Marketing activities to increase sales. Promotions to attract customers: what to come up with, examples

04May

Hello! In this article, we will talk about ways to increase retail sales.

Today you will learn:

• What are the characteristics of retail;
• What are the ways to increase sales in a retail store;
• : step-by-step instruction.

Retail Features

Retail sales - sale of goods by the piece to the final consumer for his personal use. This short definition characterizes retail in the best possible way.

Retailers sell goods to the most ordinary consumers, individuals who use it for their own needs. To understand what product the end consumer market needs on this moment, it is necessary to carry out full .

However, it should be noted that retail covers almost all areas of business: from consulting services And Food Industry to mechanical engineering and construction.

Retail trade requires less capital investment compared to wholesale. This makes entering the market accessible to almost everyone. However, not everyone should jump into retail because of its affordability.

First you need to familiarize yourself with the features of this type of trade in order to understand whether it is right for your company:

1. If you produce or purchase goods in large quantities, and you do not have several hundred square meters or an established distribution system in multiple geographies, then retail is not for you. The end consumer market will not be able to accommodate a very large volume of products. There are exceptions: for example, branded goods. They are bought on the first day they enter the market. Remember the queue on Red Square for brand new apple smartphones. However, this is the exception, not the rule. If your product is not yet very popular, then your offer should match the demand.
2. If you are not ready to spend your money on, then retail is not for you. Important role emotions play in the retail market, they influence the decision to buy. Brilliant advertising campaign. In addition, retail is characterized by a large number of consumers who buy goods in small batches. And this means that in order to ensure sufficient sales, the company needs to be notified about the product. a large number of consumers. This can be done through marketing communications. We will definitely talk about them.
3. If you are not sure about the "hardness" of your final price, then retail is not for you. Demand in the end-user market is quite elastic. There are exceptions - these are essential products, such as bread, matches or salt.
4. There is a need for constant marketing research. Otherwise, you will miss the moment when your company's sales began to decline and will not have time to eliminate the negative factors that we will talk about now.

Why sales are declining

There are many factors that can have a negative impact on sales. And sometimes it can be circumstances that we have no control over. These include economic, political, technological, socio-cultural, legal and environmental factors external environment.

To determine the strength of the influence of these factors on your business, you need to conduct a PESTEL analysis. In the event that the strength of the influence of these parameters on the market is too great, then it is better not to take risks and refuse to exit. This will save you from financial losses.

But there are negative factors in the occurrence of which the company itself is to blame. We can influence these parameters, so it will be useful to consider each of them in more detail.

Bad store location.

This is the most common mistake new entrepreneurs make. Before or stall, do a little research. Find out where yours is, in what cases your product is purchased. If you answer these two questions, you can save a lot on marketing.

Example. We want an economy format. Our target audience is female students and working women aged 18 to 35. It is not practical to open a salon near the university, as we will cover only female students. It is also unprofitable to choose a sleeping area for opening, since we will cover only one geographical region. But to open a retail outlet near a shopping center near the university and not far from sleeping area would be a good solution. It will be visited by both of your segments.

Decor.

We opened and decorated the window. But clients do not come to us. What is the reason? Walk up to your point of sale and look at it through the eyes of a consumer. Perhaps it looks unattractive or does not represent your product, and consumers simply do not understand why they should go to you.

When registering an outlet, follow the following rules:

• The showcase should reflect your product, be associated with it;
• Give examples of prices. This attracts consumers, especially if these prices are low. But do not deceive, they must correspond to reality;
• Duplicate information about your promotions on the showcase;
• Use hot topics for decoration.

Range.

There can be many options here, let's look at each:

• Insufficient assortment width. Your clients don't come back to you after the first visit. This is one of the signs of this problem. Compare your range with your closest competitors, ask consumers what your outlet is missing. This will allow you to eliminate the problem and attract visitors;
• Too wide range. In this case, the consumer simply cannot choose one product and leaves without buying. One of the marketing agencies conducted an interesting study. First, the client was asked to choose one of three jars of jam of different flavors. The consumer made his choice. The same customer was then asked to choose from 24 different jars of jam. In the second case, the consumer either chose the taste that he chose the first time, or left without buying. The researchers concluded that an assortment containing more than eight items negatively affects sales volumes;
• The assortment does not match the location of the outlet. For example, our nail salon is located next door to the bridal salon. A good solution to increase sales would be to include a wedding manicure in the assortment.

Low quality of service.

The modern consumer is very demanding. He wants to enjoy the process of making a purchase. The boorish behavior of the staff will not save even the highest quality product. , conduct trainings, . A good retail salesperson is 90% successful.

