Boosting sales in your small business

Every business owner understands the fact, that his or her business is not immune to a decrease in sales. There are many different factors that affect this which can include: new competition, unproductive employees, lack of confidence by customers, or changing conditions within the market. Small business owners can especially feel the heat as they compete with larger competitors. However, there are steps that you can take to help increase sales at your company. Here is what you need to know about boosting sales in your small business-

• Start with the fundamentals-The best way to begin is to get back to sales basics. You want to closely examine each part of your sales methods. It can help you ask yourself these questions-
  1. Are you using activities that generate actual leads and bring in customers that are highly interested, or are they just bringing people in?
  2. Do your employees understand the needs or wants of your potential customers? This is important so that they have a clear idea of how to sell to them.
  3. Does your product or service, fit a specific need or problem that your target market is having?
  4. Can you employees go through the entire sales process, including an effective closing? Do you need to consider some retraining of employees?
• Be selective who you sell to-This may seem like the totally wrong approach if you are trying to increase sales. However, if you find that you are spending a great deal of resources on high maintenance clients that are not adding substantially to your bottom line, it may be time to pass them on by. You want to make sure that your customers, who are the most profitable to your business, are the ones who are receiving the most attention.
• Take a close look at how you are pricing your product or service-Small business owners should understand that just slashing prices in order to be competitive, can strike a serious blow to your company, and may even be fatal. If you feel that you are using the wrong pricing model then you should carefully examine how and way you should change it. What you are trying to achieve is to position yourself correctly within your market. History has shown that when things become difficult, the small business that flourishes and grows is the one who adjusts their approach to selling in order to meet current market conditions.
• Re-examine your marketing plan-Your small business' marketing plan may be the right one, when the market is flourishing, however, if the market conditions change, it becomes critical that every marketing dollar that is spent, has a high impact. You should be constantly looking at your marketing strategy to see if the dollars from your marketing budget are being spent in the best places, for the best results.If you find that the marketing dollars are not producing the results you want, you should not simply cut the budget, (this can be fatal for your business). You should move the marketing dollars where it will help to boost sales.
• Review your staff-When sales are coming easy, your tops sales person may be nothing more then an order taker. However, it is important to understand who is actually selling. You should evaluate your staff, for what skills they really possess and who can be the most beneficial to you when your business is not flourishing. If you have staff who not performing up to their potential then you need to focus on training and coaching them, for better selling skills. After a pre-determined period of time if this is not effective, then you need to consider letting them go.