6 Cheap, Lazy Ways to Increase Sales

No matter how much you love being an entrepreneur, enthusiasm alone isn’t going to keep your business afloat.  Sales, of course, should be your absolute #1 priority at all times, even when you’re focused on other things like renovating your office or store, building your team, increasing brand awareness and doing market research.  But, it can certainly be tough to juggle so many responsibilities at once.

Don’t drop the ball because you’re completely sucked into the process of rebuilding the back-end of your website or branching out in a new area.  You can still increase sales while your mind is drawn elsewhere.  Here are 6 cheap, lazy, easy ways to drum up sales dollars.

Offer customer rewards.  Again, think cheap and easy to manage.  This can be as simple as offering a discount or free gift with purchase on the customer’s birthday.  Though, traditionally, people don’t cash in customer rewards in droves, it can still work to your advantage because people will remember and appreciate that you took the time to show how much you value their patronage.

Give out free samples.  People love free stuff.  Whether you throw in a cheapie sample with an order, offer them to customers off the street to give them a taste of what you’ve got or offer freebies to bloggers in return for reviews, giving out samples will draw people in.  Just don’t take it too far – choose low-cost items, determine how many you can afford to give away ahead of time and limit the period of time they’ll be available.

Throw your regulars a bone. Don’t treat everyone who buys from you like somebody who just walked in off the street. Your regulars are the bread and butter of your business, and you should always give them the incentive to stick with you.  Call them up to give them the inside scoop on new products and upcoming sales, greet them by name, offer them special deals.  They’ll return the favor by recommending you to others, as well as with their own business.

Upsell, upsell, upsell.  Have your sales staff recommend related products and add-ons.  Make sure that, if you have a retail website, both are highly visible and easily accessible from the product page. And make sure that your upsells are actually valuable to the customer. Nobody wants to sit through a sales spiel for something they really don’t need.

Set up a sales incentive program.  Nothing will fire up your staff like giving them a good reason to bust their butts trying to move merchandise or sell services for you. Offer a bonus, a trip, movie tickets, an iPod, a gift certificate or whatever you can come up with in return for reaching or exceeding a certain goal.  The key is making the goal attainable.  If you set the bar too high, they’ll just get discouraged.  Make sure to do the math in terms of making sure the incentive will pay for itself and still net you a profit.

Always include a special offer in your advertising.  There are a lot of bargain seekers out there, and nothing will draw them to you quicker than offering a discount or bonus.  If you’re paying to advertise, you might as well make sure you’ve got a baited hook in there.  People will be more likely to notice the ad if you’ve got something special to offer.  For example, a restaurant could advertise half-price bottles of wine on a slow weekday, or a screenprinting business could offer a free color upgrade for first-time customers.

Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Jackasses: Master The Art Of The Close

It may not feel like it—especially if your mother taught you any manners at all—but great salesmen are made, not born. Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross? Ben Affleck in Boiler Room? They may have been name-taking, ass-kicking machines by the time we saw them on tape, but every sales pro starts out as that kid that gets nervous going into a call or feels the need to hit the bathroom in between every cold call. Bear witness now to seven keys of closing that may or may not have come from Hollywood: [Read more]