Ways to increase sales in a retail store

In fact, there are only two ways to increase sales - increasing the consumption of products by existing consumers or.

Attraction of new clients

This method can be implemented by poaching customers from competitors or by entering new segments.

In both cases, you will have to turn to marketing tricks. Tools for implementing each of these methods are given in the table. Some methods are generic.

Increasing sales volume through existing customers

It also has two options for implementation: increase in consumption and increase in sales conversion.

Increasing sales conversion.

Sales Conversion - the ratio of the number of visitors to the store to the number of buyers.

From the definition, we can conclude that the conversion is mainly influenced by the parameters of the outlet itself. Therefore, we will work with them.

• We improve the quality of service. A good seller will be able to sell any product. The bad one will not sell and the best one. There is such a thing as intra-company marketing, which is determined by the company's attitude towards its staff. How better conditions labor, the more sales you get. Also, don't forget about training and motivation;
• Merchandising. has a direct impact on the sales of your products. There is a rule in marketing outstretched hand. According to this rule, the client in 80% of cases takes the goods to which he can reach without special efforts. If your product is above or below this zone, then sales will be low;
• Promotions, sales, bonuses. This method will allow you to increase the conversion, but only for the duration of the incentive events.

Increase in consumption.

In this case, all our actions will be aimed at increasing the average check.

You can do this in the following ways:

• Price increase. By increasing the price of your products, you will increase the average purchase amount, but may decrease the conversion rate. So you won't get an increase in sales. To prevent this from happening, remember a simple rule: any price change must be justified. The client must understand that you raised the price for a reason, but because your packaging has changed to a more convenient one (in fact, the price and packaging may not be related to each other).
• Additional services or goods. After your consumer has chosen the main product, offer to complement it with a service or another product. For example, you sold a necklace, offer the buyer a gift box. This add-on will not be a significant expense for the client, but in total will bring you a good additional sales volume in monetary terms.
• Loyalty program. The Loyalty Card will not increase the average check, but it will lead to an increase in the number of purchases by the consumer in your store. There are several types of discount cards: bonus, accumulative, privileged. Each of them has its own tasks, but combines them common goal- increase in sales.

How does the loyalty program work? For example, we own a grocery store and we have a loyalty card, which is provided free of charge when buying from 1000 rubles. There is another grocery store across from us, but it doesn't have own program loyalty. Customers who have a card of our store will come to us to receive a discount, bonuses or gifts (depending on the type of card). Thus, we "tie" consumers with a card, forcing them to buy only from us, increasing sales.

Step by step guide to increase sales

Each business is unique, but there is a certain sequence of steps that will increase sales for both a furniture store and a consulting company.

Step 1 . We define the specifics of our outlet.

There is a huge amount various forms retail stores.

They can differ in the following parameters:

• Form of service: self-service, Internet trading, catalog sales, self-service machines and stalls, traditional service, pre-order;
• According to the form of organization: a single outlet, a network, small retail trade, mobile trade;
• By type of goods: food and non-food.

The shape of the store determines the range of problems that can affect the decline in sales. For example, in a clothing retail store, the main reason for the decline in sales may be the low qualification of contact staff, and this is unlikely to be the reason.

Step 2. We are looking for weaknesses.

Main weak side retail stores are:

• Small volumes of a one-time purchase by one client;
• Too much high price. Big margin is good. But do not go too far, otherwise you will lose customers;
• Too wide target audience. You want to sell everything to everyone, but it is very difficult to do so. A much more effective solution would be to focus on one segment.

Separately, I would like to highlight the problems of online trading:

• Inconvenient location of active buttons. These include the button "buy", "pay", "place an order" and others. If the client has to look for such a button for a long time, then he will simply leave without buying;
• The site is not adapted for mobile devices. According to statistics, about 40% of sales are made from mobile devices, so displaying a site from a phone should be as convenient, understandable and informative as from a computer;
• Too complicated and long checkout and registration forms. The client is not enough nerve cells to fill out your form and place an order. Don't test his patience;
• Insufficient information about the product, low quality photos. The consumer must know what he is buying.

Step 3. We choose methods for solving the problem.

Scroll up and see which method and tool to increase sales can increase sales in your store.

For example, if your customers are shopping for small amounts, then you should use the increase consumption method. Offer additional goods at the checkout, enter a cumulative bonus card.

