If you are a business owner, you know that sales for the past few months have become increasingly questionable. Some businesses are losing sales and some remain unaffected. Brandt Smith, author of Wealth and Wisdom, offers up 7 helpful tips in his blog article titled, “Recessionproof Your Sales“.
To me, the most important key is to focus on customers. Offering your loyal customers the best service and products you can will help insure that your sales will remain strong. Your customers & clients want to feel like they matter and that they are not just wasting their hard earned money.
Do you think your customers will affect how your business survives during these difficult times? Are any of the 7 keys more important during a recession?
Brandt’s article is great and I think his first point is the one I’d focus on — “going back to basics.”
The temptation we all face is making things too complicated. We lose our focus. Bask to basics makes us remember what we’ve done to have whatever success we’ve had in the first place.
Anita
Steve-Thanks for linking back to my article. It’s good to feel the love!
@Anita-I agree about going back to basics being important. I’ve seen too many companies that desperately look for the newest trick. What they really need to do is go back to what got them the customer in the first place.
I find it amazing that people complicate sales. It is a simple process that takes a lot of hard work and tenacity.
It is quite simple. Fill the demand and provide great customer service while doing so and make the process less complicated so that’s it’s an enjoyable one for the customer. Easy = enjoyable. And reward loyal customers from time to time to keep them coming back. It also helps to develop a rapport with them that builds trust.
Going back to basics is all good if it is connected to your core values. How about adding extra sales and using the 80/20 rule. Go to your 20 best customers and add extra value, know-how, after-sales. etc. It is according Mr. Smith’s suggestion, “Dump the deadbeats”, but maybe coming from a bit different angle? At the same time, look at your costs. I have worked as a cost analyst (in America) and purchaser (in Sweden) and I have seen the effect how decreased costs and a lower total purchasing price, having great result on the bottom line. Think the whole chain, i.e., supply chain management. Don’t only look at your customers, see the whole picture and value your production / services as a starting point. If you want to sell more and earn more profit, you have to understand the mechanisms of the market. You have to live by the trader principle.
Also, ask questions internally in the organization. Why are we missing sales? Why do our customers go to a competitor? What’s the bottle neck in the production, process or overall organization? Have we applied the theory of constraints (Goldratt)?
For inspirational summer reading on the importance of the producers, read (re-read) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand!
Best Premises,
Martin Lindeskog - American in Spirit.
Gothenburg, Sweden.