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Increased sales. Practical advice from a business consultant

Recently, due to the crisis, I, as a business consultant, have been asking a lot of clients questions related to increasing sales. Businessmen have almost no questions related to the search and purchase of materials or finished goods, as well as the organization of production. It is no secret that today half of Russia is engaged in resale, and the other half wants to do this. That is why, first of all, everyone is concerned with the question: how to increase sales.

In addition, when I lead projects related to the organization of the accounting system, the implementation of CRM and other software products, I also encounter these issues. In the process of working on a project, I constantly communicate with business owners, with managers, and heads of sales departments. I get a lot of information about how sales of different companies lead, how different groups of products are sold, what methods of sales organization they use in one way or another, what ideas lead to success, and what decisions turn out to be unsuccessful.

When I faced the problem of increasing sales, I realized that these issues are poorly covered on the Internet. No normal sales materials. On the net, you will find either fantasies on how to increase sales in 14 days, sales scripts and other similar information, or various books on marketing and pricing, but they are not relevant for small and medium businesses (how can the book on how to increase your sales of Coca-Cola?)

In this article I decided to talk about the tools that lead to an increase in sales. My advice is practical and requires organizational rather than financial costs, which is very important when revenue falls.
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I will talk, first of all, about improving the efficiency of work with the existing client base. Search and attraction of new clients, promotion of the company on the Internet and offline will be the topic of a separate article.

Some of the solutions that will be discussed below will work in a comprehensive manner, i.e. will not only increase sales, but also attract new customers. But still this will not be the main focus of the article. Here and now I will talk about increasing sales.

All the ideas and solutions that I will talk about are tested in practice by my clients. Nevertheless, I recommend that you be careful with this or that advice and implement it taking into account the realities of your business. Some solutions are intended only for manufacturers, others are suitable for almost everyone.

Increase the value of the goods.


If your company is engaged in the production of any product, then one of the solutions that have a positive effect on sales is to increase the value of the product. In many cases, to increase sales, you can change the appearance of the product, for example, its packaging. And, as a result, the value of the goods in the eyes of buyers will change.

An example of the implementation of the solution

My client's company was engaged in the production of cheap clothes, which were sold in markets and in cheap shops. As a result of the analysis, it turned out that this company’s main competitor was China. Products perceived by the company were perceived by consumers as Chinese, and the price of products was slightly higher.

It is clear that the clothes created in Russia cannot compete with the Chinese for the price. Even the fact that the quality of the products was higher did not save in the current situation, since the nondescript appearance of the product, together with the relatively high price, reduced the interest of buyers.

We conducted an analysis of the product and its perception by customers. Consulted with dealers and sellers. And they came to a rather risky decision: they changed the packaging to a better and more modern one.

What we did:

As a result, the product in the perception of buyers "fell" out of its usual price category. Thanks to packaging, it began to be perceived by customers as more expensive and of higher quality. At the same time, at first, the price was not raised at all, but the real cost price increased quite a bit.

Thus, the product "went away" in the perception of buyers from the niche filled with Chinese goods, and the real price increased only slightly, since the cost of the carton packaging per unit of goods turned out to be quite small. Of course, we had to tinker with the introduction of the new packaging; any changes in the production are associated with certain difficulties. But this is a separate story.

But thanks to the new packaging, there was a transfer of goods from one value category to another in the perception of customers, which became a real springboard for the increase in sales volumes.

Quality work with the order.


For some reason, many companies still neglect the work with the order of the buyer. Of course, certain actions are carried out. The manager accepts the order, processes it, issues an invoice, then shipment is made, etc. At the same time, most of the small and medium businesses, and I remind you, I work with these segments, it does not work on order.

The sales departments of companies are somewhat like stalls: they sell what they have in stock. And if the requested product is not on the balances, the manager does not even offer to arrange the necessary position “to order”. Most often this happens because the system does not have the necessary tools, and the manager simply does not know how to place such an order.

It would seem that the solution lies on the surface. Do not refuse to buyers! Offer not only analogues, but also the design of the desired product "to order". Those. Your customer orders everything he needs. And the manager accepts the order and notifies the buyer about the delivery time, taking into account the deadline for the missing positions on the balance. All companies that have implemented this system have received a noticeable increase in sales.

In this case, I'm not talking about online stores that work without a warehouse at all, i.e. only under the order, regardless of whether they report this fact to their customers or not. I am talking about companies that have their own warehouse, but at the same time they can order goods from the supplier.

