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Make Your Small Business a Winner: Grow your sales

by Anna Hipkiss

If anyone in business searches for a magic bullet, it will be most often for the secret of successful selling. Of course, there is no single bullet, but there are a number of critical pieces of ammunition!

Think of selling as solving a customer’s problem, not pushing them to buy what you have for sale. With services this is critical – their problem is a blocked drain, or a demotivated team. Products solve problems too – what to have for dinner tonight, or what to wear in the gym.

You can’t solve problems if you don’t know what they are, so ‘know your customers’ is another bullet. Asking your customers for feedback on what they buy is one thing, asking them why they buy from you may produce other answers, as will asking what they would like to buy.

Having a saleable product or service is a fundamental. Too obvious? It may not be so obvious when you had something that was right, and don’t notice the market changing. Asking for customer feedback and watching competitors like a hawk will keep you on track.

Investing time in growing sales is last but by no means least. Work at it, instead of just hoping that people will beat a path to your door! If you’re selling services, that may mean networking and making lots of contacts. If it’s product, then exploring new markets or routes to market may be fruitful. For both of them cold calling in some form will bring results. It is hard to do this, but it really works! Don’t find yourself doing other things which are really just an excuse to avoid having to pick up the phone.


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