When you think of sales, you probably envision that
high-pressure salesman at a used car lot. The stench of discount cologne
hitting your face as that tight-gripped, over-exuberant handshake
discombobulates you, rendering your Car fax reports and KBB print-outs useless
against the pushy, hard-nosed tactics yet to come. In those situations, you, as
a buyer, are so utterly turned off, that you vow to never be pushy when it
comes to selling your own products and services. Sales may have a negative
connotation, but it doesn’t always have to be so direct and intrusive.
How can you
increase sales without being too pushy? Use these three creative ideas:
1. Ask For Referrals
For as long as people have been selling, they’ve relied on
word-of-mouth to increase their sales. People do business with people, so they
want to know how their friends, family, and colleagues have experienced your
products or services. In fact, according to a recent Harris Poll, 82 percent of
Americans say they seek recommendations from their personal network before
making a purchase. As a small business owner, your time and resources are
limited. You can only do so much in a day, and interacting with every single
customer may not be possible, right? Actually, you can interact with every
single customer in a seemingly personalized way through email marketing.
2. Use The Loss Leader
Pricing Strategy
If you’ve ever offered prospects or customers a product or
service at below-market rates, then you have used the loss leader pricing
strategy. Business owners like you will use a loss leader in hopes of
stimulating other sales of more profitable products or services. It’s important
that you don’t offer a product or service as a loss leader if you don’t have
the inventory or resources to deliver to your customers because you’ll alienate
prospects and customers and lose considerable future business as a result. These
services can be great vehicles to driving new customers into your business, but
you want to make sure that you’re not alienating your existing customers or
over-extending your business to the point where you can’t fulfill the orders
and must close your doors instead. In the end, choose a loss leader within your
means and promote it on your social media channels, on your website, and, of
course, in your email campaigns to increase your sales.
3. Educate Your Audience
People
buy from people. Whether you’re a food truck owner or a concierge doctor, you
need to connect with your leads and prospects and convince them to do business
with you. In my humble opinion, educating your audience is a very effective way
of showing them your skills, knowledge, and expertise while giving them
something of value. By providing them with value through educational content,
they now know you, potentially like you, and can begin to trust you because you
have their best interests in mind. You can educate your audience by writing
blog posts, curating interesting articles on social media, publishing eBooks,
or producing video segments.
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