What is the problem of implementing such a scheme of work? It lies in the fact that companies do not know how to technically implement it. Now I will give an example of how such a scheme was implemented at my client who is engaged in the wholesale of ceramic tiles.

All products are divided into two groups:


A special system was developed in this company that sells imported goods with a long delivery time (from the time of order to receipt at the warehouse), when a customer received an order, if the warehouse does not have its goods, and before the next delivery another month, the manager can find out if the product is available from a competitor and order it. The manager includes this product (Alien product) in the customer’s order with the designation Under the order (To collateral), and when the customer’s order is posted in the system, the order / orders are automatically created for the supplier / suppliers (data on suppliers is taken from the product card).

As a result, the client receives all the assortment he needs and continues to work actively with your company. He will not go to a competitor in search of the position he needs, because you have everything he needs.

This approach significantly increases sales, while in many cases the profit grows slightly, because you buy goods in small quantities, perhaps even from competitors, and therefore you sell some of the positions with almost no margin. What is the point?

You get customer loyalty. Your customer does not leave, draws up an application from you, buys along with non-profit "alien" position other goods. And you will notice an increase in profits from such a scheme for the month, quarter or any other reporting period. By increasing customer loyalty, sales and profits will increase significantly.

Sale of related (additional) services.


Many companies sell only goods without any additional services. But often it is the service that contributes to the fact that buyers make a choice in your favor.

For example, among my clients was a company specializing in the sale of cable products. At some point in time, they decided to introduce an additional service - cable laying. Those. in addition to the delivery of all, they began to offer cutting the cable on site, as well as installing it at the customer. As a result, not only has the profit increased by paying for the additional service, but also the volume of sales of goods.

What is the reason for this increase in sales? Some customers of such products consider it a great advantage to be able to order everything in one place: both the product and the service. They do not want to spend time searching for performers and cannot install (laying) the cable they need on their own. Those. in this case, customers argue as private buyers: “if I bought a sofa, I need to assemble it right away, even if it is for an extra fee”.

For some reason, many companies neglect this opportunity to increase customer loyalty, the attractiveness of products for new customers, as well as profit margins. In fact, selling services is a great way to increase sales. Do not forget about it.

Make softer the terms of cooperation.


Many companies work with their clients on very harsh conditions. Especially often those who work in the market for a long time, often since the 90s, work with imported goods, with products that have no analogues in the market, and so on.

For example, I had a client who traded in imported professional cosmetics for beauty salons. With the fact that one bank can cost between 17 euros and more, at the same time, in order for the dealer to receive a 5% discount, it was necessary to execute the volume of purchases in 2500 euro, and to get a discount of 20% - 7,500 euros. In addition, dealers committed themselves to buy and distribute magazines that no one needed. There were other requirements, often uncomfortable and unfriendly towards customers.

What has been done to increase sales in this company?

The company has reduced the threshold for receiving discounts. They did not make a one-time total discount or share, they made milder conditions than they provided not only sales growth, but also customer loyalty.

Those. to increase sales, you can simply soften the terms of cooperation. This is very important for your customers. The market is constantly evolving, competition is growing in all areas. Even if you trade in something exclusive and special, some analogues appear on the market sooner or later.

For example, a client, which was discussed above, sells products for beauty industry professionals. The final consumer of its products were and remain private masters and beauty salons. On the one hand, professionals get used to the quality and characteristics of a particular brand. On the other hand, if the price becomes too high or an analogue appears that will buy more profitable, they can reconsider their preferences.

Usually, customers who do not want to soften the conditions of cooperation, argue the following arguments:

But! It is better to lose 10 kopecks at a discount, but to earn 2 rubles, than not to lose those 10 kopecks, but also not to earn anything.

Synergy.


Synergy is a summing effect of the interaction of two or more factors, characterized by the fact that their action significantly exceeds the effect of each individual component in the form of their simple sum. Wikipedia

What is a synergistic effect from a business point of view and what do I mean when I talk about synergy?

Many companies that work simultaneously with several directions, for example, sell goods and services that are not related to each other or are weakly connected, completely divide these areas up to the creation of different websites and different legal entities for each direction. Also, the sales departments do not interact with each other, which is a noticeable disadvantage. What can be done in this case? Combine different directions under one brand.

Again, I will give an example of a company whose activities are related to beauty salons. This example is very convenient and clear, and therefore I often use it. In this company there are beauty salons directly, there is a training department, there is a department for wholesales of hair care products. And they all work independently of each other.

