Boosting Your Company’s Sales Isn’t As Hard As It Seems

Once your startup is up and running, the most important area to focus on is sales. To be running, your company must be making sales. But this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re creating the profit that you need to keep your company afloat. To build a company that is sustainable, you need to be making a good income from your products or services.

Despite having a fantastic product or services, a lot of companies struggle to make sales. Or at least, enough sales to bring in a livable income. You may feel like you’ve already tried everything to boost your company’s sales. However, there’s always more things that you can try. Let’s take a look at the best ways you can help to increase your businesses sales.

Redefine your customer base

When you first started out, you would have had a target demographic in mind. However, since then, things may have changed. Perhaps you’re no longer targeting the right group of people? Maybe the people who want your product or need your services have changed. That’s why it’s essential to reassess your target customer base on a regular basis. Look at your sales data to see who is buying/using your products and services and go from there.

Say, for example; your product is a hand cream that’s soft, gentle and hypoallergenic. You may be doing well selling it to mums, for example, but what you need to look at is who else it’s ideal for? How about doctors and nurses who, thanks to constantly washing their hands, get dry, sore skin. Don’t be afraid to redefine your target market; that’s all part of growing and expanding your business. Just make sure to take the time to do any adequate research.

Work out what’s causing the lack of sales

Once you’ve got your target customer profile sorted, the next step is to look at what’s causing your lack of sales. The most common cause tends to be a lack of exposure. No matter how fantastic your product is, if no one knows about it, it won’t be a success. It’s as simple as that. When it comes to running a profitable business, the key to success is exposure. This means that if you want to boost your sales, you need to increase exposure. This is something that we’ll discuss in further detail, later on.

A common cause of a lack of sales can often be the company’s website. Often, the website is the first thing that potential customers see. This means that if it doesn’t give the right impression, it can put people off. Ideally, your website should be smart, stylish and professionally designed. It needs to give the right image of your company and should be designed to match your logo and company ethos. Then there’s how user-friendly your site is if a website isn’t easy to use and navigate, this can instantly put customers off. To see what the problem is, the best option is to use CRO A-B split testing which compares two version of your site. This then recommends what needs to be changed to boost your sales. As well as your site not being appealing enough, there’s also the fact that it may be hard to find. Your site should have a clear, memorable web address. It should also be ranked highly in search engines if you want to have any chance of being successful. This again is something that we’ll go into more detail about later on.

What are the best ways to increase exposure?

When it comes to increasing exposure of your company and products, your website is crucial. Believe it or not, your company website is a key tool when it comes to brand exposure. The first place that people look to find out more about a company or product is online. That’s why it’s so important that your site is easy to find and use. The best online methods for increasing brand exposure vast and varied – there are so many options.

Social media is a great option as it’s free and extremely effective. Sites like Twitter and Facebook have been used to advertise by some of the most successful companies in the world, from Apple to Sky. Having paid per click adverts on social media sites and websites that get a lot of exposure can be a great way to get your brand name out there. You don’t have to deal with this yourself either; there are plenty of ppc management companies that you can use. Then there’s the use of blogging to increase brand and product exposure through SEO. This again is something that you can outsource so that you don’t have to deal with it yourself.

Find a competitive advantage

If you’re losing out on sales of products or services to your competitors, you need to change that. The key to success with this is finding a competitive advantage – aka the thing that makes your company more favourable to buy from. It’s a case of thinking about how you can make your product or service better than what your competitors offer. As well as how you can advertise it to show your customers that.

The best ways to give yourself a competitive advantage is via cost. If your products and services are slightly cheaper than your competitors, you’ll be much more likely to get more sales. Or, if you don’t want to lower your prices, run a deal or discount that makes them cheaper for a set period. This will entice new customers to try your product or services. Then, if they like what you’re offering, they will continue to use your company, instead of your competitors. Remember, the key to success is to give your customers something different to your competitors.

Aim to offer the best customer service

Once you’ve got new customers, you want to hold onto them. They may not buy again right away but in the future, they may do. They may also recommend your company to people they know, giving you more exposure. Everyone knows that the best form of advertising is word of mouth advertising. Which is why it’s so great when customers recommend you to others that they know.

To ensure that your customers use you again and again, it’s important to provide a high level of customer service. This doesn’t just mean being polite and friendly but also showing your customers that you value them. This is important as customers who feel valued are more likely to continue to use and recommend your company. The best way to show your customers that you value them is by offering them rewards and incentives. As well as ensuring that the highest levels of customer care are always offered by yourself and your team.

Team up with other businesses

A great way to increase brand exposure and boost sales is by teaming up with other businesses. People tend to be happier to buy from larger more well-known brands. If you team up with a larger company and do a campaign together, you will gain more customers. This is because people tend to trust bigger brands more than smaller and newer ones.

The key to success with this is ensuring that you choose a business that is in the same industry as you but isn’t a competitor. An example of this would be, a small beauty brand teaming up with a subscription box like Ipsy or Birchbox. They work together to gain more exposure and sales, and both parties benefit from the collaboration.

See, boosting your company’s sales isn’t as difficult as it seems. It’s just a case of being smart about how you go about it.