Entrepreneur.com has two articles at their on-line magazine on marketing. One deals with techniques to optimize the latest in web-based sales. The other stresses that we should never stray too far from time tested sales techniques.
“Setting Sale” by Chris Penttila walks us through the five basics of building sales in a business. For Penttila’s take on these five I recommend you take a careful look at his article. Here are my takes on these five sales fundamentals:
1. Make sales contacts more effective. This is true from every aspect of sales from advertising to direct selling. It all costs money, which is generally a scarce resource for most entrepreneurs, so make sure your efforts have maximum impact on getting orders in the door.
2. Increase market share. In a competitive market, remember that most of your sales come from competitors. Know how customers make their decisions on who to buy from, know how well each competitor stacks up on these criteria, and know what you need to do better to take these customers away. Most of us think we know how our customers make decisions. Do some simple research to make sure you really know. It is often quite surprising.
3. Increase customer loyalty. It is easier and cheaper to keep a customer you have than to chase a new one. Don’t just worry about getting more folks “in the front door”, make sure you “close the back door” so you don’t lose the ones you already have.
4. Increase margins. The real goal is profits, not sales.
5. Reduce sales cycle. Know your sales cycle (first contact through closing the sale). Measure you progress along the sales cycle, as this is probably the only measure you will have of where you are headed (financial statements only look backwards). Make sure your accounting system gives you this information consistently.
And now for the new. Catherine Seda gives advice on how to increase sales through more effective use of Internet search engines in her article “In the Click”. It has gotten much more complex, so you may need to get professional help to make the Internet work for your business. Here are a few tips from Seda’s article on to get effective help:
-Find the experts. Read articles and books, and attend conferences to identify the companies with strong industry visibility. Even if they’re not good matches for you, they could recommend other reputable firms.
-Interview firms. Don’t be afraid to quiz companies about their marketing philosophies, process, tools, reporting and results. Ask them to define spam, then refer to your resources to see if experts agree or disagree.
-Avoid responding to e-mail spam. The “Get a number-one position for $99” spam is likely from companies that will spam the search engines, too.
-Speak to client references. Ask them to describe their experiences, results and recommendations for working with the company you’re interviewing.
-Outsource. Some companies manage their own paid placement campaigns in-house while other companies manage SEO. Find out what your options are.
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