The end of the year – or the beginning of the new year, if you’re in an industry with a festive busy season – is a great time to take stock. What’s going well and how can you improve? Even a small change to the way you do business can have dramatic results for your sales – so make a New Year’s Resolution and start selling more right now.
#1 Fine-tune your sales presentation
What?
Take a half-day to take an in-depth look at the content and format of your presentation. Make sure it’s up to date.
Then do some research: what structure works best? What other tools could you be using? Tweak your presentation, look for feedback, and keep tweaking.
Why?
A sales presentation can often make or break a deal. A refresh ensures you’re giving customers their best chance to love your products.
#2 Use a CRM
What?
A CRM system stores the details of your customers. You can use it to keep a record of every interaction you have with a client or prospect.
Why?
Having a CRM system helps you to understand your customers better. Not only will this keep every interaction you have with a customer as relevant, personal and up-to-date as it can be, but it will also help you identify opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell effectively (see tip #8).
#3 Make your website mobile friendly
What?
A mobile-friendly site is a website designed to be as functional and attractive on a smartphone or tablet as on a computer.
Why?
A 2012 survey found that – on visiting a site to buy a product, but finding the site non-mobile-friendly – more than two-thirds of users would leave the site without making a purchase.
And don’t forget that Google’s search algorithm now favors mobile-friendly sites – so if you’re not on board, your potential customers may look elsewhere.
By http://www.vrsfoto.com [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
#4 Use A/B testing on your site
What?
A/B testing is how you find out if one small change could influence customer behavior.
To test a change to your website, split your traffic between your current site and the changed site, to see which version works best. (There are experts, and free tools are available to help you do this.)
Why?
One small change to your website could improve your sales – A/B testing means you don’t have to guess what will work.
#5 Improve the user experience of your website
What?
The user experience (UX) of your website is exactly what it says: how a user encounters your site, and how it looks and feels to interact with it, without the prior knowledge that you or your web designer have.
Why?
Studies have shown a direct correlation between UX and an increase in the customer’s willingness to buy, their loyalty to your brand, and how likely they are to recommend your products to a friend.
#6 Social media marketing
What?
You can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more social networks to build up a customer base and drive sales. If you’re not doing it already, do it. If you are doing it, do it more. If you’re doing it a lot, do it better (by hiring a professional to help if necessary)!
Why?
Social media and content marketing give you access to more customers than you could ever hope to reach by word-of-mouth – at little or no cost.#7 Reward your customers
#7 Reward your customersWhy?
Why?
A discount on the customer’s bill after their first year; exclusive coupons; or a points scheme. You could also offer your loyal customers an ‘exclusive’ by contacting them about a new product before it goes on general sale.
Why?
Once a customer has had one successful transaction with your business, their instinct is to stick with you for their future needs. Work with that instinct, reward their loyalty and keep giving them reasons to come back.
CC Image courtesy of Joe Long on Flickr
#8 Embrace upselling
What?
Upselling is more than being prompted to purchase fries with your burger. Have you ever added a printer to an online shopping basket, on a website that immediately suggested you might also like to buy a cartridge of printer ink?
Why?
You know your customers are in the mood to buy something – they’re buying something right now – so it just makes sense to pitch them more sales. Studies have shown that up to 30% of e-commerce revenue can come from upselling.
#9 Use testimonials
What?
A customer has bought something from you – great! Be sure to contact them again to thank them for their purchase and ask how your product has specifically benefited them or solved a problem they had. This will create positive statements to use in your copy, or even on sales calls.
Why?
Testimonials help establish the credibility of your product. Customers expect you to think your product is great, but the feedback of other customers means so much more.
This can be even more effective if you target your testimonials. For example, if you’re in B2B sales, and you approach a construction firm, then use a testimonial from within the same industry.
#10 Create a sense of urgency
What?
This can be as simple as running a short-term sale; or if you’re running low on a product, let your customers know that they only have a limited time with which to purchase it.
Why?
Your customers pride themselves on their bargain-hunting skills and will hate to think they’re missing out on a great deal and/or a great product. Reminding them that they have a limited period in which to buy a product (or use a coupon, or cash in their reward points) will prompt them to do so.
Just don’t use this tactic artificially, or to excess – it will lose its effect if you do.
I hope you’ve found this list of tips useful. Whether they were all brand new to you or whether you’d tried all of them before to some extent, deploying a new sales strategy or a renewed focus on one particular tactic can bring impressive results for your sales. Which tips will you try this year?
Featured image source: Joe The Goat Farmer website: joethegoatfarmer.com/