For some it seems like sales is an enigma, as hard to understand as a magic trick and as unexplainable as a rabbit appearing out of a hat. Therefore, when we hit a plateau or a wall in our sales we pretend nobody could see it coming and there is nothing we can do about it.
Come on now. You and I both know that’s not true…
Your sales are not an enigma. In fact, sales can be the biggest barometer your company has to offer. If sales have plateaued or are hitting a stopping point, something is clearly wrong. This may be from the outside world or it may be something that you are doing. But either way, it’s something that (with a little know how) we can easily see and easily change.
Let’s be clear.. I’m no magician. I have just been doing this a long time. So, if you find yourself in a plateau, I want you to know how to get yourself out of it!
Below, are three simple questions that I ask myself when this happens to me. I want you to start here if you ever run into trouble. If fact, these are questions you should be asking yourself regularly to continue to perfect your process.
Most folks that have slowing sales are experiencing problems in one of the three areas. If you work on improving these, you will most likely solve any problem you have.
Question 1: How are potential clients entering your sales funnel?
How are people finding out about you in the first place?
Many businesses start because there is a need. Friends, family and close neighbors buy because it is something important that fixes a problem.
But, if your product is so good that you don’t have to advertise you can actually be in trouble once you run through your first set of clients.
Regardless of what you sell, new people need to be finding out about you CONSTANTLY. So, go back to the basics here.
For Service-Based AND Product Based Businesses – How are you advertising your services? Are they clearly laid out on your website with prices or a call to action button?
Do you have an advertising plan on Facebook/Instagram? Are you going after the right target demographic?
Are you on social media? If so, are you on the right ones? Are you posting about your actual product? If you aren’t you need to start. Yes, people enjoy learning about your life, but you need to be clear about what you actually sell or else no one will ever know what you do.
Question 2: What are you doing to move your clients along the sales funnel?
If the answer is “nothing” we have a problem right there. You have to constantly be nurturing your clients. How are you doing that?
How are you moving clients from “I’m Interested” to “Buy Now”? Do you have a process for this?
Don’t ever forget, most clients end up going with the person that makes this process EASY.
For Service Based Businesses – What steps are you taking to proactively move your clients along the process? Are you providing a free consult? Are you providing a Terms of Service to help them understand what you will provide? How easy is your payment process for people to regularly pay you?
For Product Based Businesses – How easy is it for your clients to see the products you offer? Is it easy for them to pay or is the process confusing and cumbersome?
Question 3: What are you doing after your clients move through the system?
If clients have bought from you already or graduated from your services, you certainly don’t want to lose them as a client. If you are starting to have a group of people in the category it’s time to start considering a graduated product or additional products that your clients might like. They need to basically reenter the sales process in some way.
For Service-Based Businesses – How are you keeping clients updated on new and evolving products? If a client has graduated from your system where do they go next? What services would they need? Do you have a product for them here or would they have to go somewhere else to get it?
For Product-Based Businesses – Are you providing clients and evangelists with new products regularly? Have you considered some sort of “frequent shoppers club” with special discounts or a monthly mystery bag that offer clients a surprise for a low price they pay every month? This is a way to keep them interested and create residual income for you.
Yes, I know it seems like a lot of questions but this is a time for you to do some problem solving and no one knows your business better than you do.
So get out your pencil and paper. Work through these questions. Get some answers and start taking action.