In running a business, everyone encounters sales slumps. Here are a couple of tips for getting back on speed.
Reviewing USP
When sales stall, the first thing you should do is to review your product's USP (Unique Selling Proposition). A good USP could increase sales overnight. For example, an NBA team, the Nets, was once ranked worst in the league in both game-play and revenue from ticket sales. During that time, the Nets' sales team realized that it was very hard to get tickets to see top teams play, but that the tickets of those same teams vs. the Nets were not selling out. Based on this, they came up with a new USP, which was that by watching the Nets, people could get a rare chance to see the superstar players of opposing teams play. The Nets stayed at the bottom of score sheet, but their revenue climbed from 27th in the league to 12th. This is a textbook example of a good USP: it sells and can work magic for any product, even the worst-ranked.
The Customer List
After finding a new USP, it is time to find customers who actually buy your products. You might think about marketing campaigns, but instead of spending big money trying to get new customers, you should use a list of previous customers and find a way to make them buy more often. Regardless of their existing frequency of purchase or amount of money spent, it is clear that anyone who has ever bought your products is interested in them on some level. The customer list that you have been creating from day one is highly targeted, and the ROI (Return On Investment) can't get any higher than through using your own customer list. This high ROI by itself will give you the boost you need to get out of a sales slump.
© June, 2011