In the 21st century, the profession of a sales consultant remains one of the most sought after in the labor market. Sales people or sales managers are always needed, and good sales people are worth their weight in gold. For such personnel, there is very high competition and having mastered the technique of sales, you will definitely not be left without a job. But getting a job as a seller is not difficult, but learning a lot, selling and, accordingly, earning a lot is much more difficult. Let's take a look: how to increase personal sales to a salesperson.

Knowledge, skill, skill

To increase personal sales to the seller you need to understand that in any case you must be able to sell. In order to be able to, you need to know, and over time, skills will develop into a skill and sales will go by themselves. On the one hand, there is nothing complicated here, but if you look at it, then this is a whole science. Here you have the stages of sales, and, and and. You can sell, etc. What should a competent seller know?

1. . You should start studying sales with the 5 stages of selling. This is the basis of any sales and you cannot do without this knowledge.
2. Knowledge of the product you are going to sell. The better you know about the product, the more competent advice you can give to the buyer.
3. Knowledge of competitors and customers. No wonder companies are now investing a lot of money in marketing research market. It is your duty to know the competitor and even more so the buyer.
4. Non-verbal communication is a very powerful tool, you should at least understand the basics non-verbal communication in order to avoid the classic mistakes of sellers.

Most large companies be carried out, but what if no one teaches you or gives you not enough knowledge? For starters, I would advise you to read books for sellers, you can learn a lot from them. useful information. To get started, read - "" and the book. In addition, you can find out a lot of useful information on our website - you can also ask your questions at.

Motivation and sales funnel

Any leader knows. But ordinary sellers, as a rule, do not delve into such terms. But the sales funnel is the best way to understand what to do to increase the result in sales. Speaking without going deep, the sales funnel shows at what stages of interaction with the client we lose sales. To make a sales funnel, an ordinary seller needs to calculate how many contacts he had with customers, how many of them refused to communicate immediately, how many after the presentation of the product, how many decided to think, how many agreed to purchase. This is a simple example because these items will vary depending on the type of sale. First of all, it is important for you to understand:

1. At what stages does it fail? the largest number clients? For example, if, when establishing contact with a buyer, it means that you need to somehow change this stage, etc.
2. Understand how the result will change if you increase the number of contacts.

Increasing the number of customers is the easiest way to increase sales, minus it is not available to all sellers. But as a rule, sellers do not even think that if you spend less time on each client and try to serve as many buyers as possible, this will quickly lead to an increase in sales. Or you can just spend more time working. One way or another, it all depends on the motivation of the seller, as a rule, the most active managers sell a lot.

Self-motivated sellers

The seller, if he wants to increase his results, must work on his personal motivation. You must set a goal for yourself, such as buying a car or an apartment. Calculate how much money you need for this and how much you need to sell daily. Draw yourself a poster, print yourself a photo of your goal - visualize and review before you go to sell. This will help you be more focused on the result rather than the process.

Seller - sells himself from the beginning!

The seller first sells himself, then the company, and then the product. This phrase is taken from, but nevertheless it is suitable for sales to individuals the same. You need to understand that people do not like being sold to, but they love to buy, and the role of the seller here is not to impose and not sell the goods, but to establish a trusting contact and charge the client with positive emotions. The seller must be an adviser to the buyer, a friend and partner in common cause. For many buyers, visiting a store or communicating with a seller is a certain stress, the client is afraid of being deceived and wasting money and time for nothing. The seller must create an atmosphere of ease and trust, only then the client will truly open up to you and you will be able to sell anything.

It is very important for the seller to be in good location spirit and be customer focused. There are a number of complicated rules, which you need to perform for a good mood:

• Get enough sleep. Always get as much sleep as you need to feel good.
• Deal with personal issues. Very often I meet sellers who are focused on personal problems. This greatly distracts from work and buyers feel it.
• Don't work with a hangover.
• Watch your hygiene and be neat.

Pareto principle

The Pareto principle (often called or the 80/20 rule) states:

• 80% of the profit comes from 20% of the customers.
• 20% of labor brings 80% of profit

This means that the main profit you bring is not significant labor costs. A most of time and effort spent on minor activities that do not bring you the expected income. The main thing is to understand what is included in these 20% of efforts, clients, time and work on improving the processes associated with these costs. Since the remaining 80% do not give significant result. Here are some real life examples:

Example #1

In the shop household appliances Each salesperson, in addition to selling, is responsible for maintaining order in the department. Sellers with the best results spend less time cleaning up, do it faster and in the morning when there are few buyers, while they are customer-oriented and immediately go to him when a buyer appears. In addition, more successful sellers try to take days off on weekdays, since there are fewer customers on these days, to dine in the morning, not to have smoke breaks in the evening. Salespeople with poorer results get immersed in the process, take longer to clean up, and lose sales as a result. That is, more successful sellers understand that you need to concentrate on customers who bring money, and everything else can wait.

