Ten Strategies to Profit

Sales are the backbone of organizations. Without customers, there is usually no business. Sales personnel must be managed and held accountable for results. This means they must make an effort to call on their accounts regularly for add on business and to seek out new business. Not many commissioned sales personnel are allowed to wait around for calls to come in. It would be much easier and less costly to hire an internal employee to take orders, market, and call on the companys' existing customer base for add-ons and relationship building. For a base plus small commission, one would have a person consistently producing in the office. Use these ten strategies to get your sales staff moving towards profit.

1. Repeat/recurring business strategy: Are there ways to build a consistent revenue flow? Consider service contracts, memberships, or monthly pledges.
2. Referral strategy: What system do you have in place to consistently get referrals? For example, sending out thank you letters after a sale with a few business cards enclosed or offering a discount or free item if someone they refer makes a purchase.
3. Sales strategy: What do you require your sales people to do weekly? Meet goals? Cold call? Call their client list? Market to potential clients? Attend networking events? Ask for referrals from previous customers?
4. Marketing strategy: Think of 3 ways to market consistently. For example, attend a networking event once a week, direct mail potential customers monthly or call existing accounts for add-ons weekly.
5. Message strategy: How do you want to be perceived by your customers? Low price leader? Best customer service? Free delivery?
6. Viral strategy: How do you spread your business message? Word of mouth? Article writing? Speaking engagements?
7. Online strategy: What are your online goals? Are you making money or wasting money? Is the company website kept up to date?
8. Joint Venture strategy: Who can you partner with that has complementary products to what you sell? Can you provide referrals for someone else’s products and get paid for it? Could you pay another company for referring buying customers to you?
9. Time strategy: Who is going to do what? When? How often? Where?
10. Resources strategy: What do you need to get the job done? Who gets what?

Whatever you do, do it consistently and keep this in mind…..Would you want to do business with yourself? What makes the experience pleasant? What could improve? Many businesses are hurting economically. What can you do to take care of the customers you have so they continue to do business with you? Cutting corners is usually not a good answer. I will give you a personal example. I took my son to lunch at a well established restaurant in town. My son ordered a coke to drink. When I got the bill I found I had been charged 25cents for the straw the waitress put in his coke. When I complained to management I was told it was their new policy. I had just bought 3000 straws from Sams Club for about $10. The restaurants policy saved them very little money and irritated all their customers. I will never go back and I will tell everyone I know. Do you want that kind of publicity for your organization?