Whether you’re an independent entrepreneur or run a business with dozens of employees, sales are the lifeblood of your company. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 50% of all businesses fail within five years.
For many companies, this comes from a failure to sell to new customers, as well as the inability to keep their current customers satisfied.
So what can you do? How can you ensure that the time and energy you invest into sales comes back to benefit your business?
Keep reading to learn about seven tips for increasing sales and profits.
1. Use Yourself as a Selling Tool
Remember that you are the most effective tool you have when selling something. The easiest way to use yourself as a selling tool is by being passionate.
Being passionate about the things you’re selling means not focusing on the money. Instead, focus on sharing the benefits of your product with the world, as well as on showing off the principal tenets of your company.
Customers should know all about you, the company you work for, and the products you’re selling by the end of a sales pitch. Focus on communicating these points and you’ll have a much better chance of closing the sale.
2. Make the Benefits Obvious
While the features of a product or service can excite people, they’re not the tool you should use to close the sale. People want to know exactly how the things you’re selling can change their lives for the better.
It doesn’t matter if you’re selling on your website, on the phone, or face-to-face—make sure to highlight the benefits that your product or service will provide.
By telling customers about the types of benefits they’ll be able to enjoy, they’ll be much more likely to trust you. They’ll know that you’re not just interested in taking their money.
3. Emphasize Results
When talking about the benefits that your product can provide, make sure to also emphasize the specific results. This provides people with concrete evidence of how the thing you’re selling can help them.
For example, if you’re a copywriter, make sure to get a concrete statistic about how the writing you put out there made a difference. Whether it increased a company’s sales or attracted dozens of new clients, be prepared to share those results.
People have a hard time trusting anecdotal evidence. On the other hand, they’ll have a hard time ignoring empirical evidence that’s backed up by data and results.
4. Rely on the Power of Influence
It’s great if you believe in your product, service, or company, but if you can’t persuade people to have the same view as you, then it will all be for nothing. Influence is a crucial factor in the world of sales.
One of the best ways to build influence today is by producing high-quality, shareable content. Many businesses do this by writing blog posts and other types of articles that answer common consumer questions.
For example, if you’re a copywriter, you might write posts about the value of SEO. If you’re a marketing company, you might explain how to use price conditioning to make more sales.
Remember that influence isn’t the same thing as popularity. You don’t need everyone to like or agree with you—they just need to trust and respect you.
5. Create Brand Reputation and Credibility
Aside from producing high-quality content, you’ll need to look for other ways to boost your brand reputation and credibility. If you don’t, you’ll have a hard time selling to people.
Customer service has a huge effect on brand reputation. People that have poor customer experiences aren’t likely to work with a company again. In some cases, they might even tell their friends and family about their negative experiences.
Ensure that you and your employees are constantly analyzing how you can better improve the customer experience. This will have an enormous impact on your ability to close sales with new customers.
6. Look for Ways to Add Value
One of the best ways to get customers to sign up for your product or service is by providing them with incentives to do so. People love to get more than they pay for.
Depending on the product or service you offer, there are a number of different ways to go about doing this. For example, if you’re selling an app that requires a subscription, offering a month or two for free should convince many people to commit.
Aside from offering signup incentives, make sure to give your customers the value they deserve all the time. Business should never be a give-and-take relationship.
7. Don’t Just Chase
It’s tempting to chase people and try to convince them to commit to a sale, but many times, this can be counterproductive.
Instead of putting all your efforts towards the chase, invest time, energy, and resources into getting them to come to you. The best way of doing this is by educating people about topics related to your business.
Teaching provides people with valuable skills, so by taking the time to educate others, you’ll end up selling more products than you otherwise would.
Get to Work Increasing Sales
Selling products and services can be a challenge, but if you want your company to survive, cracking the code is essential. By following the tips laid out in this guide, you’ll have no problem increasing sales and taking the success of your company to the next level.
Do you now have a better understanding of how to increase company sales? Before you start enjoying the benefits of increased sales, make sure to check out some of our other posts for more business-related guides and tips.