Example #2

Active sales agents sell the services of an Internet provider using the door-to-door approach. The bypass is carried out in evening time. Most successful managers the greatest efforts are made from 19.00 to 22.00, because at this time there are more people at home and they are more disposed to communicate. Whereas less successful agents at this time can spend a lot of time on smoke breaks or communicating with the client, and who are not going to buy today.

These examples show that it is important to focus your efforts on those things that bring you the maximum profit. This is exactly what successful sales people do.

Analyze your sales

Sellers have a very bad habit: to justify their poor results by blaming the buyer, seasonality, competitors, etc. The vast majority of people feel sorry for themselves and do not want to change something in themselves, looking for problems in others. It is important to decide what you want: to remove responsibility from yourself or to earn money. If the latter, then when faced with difficulties, you need to look for a solution, and not blame the injustice of the world. There is a good story among sellers about this:

One shoe company sent their salesman to Africa, a week later the salesman sent a telegram: get me out of here, there is nothing to do here, all people go barefoot.

After a while, another merchant was sent there, after a while he reported: “This is a great success! - the second wrote enthusiastically, - Send everything you have, the market is practically unlimited! Here everyone walks barefoot!

There is one more good proverb The weak seek reason, the strong seek opportunity. It is much easier to justify your failures than to analyze the situation and look for ways to sell more.

A good seller always analyzes his work and looks for areas of growth. Any seller always has something to improve, but not everyone can see what exactly. In order to understand, you need to start daily and if something goes wrong, look for ways to do it differently.

Ilyukha Sergey

For a year now, all sellers feel that there are crisis phenomena in the market. Customers come to the store less often, buy fewer and cheaper goods. Sales and revenues are falling, while expenses are rising. And the reason for this is not only sanctions, the depreciation of the ruble, the complication of access to loans and their rise in price. The reason is that all these factors act simultaneously. Let's consider technologies for increasing sales in such a situation.

In this article you will read:

• What technologies to increase sales work effectively
• step by step algorithm unique strategy sales

Technologies to increase sales, which are used today by all market players, have become ineffective. The reason is that the conditions of the game in the market have changed. And those who understand the new rules earlier and learn how to work effectively in a new situation will be able to grow into a crisis.

What has changed in the market?

1. Decreased incomes of buyers, increased operating costs (utilities, gasoline, tuition fees)
2. Sanctioned imports from traditional markets
3. Deliveries of goods from new markets have not yet been established
4. Significantly increased prices for imported goods
5. Due to the rise in the cost of loans and the decrease in revenue, almost all companies had financial difficulties.

The situation is similar to the rescue of drowning people after a shipwreck. If you wallow in place and wait for help, you can drown. We must swim to the shore! "The salvation of the drowning is the work of the drowning themselves."

A company in a crisis must fight and move forward. At the same time go faster than others. We need to use new technologies.

1. We are moving from process management to personnel management. In the "fat" pre-crisis times, it was possible to set tasks as a whole, to hold an action, to purchase, lay out, sell. The result was evaluated as a whole. And if at least a small increase was observed at the end of the month, it was believed that the whole team worked well. In a crisis, it is necessary to delve into business processes, it is necessary to set tasks and evaluate the effectiveness of each unit and each employee in achieving the goal. The way it is done with active sales.
2. We set an ambitious but achievable goal.

What technologies to increase sales are effective today

First of all, increase turnover!

At the same time, of course, we should not forget about profitability and the budget that has to be spent on increasing trade. In retail, you can also apply sales increase technologies used in wholesale.

Suppose a company is faced with the task of increasing turnover during a crisis. By how much can turnover be increased? 1, 3, 5 percent? At first glance, this may seem like a very ambitious task!

1. We set goals for each department and employee to achieve the goal.

IN wholesale sales to increase turnover, they set tasks for customers and goods. Retail technologies have long been known to everyone, these methods are used by everyone. It is necessary to look for and use new tools and technologies for retail sales of goods. To solve ambitious problems, I recommend using the best-situation synthesis technique.

Algorithm for working on increasing sales

1. Formulate a goal
2. Determine the indicators that affect the achievement of the goal (decomposition).
3. Define targets by indicators to achieve the goal
4. Identify ways to improve performance
5. Create a performance improvement plan
6. Conduct a synthesis and determine the objectives and schedule for achieving the goal.

Synthesizing the situation:

1. Goal (increase in turnover)
2. Decomposition

In order to sell a lot, it is necessary to increase all the components that affect the volume of sales.

