As a Business owner or M.D. you’ve achieved some success in your business. It’s been challenging, and moving from initial growth to the plateau stage and then moving toward further growth has been scary. To grow further means risk. There is a thrill and satisfaction in challenging yourself, stretching and seeing how much you can achieve. But how do you mitigate that risk?
Knowledge, skill, talent and drive that have got you to where you are now, may not get you any further. There is possibly a missing link somewhere!
The link that progresses you to that next stage of business growth, because you’ve invested, time, energy and money into your business.
You’ve invested time into networking and building new relationships.
What is the missing link that will help you push past the plateau and continue growing at a consistent rate.
The 7M Business Growth Newsletter will help you understand what the missing link may possibly be in your Business and how you can adapt to a new rhythm of Business Performance. It draws on the 7 areas that ensure a High Performing Business is run by a High Performing Process and a High Performance Team.
This week we’re looking at 37 ways to increase your sales and profits.
Not all of them will be applicable to you. Choose the ones that are important, and discard the rest.
The 1 or 2 that you choose – take ACTION and implement them.
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1. Survey, survey and survey some more – Know your clients – age, sex, likes and dislikes what they buy off you regularly.
2. How did your clients hear about you? – When was the last time you asked one of them? Find out and then promote vigorously to the most common areas.
3. Value each customer as a friend you will see again and again and again give them a great incentive – FIRST CLASS SERVICE WITH A SMILE.
4. Value your staff – put them before your customer – then they will make the customer happy.
5. Do you have the right staff – are they qualified practically and academically to undertake the job? Are they working in the right area of your business?
6. Train your staff – set the guidelines and involve them in the guidelines – they are a coalface resource.
7. Put your prices up – either as a whole or selectively – will the customer recognise a slight increase? e.g.) A Kebab seller sells 50 Donner Kebabs a day for £6.50. In one year by putting the price up 40 pence to £6.90, they can make an extra £6880.00. Do this with three products = £20,640.00 – This is FREE money.
8. Don’t get caught doing the simple £10.00 an hour jobs if your charge out rate is £100.00 per hour.
9. Create packages – people love packages – shows more value for the dollar.
10. Consolidate at some point – when things are going well put some money in the bank and sell, sell, sell.
11. Employ a new sales rep every hour – ask your customers to “tell your friends about us we are only too happy to serve them”.
12. Manage your stock – use history of sales as a guide to your stock requirements.
13. Buy in bulk – but only those products you sell in bulk. Negotiate, negotiate and negotiate.
14. Sell knowledge either as a value added or as part of a package. If you sell computers – sell a teaching course for the whole family on how to use the computer. Do this through a strategic alliance or do it yourself.
15. Write a tips e-book – small, easy to read and low cost – great promotional tool.
16. Make your business card exciting – make it speak – tell a story – use both sides – it’s easy and inexpensive advertising. Give everyone a business card that you do business with or that you come into contact with, or that comes in your store.
17. Run a free education seminar for invited guests and have a guest speaker to rev things up.
18. Use your website as a brochure – inexpensive, easy to access, easy to promote.
19. High quality packaging is simple, easy to access, but cool to look at.
20. Consultants should pre-qualify their clients, use a simple sheet with relevant questions that you can ask them over the phone, email to them or fax to them – explain the benefits of doing this to your client in terms of better service and saving time.
21. Set high standards – better than your competition or opposition.
22. Sell value not price. Value relates to so much more than a $. Consultants – never give a fee until you are ready and only give a fee for the end result –which is Value.
23. Sell authority not expertise. There are plenty of experts and only a few authorities – Create Credibility Power
24. Thank your customer for choosing you especially when there is competition
25. Be competitive – advertise where your competitors advertise or you’re not being competitive
26. Ask for the sale – or get out of the game.
27. Look good – blue sells better then brown, grooming is important for both people and your premises
28. Create and manage a loyalty program. Keep a record of what your customers buy so you can remind them to come back and claim their discount now they have spent that $300.
29. Sell a problem then the solution. Identify your customer’s problem(s) so you can sell them a solution package.
30. Remind your customer it is time to re-purchase from you. When you get your survey details from a customer and you know when their birthday is, don’t just send them a birthday card – remind them it’s time they shouted themselves something to celebrate and you will help them with a discount or a giveaway.
31. Community projects – support a local school – you get access to parents, as well as advertise that you support the local community.
32. Advertise testimonials that sing your praises – use photos and put them on the wall. Make them big so everyone can see them.
33. Create a list of every single person you have met in business, of every single card you have collected – make it an ATTACK DATABASE – and attack it with letters, newsletters, website address etc. You will be surprised how many you have.
34. Be prepared to walk away from work that is not profitable – it will only cost you in the long run.
35. Offer unlimited support.
36. When times are bad and slow spend time making it better – If everyone is in the same boat then it will be those who are proactive who make the money.
37. Write yourself a Cheque each year for your profits and date it 12 months from the day you write it – The key to this exercise is to plan how you are going to bank it.
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An action step you can take today…
– Invest you time in my upcoming workshop on Saturday 11th Feb in London.
Here’s the link
https://peakperformancebusinessaccelerator.clickfunnels.com/business-builder-day-feb
You will learn 3 key ideas to implement into your business immediately. You’ll come away knowing how ‘The Profit Chain’ works. Finding the weakest link in business so it can be rectified.
You’ll learn how to free up 33% of your time, so you can do the things you want and not be tied to the business.
And there will be more great content that will help you have a great business.