Yes, they work under the same brand, but in fact they are not merged: they have different non-referenced sites, culture or business process of transferring information about the company as a whole and its divisions are not developed. It is almost impossible to find out to the client of the salon that there is training in the company, just as a wholesale buyer can learn about the salon and its services only by chance.

What have I done for this company?

The first and simplest - all three units combined into one site. Those. A person who visits the site sees all three areas of the company's activities. This increases the solidity, the level of trust, as well as informs people about those or other additional capabilities of the company.

If the site is visited, for example, by a master in searching for a product, then in addition to the assortment, he learns that you can always get trained in working with these tools and also evaluate their effectiveness by visiting a beauty salon. Similarly, merging directions has a positive effect in other cases.

Moreover, such an association increases the level of trust in the company as a whole, as people see that the company is large, solid, engaged in several areas, etc. Also, experts from different directions began to recommend each other. Thus, a synergistic effect has manifested itself, i.e. teamwork in different directions led to increased efficiency in each of them.

Start selling through the site.


Until now, many wholesalers and manufacturers of goods do not use their sites for direct sales. As a result, some of the potential customers are lost.

Even if you have beautifully presented all your products on the site, but there is no price next to the product, the person who has found you through the search engines or following an advertising link will most likely go away without buying or calling. There is a rule: a product without a price is not a product. As long as a person does not see the value figure, he can think whatever he wants. And far from everyone agrees to call or send requests, especially as there are competitors' websites with prices and convenient order buttons next to each other (in a search engine on adjacent lines).

Now I’m not talking about sales to the end consumer, there’s an obvious need for an online store, I’m talking about selling in the B2B sector, where representatives of the commercial sector are looking for materials and products for their own business, and therefore browsing mainly the websites of manufacturers, dealers, regional representatives, etc. d.

What do they write on such sites? "Call us during business hours", "Send a request for a price." But after all, a visitor may be on the site during off-hours or weekends. An application with a request is left by no means all and not always. In general, many people, in the absence of price, subconsciously begin to suspect that they can be deceived here, and therefore they try not to leave any contact details. Or suspect that the price is not shown on the site due to the fact that it is too high. In any case, potential buyers leave the site without a purchase and application. So, show your prices!

Often the question arises: if we are distributors, start selling goods to our own dealers' customers through the site, will this not interfere with business?

No, it will not. First, you, as distributors, can set a single price. The main thing that it was not lower than your dealers. And secondly, you can add a page with a list of your dealers so that the customer can decide whether to buy from him and wait for delivery from another city or select a supplier in your region.

Such a decision will even help increase sales. For example, if a buyer from Murmansk comes to your site, in any case he will not order the goods from you in Moscow, the goods will have to wait too long and the delivery will be expensive. At the same time, if he finds a dealer in your region on your site, the sale will take place, even if the dealer, who, in turn, orders more goods from you.

If you inform your partners in a timely manner that you are putting prices on the site, and you will also be aware of any changes in pricing policy in a timely manner, this will not harm their business. And if you offer your partners to put their data on your site, they will gratefully provide all the necessary information.

Do not forget that your customers and partners are, most often, small regional companies that are poorly represented on the Internet. And your website, most likely, occupies a leading position in the search results, since you are a distributor. So, this interaction will benefit both you and your partners.

Put prices on the site, develop your project, according to the brand name it should be among the first in search results. Make sales through the site. And lay out the contacts of your partners. As a result, the number of sales will increase significantly, buyers will find your website and order goods either from you or your dealers.

Another common concern is that dealers will be opposed to you showing prices, since buyers on your site, by looking at prices, may themselves express a desire to become a dealer.

What can be said here? These concerns are dealer's problems. For you, such interest from potential new partners is only a plus. Any business should grow and develop. And the potential threat that you can change a dealer in a particular region will stimulate your dealers to work better, develop more actively, sell more. The dealer will not go to another supplier, even if you have a buyer, and he has a competitor in his own region. And your business should grow.

Discounts on the volume of production.


Many companies set discounts for a particular order, announce various promotions, but very rarely use discounts on the volume of products. Or they set a very high, one might say, inaccessible threshold for receiving such a discount.

Most likely, you yourself know this marketing law: with each unit of product purchased, the desire to buy from a customer decreases.

Accordingly, the more he has already bought, the less desire he has to buy more. And a volume discount helps overcome this psychological factor.

And here again there are objections: because of discounts part of the profit from the sale of goods is lost.

