Management
You need new customers, repeat customers and more sales in order for your business to grow and profit. In most companies, even a five percent sales improvement will have a positive effect on the bottom line. If a business doesn’t grow its sales volume, it will become stagnant. Rarely does a company that maintains the same sales volume year after year thrive. Some such companies go out of business because market share is captured by competitors.
Planning for sales growth should be an ongoing activity. Progress to reach sales goals should be measured monthly. A one-month drop in sales can be corrected; a three-month downturn is much more difficult to remedy before year-end. Examine your sales records to identify sales trends. Do certain products and services sell particularly well? Are there other products or services that don’t move at all. Do you see seasonal variations in sales? Your sales goals should be set based upon indicators of past performance. Do you get most of your sales at the beginning or end of the month? How does weather affect your customer traffic? Is your sales force pulling in sufficient sales to justify its cost? These considerations figure in to what your goals are and how you time the deadlines for achieving sales goals.
Study your customers. Identify the age, income level, education level and possible buying triggers of your clients. When you can clearly define your customer audience, you can develop marketing approaches that will be better able to reach those audiences. Can you increase market penetration among these customers? Are there other untapped demographics you can identify to build an additional customer base? Talk to your suppliers. They are involved in the industry and are often an excellent source of information and ideas. Also talk directly with your customers. Maintain a close enough relationship to day-to-day operations that you can interact with and ascertain what your customer’s value, because they tell you personally.
If you’ve done all your homework, then experience, judgment and imagination will help you focus on retaining existing customers: increasing the per customer sale: gaining new customers who add to your sales volume: and by identifying and gathering new customers that can help bridge gaps created by customer defections.
Some customers are one-time buyers. Be prepared to constantly seek out new business that can help increase overall sales volume.
If you would like to discuss strategic planning, lifelong learning programs, employee benefits or customer service issues, contact the SCORE Association (Service Corps of Retired Executives), SCORE, was formed in 1964 as a nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation growth and success of small businesses. Contact the Savannah chapter at 912-652-4335. For information go to www.scoresav.org