Every Business at some point in their life cycle will be asking itself " How Do You Increase Sales?" . Often for senior managers in most companies this is a question that is constantly on their mind. For a lot of companies they simply copy the same things that other companies in their sector are doing. The internet has presented a massive opportunity for businesses of any size to reach millions of potential customers . The question is - "is your business maximising this opportunity?"
For most businesses their website is something they feel they have to have because their competitors and other companies have one. So very little thought or real strategy of making it a sales generating tool has gone into the website creation. For most senior level managers and business owners understanding why people walk through the doors of their business and why they purchase from them is something they strive to understand routinely for their business. But for some reason when it comes to their website - their gateway to millions of prospective customers - very little thought goes into questions like these at the point of creating or reviewing their web presence. Understanding how your prospects search , for the type of services that you offer, on search engines like Google will help you formulate the right strategy to attract these people to your website. Free tools such as Google Keyword Tool will help you identify keywords used by your prospective customers in searches and using these keywords to rank high on Google. You need a clear strategy to take advantage of this.
Another area that most businesses - large or small - new or well established - fail to do well at is Follow Up. There are three main areas that you need to ensure you have a good followup system in place . First is at the initial point of contact with your company. 20% of the people that contact your company will engage in some way - either asking for further information or actually purchasing your product or service to become a customer . Most businesses tend tend to focus all their attention on this group. Additional opportunity surely lies in the 80% that did not engage. By putting in place a system to capture details of some of these 80% and plug them into a follow up system that nurtures them so that a percentage of them ultimately become customers.
What about your existing customers? These are people that have already done business with you, There are 2 things that you can do. First you need to wow them as a new customer. This can be through a series of emails and customer calls as well as satisfaction surveys. The satisfaction survey is very important as it gives you the opportunity to ask for the next thing that will also help you increase sales - Referrals
A fact that most businesses tend to totally ignore is that group of prospects that may have engaged - even gotten a quote or proposal but failed to convert into a customer. Most of the time, this group of prospects end up in the "I will get to these at some time" pile. Remember these are people that have already expressed an element of interaction with your business - by putting in place a long term follow up sequence that nurtures these people so that in the future, when they need to purchase a product or service that you offer - you are likely to be their first port of call.
For most businesses their website is something they feel they have to have because their competitors and other companies have one. So very little thought or real strategy of making it a sales generating tool has gone into the website creation. For most senior level managers and business owners understanding why people walk through the doors of their business and why they purchase from them is something they strive to understand routinely for their business. But for some reason when it comes to their website - their gateway to millions of prospective customers - very little thought goes into questions like these at the point of creating or reviewing their web presence. Understanding how your prospects search , for the type of services that you offer, on search engines like Google will help you formulate the right strategy to attract these people to your website. Free tools such as Google Keyword Tool will help you identify keywords used by your prospective customers in searches and using these keywords to rank high on Google. You need a clear strategy to take advantage of this.
Another area that most businesses - large or small - new or well established - fail to do well at is Follow Up. There are three main areas that you need to ensure you have a good followup system in place . First is at the initial point of contact with your company. 20% of the people that contact your company will engage in some way - either asking for further information or actually purchasing your product or service to become a customer . Most businesses tend tend to focus all their attention on this group. Additional opportunity surely lies in the 80% that did not engage. By putting in place a system to capture details of some of these 80% and plug them into a follow up system that nurtures them so that a percentage of them ultimately become customers.
What about your existing customers? These are people that have already done business with you, There are 2 things that you can do. First you need to wow them as a new customer. This can be through a series of emails and customer calls as well as satisfaction surveys. The satisfaction survey is very important as it gives you the opportunity to ask for the next thing that will also help you increase sales - Referrals
A fact that most businesses tend to totally ignore is that group of prospects that may have engaged - even gotten a quote or proposal but failed to convert into a customer. Most of the time, this group of prospects end up in the "I will get to these at some time" pile. Remember these are people that have already expressed an element of interaction with your business - by putting in place a long term follow up sequence that nurtures these people so that in the future, when they need to purchase a product or service that you offer - you are likely to be their first port of call.
0 comments:
Post a Comment