When it comes to business growth, sales is most often the driving factor that comes to mind. While it is true that sales is ultimately the way to grow a business, there are many different lenses to view sales through as you lead and grow your firm. It is essential to ensure that you are not overlooking a sales strategy that could potentially benefit your firm’s profitability. The first sales strategy that you can implement in order to increase revenue is selling to more. In other words, consider how you can use advertising, word-of-mouth recommendations, and other promotional methods to increase your client base. Capitalize on your existing customers’ happiness with your products and services, and encourage them to outwardly advocate for your brand. If increasing your market share is your primary objective, this may a major strategic focus for your company. However, while selling to more may be an effective strategy, it can also be a costly one. In fact, it can cost up to seven times more to sell to new customers than it does to capitalize on your existing clientele. If this is the route you choose, it is crucial to ensure that you have an effective game plan to keep customer acquisition costs low in order for your business to truly grow as a result. Because selling to more can be costly, an alternative is simply to sell more. Rather than attempting to add new customers to your roster, selling more products or services to your existing clients may be a more cost-effective route, as well as help with retention and maintaining/building relationships with a loyal customer-base. Consider what new products and/or services you could potentially offer to your current customers. Is there something additional you could offer internally? Externally, could you develop partnerships that could also add value for your customers? The third sales strategy to consider in order to grow your business and increase revenue is to simply increase the price of your products/services. In other words, sell for more. It is important to note that this strategy could go either way. While increasing purchase price may bring in more revenue if you already have a very loyal consumer base, an upward shift in product/service price could also put you at risk of losing business. It is essential to be strategic as you consider what price point makes sense for how you are positioned in the market. One potential benefit of sticking to a higher price point is brand perception; your brand may be seen as luxury or premium with a higher price point, which could work to your advantage.But take the time to understand the perception of your brand in the market before executing this strategy. Just because you think you are a more premium brand, potential customers may not. Justifying price increases requires a more strategic approach than just raising them.
When it comes to sales, it is important to start with strategy. From there, consider all angles as you approach sales, in order to ensure that you are effectively positioning your brand in the market to acquire the most revenue possible.
___
Angelo Ponzi is a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer and Brand Strategist. He has over 25+ years of business experience in sales, marketing, branding, strategic planning and market research. His senior level expertise includes developing and directing comprehensive market/product plans, branding and communications plans and strategic business planning for a variety of business-to-business, financial, consumer, medical, package goods, general retail, restaurants and high-tech clients. He has led both small and large teams at global, national, regional and startup companies, as well as worked with products in all stages of their lifecycle, from inception to implementation. Previous positions have been on both the client and advertising agency sides of the business giving him a unique understanding of his client’s business operations, sales, marketing and communications needs. Learn more at theponzigroup.com. He also the host of the radio show/podcast, Business Growth Cafe.