship with your customers but it will also help you gain new leads who are more likely to purchase because they received a direct referral, all without any additional effort on your part. 

Increase Sales By Providing Value

At the end of the day, you’re selling something that provides value to someone else in some way, shape, or form.

If your potential customers don’t know what that value is, they won’t buy from you. By highlighting why and how your product offers value, you can boost sales and also inspire confidence. This is how to sell a product.

Offer A Freebie

One way to help potential customers see the value your business provides is to give them something really great — for free. Freebies are a great way to build trust with warm leads who aren’t quite ready to purchase your actual product. After they get a preview of what you offer, they will be much more likely to buy. 

This freebie can be a taste of your actual product or service, or it can be something that supplements it. Whatever your freebie is, ensure it is valuable in and of itself; this is how you earn the trust of your leads, get them excited for what’s next, and drive an actual sale.

Sell The Benefit, Not The Product

People don’t buy products, they buy the results that the product will give. Remembering the “help” not “sell” mentality when marketing and selling your product or service will help you focus on its benefits.

When you seek to first help others, it comes across as more genuine rather than pushy and just looking to make a quick buck. Plus, it reminds your customers of the value your product or service provides.

Increase Sales By Presenting The Product Effectively

Presenting your product effectively will help you increase sales by increasing conversion rates, the rate at which you convert leads into paying customers.

Your conversion rate is the measure of the effectiveness of your sales efforts. In order to help drive conversion rates, you need to work on developing your pitch in a clear, effective way. Here’s how to do that. 

Develop Your Competitive Advantage

The odds are good that you’re not the only one selling your specific product or service. So it’s critical to be able to explain the benefits or results your customers will receive from purchasing your product or service that they will not get when purchasing the product or service of your competitor.

In order to develop your competitive advantage, you need to know what else is out there.

What are your competitors’ claims? What are the benefits they’re selling? How is what you’re offering different?

You should be able to express why people should choose your product or service over others on the market if you want to be growing sales. 

Pick The Right Price

The price you set for your product or service is important. Not only does it affect your profits, but it also affects the perceived value of what you’re offering.

Before you determine it, you need to fully understand the costs associated with producing the product and get a feel for what your ideal customer would be willing to pay for it. You also need to know what your competitors are charging for similar products or services.  

One of the best sales strategies is to beat your competitor’s price, however, you also have to make money. If you can make your product seem superior to your competitors, you may be able to charge a higher price. Keep this in mind and use it to help you set the perfect price. 

Make Sure Your Messaging Is Clear

When it comes to learning how to market a product or service, clarity is critical. Pick one to two key benefits that your product offers and state them clearly in all the content that is part of your sales and marketing strategy. This will ensure the story you’re telling about your product is aligned across all of your marketing channels and your customers know exactly what it is you’re selling. 

Market Content On Multiple Channels

As part of your ongoing strategy to increase sales, you should be continually seeking creative ways to improve your advertising and promotional efforts to reach new customers.

There are so many mediums out there including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Youtube, email, blogs, podcasts — even traditional print materials such as magazines and newspapers — that can get your message and product out to the right audience.

Increase The Number And Size Of Transactions

You already know that it is important to retain your customers and maintain your relationships with them, so once you have them, how do you get them to buy from you again?

This is an important question to ask yourself when developing a sales strategy plan.

If you can increase the frequency of purchase by ten percent, you can increase your sales and thus profits by the same percentage.

Here are four ways you can get your customers to buy from you more frequently, and buy more in general.

Stay Top Of Mind

How did your customers find you in the first place? Do you have their email? Do they follow you on social media? Did you meet face-to-face? However it was they found you, continue to use that method of communication to stay top of mind.

Send out regular emails with offers, highlighted products, or helpful information. Continue to post consistent content on your social media accounts. Call them up to check in and see if there is anything else they need or how they’re enjoying their purchase.

You want to be the first business they think of when they need what you sell.

Apply Increasing Savings

In order to get your customers to buy more, consider applying discounts to larger purchases, such as free shipping on orders.

When promoting a sale, consider offering an increased amount off on larger purchases.

The more they spend, the more discount they receive.

Look For Opportunities To Up-sell Customers 

You should be continually be looking for ways to up-sell customers so that they buy more each time.

What products or services will complement what they are already purchasing?

Once you prove your value and have loyal customers, they will likely say “yes” to you more and more. 

Raise Your Prices

In some cases, raising your prices is a viable option that could help generate more sales, after trying many of the other sales tactics on this list. You should thoroughly analyze your costs, compare your prices to your competition, and understand the demand for your product or service first as well.  

In many situations, though, you can raise your prices by 5 or 10 percent without experiencing any market resistance. If your products and services are of good quality and your people are friendly and helpful, a small increase in your overall prices will not drive your customers away.

Increase Sales By Investing In Yourself

Improving your ability to sell and convert interested prospects into paying customers is one of the most important things you can do to boost sales. There are many parts of the selling process and improving in even one of them can have a dramatic impact on your results.

Attend Sales Trainings

Some people are naturally good at selling; they can easily connect with a customer, find common ground, understand their desires, and persuade them to purchase their product. These skills don’t come easily to everyone, though.

In fact, the majority of salespeople have to learn, practice, and hone these skills over time to become successful. Even if you’ve worked hard to become the salesperson you are today, you’re never done learning.

Sales training can open your mind to new opportunities others have seen success with, allow you a chance to network with other creative salespeople, and even generate new leads or partnerships.

Learn How To Negotiate 

At some point in your sales journey, you’re going to run into someone who wants a lower price or additional benefit, or a situation where you’ll have to compromise. 

Learning how to negotiate can not only help you improve your relationship with your customers but can also help you drive more sales. The best negotiators look out for their customer’s best interests and find a solution that works for both parties.  

Develop A Prospecting Strategy

The best salespeople have a plan to develop the highest quality and quantity of prospects that can and will buy within a reasonable period of time.

Prospecting is an essential part of successful sales strategies and something you need to prioritize if you want to increase sales.

If your sales strategy is lacking this critical component, or your prospecting tactics are falling short, I’ve created an essential prospecting checklist that will help you focus your attention on the prospects that will have the maximum return.