I remind you: in a falling market, the loss of a small part of the profit from the sale of a unit of goods is not the greatest loss. It is much worse if this product ceases to be sold at all or its sales are reduced.

A volume discount encourages the customer to order more. As a result, you will fully compensate for the loss of profits due to the price reduction due to the increase in sales and you will get a loyal customer, which is much more important than the short-term profit in terms of business development.

Competent move - hire a "star".


Today, sales managers are in great demand. The number of vacancies in this specialty is huge. At the same time, businessmen very often offer their future managers a very low salary and a more than modest percentage of sales. Who can they hire under these conditions? How successful will this specialist work?

Under the conditions of a falling market, when selling skills are valued at an incredibly high rate, companies tend to save on sales managers.

Here is a paradox. And the reason for this paradox is banal greed. But you understand that momentary greed does not bring anyone to good?

It should be understood that in most successful companies a significant part of sales rests on one or two specialists, who know everything about products, know how to find a common language with any client, know how to sell at the "star" level. But these experts are much more expensive than an ordinary sales manager.

Do not be stingy, hire such a "star" in your sales department. Believe me, the quality and sales volumes will pay back all your costs for the purchase of "stars". Do not rely on a large number of cheap and weak sellers. It is better to spend the same money on one really cool manager.

Yes, the "star" will have to pay a lot more. Yes, you will have to test its level in practice. Yes, there is always the risk of running into a swindler. But all these costs and difficulties will pay off completely when a real "star" appears in your sales department.

If you study the work of companies with a strong sales department, in almost every case you will see in this department one or two steep specialists of the “star” level. These "stars" can always tell colleagues a good solution, they pull the rest, help and train as they go. As a result, the entire sales department works much more efficiently.

As Ilon Mask said: “The number never compensates for talent, and two people who do not know something are no better than the same one.”

So you should not buy a lot of cheap employees, look for talent!

Acceptance of money through cards, Internet wallets, etc.


Strangely enough, but such an obvious plus, as the expansion of the list of payment methods, is overlooked by the majority of businessmen. I would like to remind all businessmen: we live in the 21st century, and cash payment along with bank or postal money transfer are by far not the most popular payment methods.

Today, in all areas, Internet wallets, credit and debit cards are actively used, and in some cases even mobile phone accounts act as a source of funds. And the more payment methods available to your customers, the higher the likelihood that the purchase will take place.

Often when refusing to connect payment via the Internet, the argument sounds: “Why should I lose money (3-4%) when cash withdrawals?”

It's simple: in cases when a person for one reason or another cannot pay your bill during the specified period of time, does not consider it possible to spend time and energy on finding a payment method convenient for you or does not want to pay for goods in cash, the sale will not take place at all. And then you lose not 3-4%, but all possible profit from the sale.

For example, when ordering through the website or by telephone, some customers seek to immediately make payment just to be sure that the goods are reserved and will be delivered on time. And if you can not offer him a suitable method of payment, the customer can go to your competitors.

One more example. Small companies often do not have terminals for payment by bank cards or card accounts for direct transfers from card to card. They work like many years ago: they write out bills that can be paid in a bank, or they offer to pay for goods in cash.

I personally observed the work of one of these companies in the process. And what I noticed: some buyers came to them with credit cards. They were all sent to an ATM located nearby. But not all returned. The reason was that when cash withdrawal, these clients lost 2% of the amount. Their discount did not exceed 5%. And payment in cash meant the lack of documents. As a result, the discount did not look so attractive, and buyers went to look for a more profitable solution.

Accept as many types of payment as possible! Your customers should be comfortable. Remember: it is better to lose 2 rubles in cash out of 100 rubles, than not to get any profit at all. Yes, you will not lose anything at the same time, but you will not earn either.

Increase conversion.


In this case, conversion is the conversion of your visitors in the office, store or website into buyers, i.e. in the people who made the order and made the payment. And if you have a question about increasing sales, then you also need to increase conversion.

Have you ever wondered why many people show interest in your company, read the information on the site, ask questions in the office or in the store and leave without buying?

But besides the objective reasons for this behavior, there are also your mistakes and shortcomings. For example, the lack of prices on the site. I already told about it above. There are other errors that negatively affect the transformation of a visitor into a buyer.

I had a client who collected a record number of such errors on his website:


What did I do to increase the conversion for this client?

The first thing introduced the electronic document. Now, when she received the application from the site, she immediately entered the common database, and a responsible manager was appointed for her, who was obliged to work with this application in a short time.

