3 Easy Ways To Making More Sales (And How To Do Each)

So here’s the thing: sales are the lifeblood of all business. You can be happy all you want to know people love you but if you’re not generating sales, your business is going to die – plain and simple. With all the scramble caused by a bum economy, businesses are closing up shop but what they’re neglecting (and what you won’t be) are the 3 easiest ways to make more sales.

To be brutally honest, I’m surprised to see business owners not understand these three ways; it isn’t rocket science. But alas, it’s important to brush up on old skills and be reminded from time to time.

In this post, I want to share three easy ways to make more sales and how to do each of them.

1. Get More Customers Through The Door

First up is captain obvious: if you can bring in more customers, you’ll generate more sales. Unfortunately, many businesses aren’t very good at doing this.

Ecommerce websites rely heavily on only a few traffic generation methods, disregard user experience and conversion on their website. It’s no wonder why so many online businesses are shutting down; they’re putting all of their eggs in one basket! Just because you believe you have a great product doesn’t mean the customer thinks the same – it’s foolish to assume.

So how can an eCommerce bring in more customers and thus, make more sales? Here are 3 quick methods:

• Diversify Your Advertising Platforms. Don’t use a single PPC campaign as your only method of advertising on the web. There are dozens of other networks which allow you to advertise besides Google including Yahoo, Bing and individual websites within your niche. In fact, many of these other networks are pennies on the dollar compared to going with the Big G.
• Build Free Traffic. Article marketing, social media marketing, video marketing; the list goes on and on. Yes, each of these methods do technically take time to build but when targeting the long-tail search phrases, you’ll be able to keep high ranks for very relevant keywords in your niche. Free traffic is free traffic. Start a campaign submitting articles to article directories, install a business blog, log into your Twitter or Facebook account and engage the community!
• Start a Referral or Affiliate Service. What better way to drive more traffic to your website than a referral or affiliate service. Setting up a referral system doesn’t take much time and won’t cost you much; the rewards are tremendous. Affiliate sales help give your customers that extra little nudge to tell their friends and family which in hopes bring more sales to your store.

2. Sell More To Existing Customers

Here’s the problem with bringing in new customers: they’re expensive as hell! The money you placed toward online and offline advertising should always be configured as part of the customer acquisition cost; you’ll be surprised just how much you’re really paying to make that one sale.

To remedy this inefficient customer model, you need to begin focusing on the customers you already have. Since you’ve already acquired their business, selling to them again will be much easier as you’ve already built a relationship.

Here are 3 very simple ways to sell to existing customers and increase your sales:

• Pick Up The Phone. That’s right, people still use phone as a large portion of their daily routine. Pick up the phone and give your customers a call, have a chat with them and thank them for their business. Don’t push a sale immediately else you’ll drive them away, build a relationship firsts, solve their needs and then offer your products or services again.
• Start A Newsletter. If a person loves your business, they’re most likely to keep up to date with what you have to offer. The easiest method to keep your customers in the fold is through a newsletter. You can use this newsletter to share deals, new products, information and highlight key events in your business. Even a newsletter once a month will help keep your business in the minds of your customers.
• Give Incentives and Hold Promotions. If you’re like me, you jump with joy when you get free shipping on your order you had not expected. Timing is everything, strike when the iron is hot. Next time your customer is back on your eCommerce site, send them over a discount code, free shipping or a free item on their purchase. Additionally, you could use promotions to bring your customers back in the fold (combine this with your newsletter).

3. Fire Your Worst Customers, Focus on the Best

How many times have you been stuck on the receiving end of your worst customer, taking their verbal abuse for a problem you truly didn’t cause. It seems some people just want to get a rise out of you – taking out their own frustrations on your business.

Here’s the secret however: you have the right to fire your worst customers. That’s right, if people are causing too much of a hassle, being jerks or trying to scam you out of products/services or time – just let them go.

By not dealing with these negative customers, you can use your time to focus on the ones which return the best investment. Here are 3 ways you can improve your business by firing your worst customers:

• Politely Decline Business. Customers will be shocked when they get the reply that you won’t be doing business with them anymore. “What, but I’m the customer!”. Exactly, but if you’re a jerk to employees and trying to scam the system, you don’t get the privilege of buying. Politely tell them you no longer will be doing business with the customer, make sure every open order is settled and even recommend another company for them to deal with.
• Remove The Bad, Keep The Good. If you subscribe to the 80/20 rule of business, you understand that nearly 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. Instead of spending the entire day trying to handle your bad customers, use your time to help the good. Your good customers will already have a great relationship with your business and are more inclined to buy again – give them incentives to come back, tell them how important they are and spend more time answering their questions.
• Keep A Running Tally On People. For as much great press Zappos gets about great customer service, even they keep tabs on customers trying to cheat the system. Don’t throw out a bad customer on the first incident, simply keep a running tally on how both parties reacted. If it seems the customer is going out of their way to disrupt your business, trying to cheat you of your products/services or take up entirely too much of your employee’s time, assess the tallies and decided if they’re worth letting go.

By using these 3 easy ways to make more sales, you’ll soon see a significant rise in your revenue and productivity. By bringing in more customers through a diverse advertising campaign, keeping existing customers and trimming the worst offenders, you’ll be able to build your business as you intended.

How do you generate more sales to your business?

Image by Jason Dirks