January 9, 2003

Achieving Your New Year's Sales Resolutions

"It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)

Instead of making a resolution to increase sales this New Year without really changing how you sell, how about a little exercise to shake up your thinking? Imagine that your marketing budget is cut in half, and you can no longer spend money on traditional advertising. Are you doomed to fall short of your sales target, or are their other ways you can reach or even exceed your sales goals?

In many of the businesses I've seen over the last year, there are some low cost yet effective improvements that they can undertake to meet or exceed their sales goals even with a diminished marketing budget.

1) Appearances: Do you walk into your company every day and fail to notice the little things? Perhaps the lobby or showroom isn't as clean as it can be. Studies show that people decide whether they'll do business with you within 30 seconds of meeting. Does your business communicate the message you want when a person sees it for the first time? Steps as small as hiring a cleaning service or putting somebody in charge of housekeeping could make a big difference in shaping how customers view your business or how employees feel about their workspace

Similarly, does the appearance and content of your website and collateral material reflect what your company actually does? Or could it be that you're just showing yesterday's goals or lofty promises that you cannot deliver? With the price of generating a sales lead so high, it makes no sense telling a potential customer the wrong story.

2) Greetings: How are people greeted when they contact with your company? I suggest you get a few friends to call your company and try to get hold of you and other members of your company. Ask them to evaluate your voice mail system, the friendliness of your staff, and even the quality of messages employees leave on their voice mail greetings. You might be amazed and shocked how you're evaluated, and how easy it would be to improve.

If you have a showroom or some area where new customers come into your business, consider hiring mystery shoppers to evaluate your business for friendliness and usefulness. Some minor changes in how you greet customer might generate some tremendous sales improvements.

3) Buying: Do you know what it's like to buy a product from your own company? Have you taken the time to ask your existing customers? I know one company owner that randomly calls ten customers every month. He spends at least ten minutes talking to each one about the buying experience. The customers are universally thrilled that an owner cares enough to call. And, the business owner has learned a lot in these informal conversations that have convinced him to reevaluate and improve the way his firm conducts business.

4) Thanking: How many times a year do the businesses that you frequent thank you for your patronage? If you're like me, you'll hear very few thank you's during a typical year. What are you doing to thank your customers? Do you have an official thank you program in place? Do you send thank you cards after a large sale? How about email? Do you plan events to recognize your best customers and celebrate their patronage? Those few companies that answer these questions will win customer loyalty and referrals because they're practicing one of the oldest yet most forgotten business practices.

5) Referrals: Do you know how much it costs to generate a quality sales lead? Many business owners lament the rising cost of generating business yet fail to tap into their most powerful and least expensive lead generating source, their existing client base. How are you cultivating the lead generating potential of your current customers? Do you have a referral program in place? Perhaps your competitors have some great models to consider when analyzing how to boost your referral business.

6) Networking: When building new business contacts, "If you always do what you have always done, you'll always get what you've got" is the perfect maxim. It's a lot easier going back to folks you know rather than trying to meet new ones. If you're already engaged in networking activities, take stock of the results that these activities are generating. Identify the best networker in each group and invite this person to discuss how you could become a more effective networker. If you're not involved in any significant networking activities, now is a great time to start.

Faced with a reduced marketing budget, the most effective tools to increase sales are oftentimes inexpensive and seemingly minor but they can make a huge difference. As the Japanese proverb goes, "Big vision, small steps."

Best wishes,
Patrick Galvin