I also improved the quality of interaction between employees. There were many moments here, I had to change a lot, in fact, the whole structure of the company underwent changes to one degree or another. I also brought order to the site, helped to correct mistakes and simplify customers access to information.

As a result of transformations, the number of applications from the site, as well as, more importantly, the number of purchases made, increased many times with the same number of visitors to the web resource.

I recommend that you analyze and identify the points where you can have a client disruption: “falling off the phone”, bad talking managers, an inconvenient or uninformative website, high prices or tough cooperation conditions. Carefully study these points, think over the loyalty program - and then the conversion will certainly increase.

Use all channels of interaction with customers.


Quite often, companies use only part of the possible channels to interact with customers and to find new customers. For example, some work only through the site, others exploit ads in Yandex.Direct and nothing more, others work at exhibitions, and some use SMS-sending. In fact, they, like a drunken man in an old and well-known joke, are not looking where they lost, but where they are light, i.e. use only those methods that once showed a good result.

Use all the channels that are available to you. Inform your customers that this or that action is taking place, prices are lowered, new products have appeared and everything that you consider important. Use all methods for this at once. Let it be news on the site, email and SMS distribution, leaflets and letters on paper, announcements on the Internet, meetings, seminars, customer calls, etc. Do not neglect any of the possible channels of information. Thus, you will be able to reach the maximum audience.

Take orders online.


When I talk about the need to take orders online, I mean the B2B business segment. Until now, many companies have ignored the ability to receive orders via the Internet. At best, some form in Excel and email are used. And most often all orders are taken over the phone.

The arguments of those who refuse to work online are of the same type: “they will not understand, they will not want to study, only we will spend time”, etc.

In fact, today Russia is ranked 6th in the availability and prevalence of broadband Internet in the world. Most of your customers now have very good internet. And the ability to use online order forms is also very well developed. And so do not underestimate your customers. , -, . online, , . , .

Moreover, the ability to work online increases the loyalty of your customers. They will see your balances and the entire list of your products. Will be able to order more, view the full list of products. While ordering by phone, a lot depends on the manager, on his knowledge of the range, on whether he will be able to offer the goods needed by the client. And when ordering online, the client himself sees everything you can offer him, sees prices, the cost of the order. Do not deprive your customers of such a convenient tool, check in practice: the introduction of an online order very often increases the average bill.

Be always available.


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All these numbers are the work numbers of managers who constantly serve wholesale customers, that is, at some point in time, all numbers may be occupied. And who among us will dial all 7 numbers without dialing two, maximum three numbers?

Be available always and be sure to properly configure your mail, phone and other options for customer access to you! Do not miss anything important.

Remove insider.


Today, many companies exist at the expense of another, larger company, in which the insider works. Those.In the sales department, there is an employee who regularly “drains” orders and customers of another company. It usually happens imperceptibly, it is very difficult to catch an insider, it is even harder to blame.

For example, his reaction to the customer’s call may be this: “We at the moment, unfortunately, do not have the product you need, but you can contact this company, they are our partners, and they definitely have everything.”

Another option, an insider calls a deliberately high price, or simply reports that this product is not on the balances, despite the fact that it is available. In this case, the manager remains the contact details of the customer: his mobile phone, which is displayed on the screen, other information received during this call or earlier.

All this information is transmitted to a competitor, who calls the client and offers him exactly what is needed, while always ready to offer cooperation conditions more attractive than your company. Naturally, the customer makes a purchase at the place where they called him and offered the necessary goods at a bargain price. As a result, you invested in promotion, worked with a client, spent time and energy, and a competitor gets a profit.

How to calculate the insider?


It is possible that there is no insider in your company, and your sales problems lie in a completely different field. On the one hand, it is not necessary with perseverance of the paranoiac to arrange massive and regular checks. So you only push previously loyal employees to dismiss and, perhaps, to insiderism. But vigilance is not worth losing.

Conclusion


In conclusion, I would like to say what can not be done in any case: you can not arrange sales of goods. What benefits the retail sector is viewed as a weakness in the B2B sector.

Retail customers need to consume now, because any promotions and sales attract his favorable attention. A wholesale buyer expects a long-term perspective. And this client is more important than stability, rather than immediate benefits. Upon learning that you are selling a product or giving inadequate discounts, the client comes to the conclusion that your company is “sinking” and will soon leave the market, respectively, a long-term cooperation with it will not work.

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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/295538/

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