This may sound like a loaded question because it is. There is typically not one thing you can do to increase your small business sales. There is so much that goes into a small business that it's hard to point to one thing and say this is the reason im making more money in business.
With that, I want to offer three things that I think will help you increase your sales. Some of these ideas may be a bit more traditional, and others may be on par with what you thought. Being that I have worked for small businesses all my life and had my fair share of time spent is over a dozen small businesses, I think I have figured out what really can help make a difference and increase your revenue.
I think far too often are people not looking at sales training as a resource to help them to increase sales. Sadly I have had my fair share of interactions with small and even some medium-sized business owners who have not had an ounce of sales training. Trust me, it shows.
Investing in sales training isn't something you may want just management and sales to go through if you can get all your employees some levels of sales knowledge it's going to make your life much easier when it comes to making sales.
I think if I give you an example, it will help paint a picture in your mind.
When I worked at my old IT company, there were TONS of times that technicians were involved in selling products, most of the time it was all about break-fix, but sometimes there were discoveries that would lead to more significant sales. Instead of them passing it over to the salesperson and the person having time to reset and get ready to deal with sales, wouldn't it help to have that person trained and ask questions to make the sale easier?
Frequently this was something we ran into all the time. Now the above story doesn't just have to apply to the IT industry. Regardless of the industry, there will always be areas that your employees will interact with customers. Giving them some sort of training can help drastically when it comes to that customer. This can teach employees what to and what not to say when it comes time for the sale. It will also teach them what to do when it comes to talking to people outside of the office. Sales training is something not only salespeople, but techs can learn to get a massive competitive advantage when it comes to sales.
There are also hundreds of other reasons that sales training helps. Things such as having an actual process vs. organized chaos. Discovering ways to figure out if a prospect is a good fit for your company and many more benefits. Because of COVID, its easier than ever to get good sales training while at home and more companies are making it free or discounted because it's being done online. Pick one you trust and go from there. Some sales training is better than no sales training.
You read that right, giving things away is the easiest way for people to remember you. Why does McDonald's put a logo on everything you get? So you never forget. In the IT industry, we used to give away mouse pads. In the digital marketing space, everything has our logo on it, including the bottom of a website we built. I have a buddy who does power washing. Want to know where I told him the best place to put a company sticker would be? On the sprinkler automation cover. Why? People turn their sprinklers off at the end of the year here on long island when spring starts, and the ground thaws are when people begin to work on their house for the upcoming year. What's the first thing they do? Prep the lawn! Guess whos sticker is right there to remind them they should also get their house cleaned? His! This simple idea has helped him generate more business year over year and continues to have old customers hire him back time and time again. This strategy costs 50-100 dollars for a roll of stickers and has resulted in thousands and thousands of dollars in revenue.
This doesn't have to mean just social media or just SEO, but maybe a blend between the two.
As business owners, we are continually trying to figure out ways to get in front of new customers. One of the easiest ways to do this is to write more content. People ask you questions day in and day out. If you took an hour or two just like I am and write a blog about what customers ask you, it would save you time in the long run. I can tell you how often I respond to people with YouTube videos or blogs I write because far to usually, I already answered their question. The delicate part is I can go in-depth on the videos and blogs and make sure that I answer their question thoroughly and completely.
Now, if you don't know by now, this helps with SEO. Having searchable content to questions people ask regularly will help people find you, your company, and ultimately drive more visitors to your site. Which often leads to more buyers.
Now, this strategy takes a bit longer than anything else, but the ROI on the word you put in ahead of time will pay itself off tenfold down the road.
How do I know this?
This is something I teach people in my course, as well as something my company offers for businesses to grow. We have had some pretty incredible success implementing these three things that I have told you about today.
Just in case you do not believe how important these are, I want to share with you some ballpark numbers of me implementing this for my old companies and companies we work with. Teaching your staff basic sales training and how to deal with sales situations helped unwrite proposals that were accepted for over $50,000. This was a lot of work for us to do at my old IT company and its something that helps them close business still today. Want to create something that you can give away free to help get more calls? Think of things that people see all the time. My friend, who has the power washing system, retains more customers season after season than some other power washing companies make in a year. Why? He has THE BEST idea and something only he is doing when it comes to giving it away. A simple sticker is enough to remind people to call for their yearly cleaning to make their house look amazing. Third is content creation.
I am writing this blog because I know it will bring visitors and those visitors may buy. At the time of writing this blog, I have almost 150 pieces of content (on my site), and it's growing weekly. This content works for me 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
I use all of these, and I highly recommend you trying them for yourself. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.