Life moves in a sea-saw pattern and especially in business, life never stays in a stand still position, there are crest and troughs of different forms. The difference being that in some cases the gap is wide and in some its very marginal, but yes the gap do exist. And the most important factor creating all those waves of crest and trough is SALES.
Sales is a nightmare, the dè-facto for existence of all companies, it is the Tiger of all business which needs to be tamed before setting up the stage for the show.
For all start-ups as well as the established business the major chunk of the budget pie is allocated for generating SALES. Some go via the marketing route, some via branding and some entrepreneurs of small organisations do it by person-to-person contact but the most important result expected from all those tactics is to generate good sales.
Ever wondered why the e-commerce companies give you gift vouchers, some ‘x’ amount of money if you sign up with them and make the first purchase? Ever wondered why you are given a loyalty card at different stores and you are instructed that spending ‘x’ amount of money will earn you ‘y’ amount of credits and you can then use it to buy new products of your choice? Ever wondered why organisations/ models have such beautiful home (landing) pages ? Ever wondered why while speaking out to a new enterprise/ new shop owner he always sounds so cool and enthusiastic about you – before the terms get a little harder? All these are done to get the attention of a potential new buyer and to convert a potential lead i.e you to a sales opportunity.
Steps of moving into the funnel of generating sales:-
1) Creating a strong brand image
A woman who walks with attitude looks more attractive than the ones who have carry themselves sluggishly. The same is applicable to business – to create that aroma, that attitude of Business means styling it. It may be in the form of creating a stand out logo, pinning down a statement of what does your business do, getting the public involved in the stuffs what business do. Major soft drink companies like Pepsi co does it by spending millions and millions to just get the right fonts for making it specially unique – wonder how many of us actually know this fact. ( Source – Huh Magazine )
The general exercise which large firms do is that they write the objectives of the companies in about 300 words, then they try summing it up in a paragraph, then in a sentence and then a single keyword. Mahindra does it with the word “RISE”, the sports channel Star sports does it with the word “BELIEVE”. It’s getting the objective tied down to a single word.
All this have a direct and very powerful impact on generating Sales. It’s just like making the Tiger wake up from a deep tight sleep and making it ready to stare at you.
2) Spend time/money for acquiring the customer
Companies always have a COA – cost of Acquisition budget where in they actually spend some ‘x’ amount of money to mature their first sales from a potential customers. It’s been a common strategy that most of the companies seldom make any profit, rather they shelve out money from their pocket to acquire that first customer just in expectation that the person will become their loyal customer and step in times and again for buying new products, it will be then that the company will make profit from them. THIS IS THE POINT OF MAKING TRUST SALES WITH THE BUYERS. As the objective is to make the buyers believe – yes this is the correct thing/ company for me.
Large organisations invest millions and millions of dollars for acquiring new customers. Recently in India where we have seen the burst of e-commerce ruling the roads of Indian sales and there has been a war for customer acquisition – Flipkart came in with a budget of $ 1billion to be invested in this sector and then amazon jumped in with the announcement of pumping in $2 billion to the rapidly expanding network.
Normally a large organisation pumps in 80% of its funds in acquiring the first sales from the customer. 20% of its funds are used in retaining the customer and hence the loyalty programs etc. If you do the right step at the first time there is 80% chance of retaining the customer hence companies should focus on creating the right image at the very first interactive point with the customer.
It’s just like showing the Tiger its favourite food items and getting it ready to bite it’s first piece. So dress up the meat with more fat than thorns so that it is ready to be bitten at the very first attempt.
3) Providing full and efficient after sales service
This is specially for hardware/ software companies who have to deal with after sales services. This is the point which has direct implication to generating WORD OF MOUTH (WOM) sales. IS THIS IMPORTANT? I mean companies can do it by outsourcing the services to any XYZ companies and leaving all the service prospective to them? Doesn’t it sound good? Doesn’t it save money/time/ energy?
No doubt it saves a lot but if the services are not given at the proper time and in the proper manner it breaks the cycle of sales exponentially. The WOM has a very very deep inclination to the sales process. The better the integrated service level better will be the customer feedback and better will be the sales which grows positively based on the feedback of the clients. There is one basic rule of mankind which rules in generating this sales – EMOTION.
It is a common perception that people will believe their friend(s) and family members more than what the companies have to say. A common example is a food discussion website “ZOMATO” where people just write reviews based on their experience on how the food tastes like in a particular restaurant. Their friends and family members read those reviews and generate sales for the restaurants. Many more companies including “Trip advisors” etc generate sales on this principle of WOM.
If there is a strong knitting between the sales and the service post sales the graph of sales shoots up more drastically.
And it is like giving ample rest and taming the tiger and preparing it for the next kill.
4) Making recurring sales
Now since we have done enough investment in acquiring the customers and providing them adequate service it becomes essential to make regular sales to the same customer. And this can be done in 2 ways
i) Selling the same product in bulk quantities.
ii) Selling different products of higher margin to the same customers.
Business is all about making suitable profits of every transaction. But that profit must justify the sales/ service you have provided to the customer. Hitting the sales regularly to your already existing customer requires lesser efforts than pitching in for newer sales but it requires a guided approach – strategies like loyalty programmes which allures customers for repeated buying so that they can accumulate sufficient points and redeem it for making necessary purchases in their subsequent visits also prove efficient. Retail apparel stores all across the nation follow this simple strategy. They also send in gift vouchers time and again just to remind the customers that yes they do exist. Large organisations also have the strategies of inviting the clients to a gala meet up to discuss the things they expect from the organisations in mutual development of both of them.
This is called training the TIGER for superior performance and adequate responses.
All these are little tit-bits in helping you demystify sales and approach it with an easy mode. Remember that a bird sitting on the branch may not trust the branch but it trusts it’s own wings.
Stay confident stay merry there will always be a suitable time to fly. Keep the TIGER tamed and easy.
Image Source ( Make in India – A gov. of India initiative )
I’m an engineer with an entrepreneurial mindset. 4 Years of experience in generating and expanding business for all forms of Textile and hosiery garments. – Both online and offline. I love to write about travel, food and business strategy.
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NB :- This post was first published in Linkedin here
