BUSINESS ADVICE • 8 MAY 2018 • 5 MIN READ

Top 3 tips for increasing your sales

SECTIONS

Sell more to existing customers

Get new customers

Increase your average spend

Often people go into business because they are passionate about what they do, what they make and the service they provide. It can be quite sobering when customers don’t come rushing through the door at quite the pace you expected. You may also be wondering why there is a picture of a campervan here! One of the things to bear in mind is your personal motivation so work out what motivates you.

So if you want more sales, here are the top 3 tips for achieving that.

Sell more to existing customers

It is much cheaper to sell more to your existing customer base than to get out and find new customers. McDonalds don’t ask if you want fries with that because you’re looking hungry. They do it to sell more.

Tip: Ask your customers what else they want.

Fixing their loo? Is there anything else I can do while I’m here?
Buying a sandwich? Would you like a cold drink with that?
Selling graphic design? Do you need any other web pages fixing/brochures done?

You get the picture.

Make sure you and your team have the right question ready and make sure you can supply the added service/product.

Get new customers

This is a huge topic and we could write pages here but let’s start with a simple tip:

Tip: Ask happy existing customers to refer you to their contacts.

This is word of mouth prompted and organised by you. There are different ways of doing this and, as Kiwis, we can be uncomfortable with asking for a direct referral so brace yourself. You can:

You can ask in writing on the bottom of your emails and on your website
You can ask when you’re with them or on the phone, “Hey, if you’re happy with the service, would you mind referring us to your friends?”
You can ask them officially in a direct mail and incentivise them with a gift or reward (take care here as you can de-value the referral by giving people money for it)

People like being asked for advice and helping friends to find the perfect supplier – it’s not an imposition.

Increase your average spend

Tip: Put your prices up

This one requires a bit more work to execute well – but is a very simple step to increase sales.

Remember that if you simply put your prices up without a reason and research, you could lose sales so go through the steps carefully.

Look at your key product/service prices
Compare your prices to your competition
Consider your customers and where you want to be in their minds (cheap and cheerful, pricy and good, mid range, etc)
Pricing is part of your marketing so you don’t want to price low with a high quality product or vice versa
Consider the likelihood of losing clients at a higher price point and whether this will impact negatively on your profit. You could lose a small number of customers but have built a better platform for your future
Consider what the wider market and economy is doing – if the economy is tanking, don’t go crazy with price increases

After this research and thought, be brave. You’ll know where your prices should be. A 5% increase goes straight to your bottom line.

For more information on SME business advice, check out beany.com.

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