http://articles.wirek.info/ Articles at Wir Articles en-us http://articles.wirek.info/business/how-to-increase-sales-a%80-part-five.html http://articles.wirek.info/business/how-to-increase-sales-a%80-part-five.html Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:05:55 +0200 When it comes to how to increase sales, there are many important factors to implement. In fact there are too many to adequately deliver them in one article. Therefore, this series of articles on how to increase sales is comprised of five parts.

The first lesson on how to increase sales discusses how to deliver exceptional customer service and can be found here:

The second lesson on how to increase sales discusses how to upsell and the importance of teaching your employees to upsell.

The third lesson on how to increase sales discusses adding value. How can you add value for your customer?

The fourth lesson on how to increase sales discusses how to increase sales revenues by selling to your current customers more often. In other words, increasing the frequency of sales.

If you missed these articles, you can find them on my website at suzannedoyleingram.com

Today's lesson on how to increase sales is about how to increase sales revenues by implementing a Referral Program.

How often do your customers refer their friends and colleagues to you? When you get a referral how do you feel? Do you feel surprised? Lucky? Grateful?

If your business does not have a systematic referral program in place, you must start one immediately. You must begin all new relationships with the understanding that you expect referrals from anyone you do business with.

You could build a million dollar a year business on referrals only!

Most salespeople lamely say something along the lines of, “If you know of anyone who could benefit from our services, please let me know….”

Is this your method too?

If so, you must feel very happy indeed when a referral comes your way! You certainly can’t expect to get very many.

Setting up a referral system for your business is fairly simple to do; the difficulty lies in keeping it up and making it consistent. You shouldn’t decide to promote it to this person and not that person – every single person you do business with should be introduced to the program.

The complexities will depend on what kind of business you have.

I recently set up a referral program for one of my clients who owns a retail store that sells gorgeous high end jewelry, art and home décor. For referral program, she is going to print cards that say the name of her store and referral program across the top. They're going to be the size of business cards which she can easily print inexpensively at www.Vistaprint.com.

On her referral program card, she's going to have the name of her store and referral program across the top. Below that, she's going to have “Referred by___________
Followed by, “Please present this card for 10% off your purchase. Your friend gets 10% off too!” And then she will have the address and phone number of her store.

When someone comes in to her store and makes a purchase, she will ask them, “Have you heard about our referral program?” Then she will explain the referral program to her customer by saying, “If you know anyone who might be interested in shopping at our store, please give them this card and write your name on it. Then when they come in and make a purchase they get 10% off and I keep it on file so the next time you coming you get 10% off too!

Getting referrals is something that you have to work at. It's not good enough to simply say to your current clients, “If you know anyone who might be interested in our company please let me know.” Referrals really don't work that way. You have to have a systematic referral program in place and use it consistently.

]]> http://articles.wirek.info/business/how-to-increase-sales-a%80-part-four.html http://articles.wirek.info/business/how-to-increase-sales-a%80-part-four.html Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:03:28 +0200 When it comes to how to increase sales, there are many important factors to implement. In fact there are too many to adequately deliver them in one article. Therefore, this series of articles on how to increase sales is comprised of five parts.

The first lesson on how to increase sales discusses how to deliver exceptional customer service.

The second lesson on how to increase sales discusses how to upsell and the importance of teaching your employees to upsell.

The third lesson on how to increase sales discusses adding value. How can you add value for your customer?

Today’s lesson discusses how to increase sales revenues by selling to your current customers more often. In other words, increasing the frequency of sales.

You may think that your best customers are the people who buy the most expensive products, but if you carefully analyze your sales results per customer, you might find that your most valuable customer is someone who buys less expensive products, but does so more often. Therefore, increasing the frequency of your “little guy” customers’ purchases can put a lot of money in your pocket in the long run.

How can you increase the frequency of purchases?

It depends what kind of business you have. Obviously, diligent follow up will have an impact no matter what kind of business you have. You must know who your customers are. Start collecting their names and addresses right now if you are not doing so already.

Following up with them will pay for itself. Simply sending a postcard once every three months can be all it takes. Other methods include: sending a newsletter, a coupon (people LOVE a deal and respond very well to coupons), a thank you card, a phone call or an email.

You can automate your follow up very easily with some of the products on the market today. You can set up your CRM program to automatically send out an email once every 60 days to say, “Hi Paul, I wanted to check in with you to see if there’s anything I can help you with right now.” Or get even more in-depth by providing information on your products or services. ALWAYS include a call to action.

Just because you have signs in your store (or on your website) featuring your products doesn’t mean that your customers know about them or remember everything you have. Send them an email describing one or two of your products and the benefits to your customer.

Like I have said in a previous lesson, the expression “did you know?” works very well to remind your customers of a product or service you offer.

“Did you know that we have 17 different sizes available in 15 different colors?”
“Did you know that our umbrellas are 100% fade resistant and guaranteed for 10 years?”
“Did you know our store was rated “Best local shop” by XYZ?”

Effective follow up is the key to increasing the frequency of your sales. Remind your customers about your products and services! If you don’t follow up, you’re simply leaving money on the table. I would go so far as to say that not following up is just plain lazy.

Many sales people are afraid that they’ll be perceived as harassing their customers and prospects if they follow up too often. But the reality is that many people do their planning at different times than their buying, and by following up you will keep your name top of mind. There is a big difference between politely following up and reminding your clients of your products and services and bombarding them with annoying emails and voice messages. I once worked with someone who used to email his prospects with the subject line:

“ETA of order?”

Now that is disrespectful, I think. That’s not the way I work, nor do I recommend it for you. I would rather use an expression like, “Please let me know if you are ready to move forward and I’ll be happy to help you.”

In summary, to increase the frequency of sales, make sure you are consistently following up with your clients. You will definitely increase sales revenues if you implement automatic follow up. It takes hardly any time and the results can be quite dramatic.

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