How to Stimulate Sales in a Slow Economy – Part 3 of 3
One of the quickest and easiest ways to increase sales is to create a buzz with the development of a sales contest. Motivate your sales staff, lay out the ground rules, and offer a major prize to the top winner.
If you can’t afford to offer a trip, electronics item or other costly incentive, don’t fret, just get creative. Here are some ideas:
– VIP parking
– First right of refusal for the next three major client leads
– Extra paid vacation days
– Free lunches for a week
– A $100 or $150 gift certificate to an upscale restaurant
– Etc.
Additionally, you can motivate your buyers at the same time (as mentioned in a previous installment) to create a double-whammy effect. This also serves to provide your sales staff with additional motivation to get moving and talk to their prospects. How much easier is it to sell when you can give your prospects a compelling reason to buy now? This is the ultimate win-win-win scenario.
Be sure to have a tracking mechanism in place, so that there is a clear winner for your contest, and remember to make it fun!
Another great tip for increasing your sales is to expand your reach.
How can you grow your reach? Advertising might be the first thing that comes to mind, but if you’re already experiencing a decrease in sales due to the economy, you may not have any additional ad dollars in your budget (and adding more could be a hard sell to the corporate higher-ups). But advertising is not the only way to expand your reach.
If your business is primarily brick-and-mortar or local, consider expanding to include online sales. Many free and effective marketing strategies can be implemented, from blogging to article writing to social media marketing.
Conversely, if you mainly conduct business online, consider focusing some of your efforts on your local market. This can include free and low-cost marketing tactics such as public relations, local media interviews (which are free, as opposed to costly ad spots), flyering, coupons, drop cards, networking functions, etc.
Additionally, you may want to create supplemental services or products – these might include slight variations on existing products and services, but targeted at more of a niche market.
Finally, take a look at your greatest resource — your existing client base. It’s a known fact that once people buy from you, they are highly likely to buy again (especially if you delivered what you promised in the original sales offer). Therefore, it makes sense that you would contact your existing clientele to upsell, assist, presell future services or products, etc. Do not underestimate the power of selling to your existing client base!
By implementing these tips, you can expect to see your sales on the rise in no time. Best of luck!