In any trade, the same rules apply:

Turnover = number of sales * amount of sales

To increase turnover, it is necessary to increase the number of sales and the average amount of the transaction (the amount of the "average bill").

To quantify the effectiveness of an offer in a crisis, we use a sales funnel, which is widely used in evaluating the effectiveness of sales in personal sales. The sales funnel for wholesale and retail trade is shown in fig. 1.

As can be seen from the figure, the sales process in retail contains more stages (in order to make contact with the buyer, he must be attracted to the store). And the formulas for calculating the sales funnel are different.

For retail:

Conversion in retail sales is determined by the ratio of those who made a purchase to the number of people who came to the store. In "personal" sales, it ranges from 0.1 to 0.5. In wholesale trade - 0.6 - 0.8. In retail, it may strive for a unit. Accordingly, to analyze the sales funnel in retail, it is necessary to use slightly different algorithms.

In active sales, the manager can increase the number of requests simply by making an offer. more leads, and, with the same conversion rate, get an increase in the number of sales.

In retail, the marketing department is primarily involved in attracting customers to the store. It should create an image of the store that is most attractive to the buyer. The task is complex and in this article I will not dwell on the issues of creating additional traffic.

Retail conversion rates vary significantly by industry. When trading in a boutique, it can be 0.5 or even 0.1. But the boutique has a consultant who makes “personal” sales and can directly influence the conversion rate.

In the grocery store, the situation is completely different. As a rule, the buyer goes to the grocery store for a product that:

• he needs
• guaranteed to be present in this store

There may or may not be a consultant. At the same time, the conversion rate still tends to 1. As a rule, it is quite difficult and expensive to count the number of store visitors who came but did not make a purchase. In order for the sales funnel indicator to work effectively in retail, it is necessary to set a lower limit (the minimum check amount) at which it is considered that a purchase has been made. Conditionally, 100, 200, 300 rubles. Establishing a lower limit on the check amount will allow you to distinguish loyal customers from customers who did not find the right product, bought the minimum of the most necessary and left unsatisfied.

The second multiplier is the amount of sales, or the amount of the average check. IN general view the distribution of check amounts has the following form, shown in Figure 2. The figure shows an example of the distribution of purchase amounts and the average check amount for 20 purchases. With a larger number of checks, it makes sense to determine the number of checks that fall into a certain range.

What parameters directly affect the turnover of the store?

• The number of buyers (checks) in the whole store
• Number of checks for an amount exceeding the minimum amount
• Conversion rate
• The amount of the average check for the store

Rice. 2. Information about the amount of the check in general for the store.

The assortment of the store consists of an assortment of product categories. The overall level of sales is influenced by two groups of employees: a marketer who determines positioning, a customer acquisition strategy and a general promotion policy, and category managers who solve the same tasks, but at the level of a product category.

When managing sales in a product category, the conversion rate is equal to the ratio the number of "receipts" in which there are goods of this category to total checks in the store. (This coefficient is also called category penetration coefficient). The conversion rate is calculated on the basis of information about the number of receipts containing at least one item from this category.

Calculation of the sum of the average sale (average check) in a product category should be calculated as the ratio of the sum of sales in the category to the number of "checks" in which the product was present (Fig. 3).

To evaluate the quality of work in a category, two parameters must be used:

• Category Conversion Rate
• The amount of the average check in the category

Rice. 3. Information about the sales of the product category.

We divided the general task - increasing the turnover into intermediate tasks: increasing the customer flow, increasing the amount of the average check in the store and by category, increasing the conversion in the store and by category. Different departments and employees are responsible for these indicators. Now you can set them specific tasks.

We will set the tasks on an example close to reality. The current state of affairs in the store is as follows:

Table 1. Current value of indicators.

Goal: Increase turnover.

To increase turnover, you need:

• in each product category to increase the conversion and the amount of the average check. The task is assigned to category managers;
• create an additional flow of customers through advertising campaigns and marketing campaigns. The task is assigned to the marketing department;
• increase conversions and the average check amount in the whole store, by properly allocating advertising budgets and helping category managers achieve their category targets. The task is assigned to the marketing department.

We set the task: within the next 6 months to increase each of the indicators by 5% (quite a doable task!). The target list is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Target list for increasing turnover.

We define a plan for improving performance.

We make a list of necessary activities:

1. activities aimed at increasing the number of store visitors

• informing customers about promotions aimed at attracting new customers
• promotions to encourage repeat purchases
• conducting loyalty programs
• holidays
• promotions that form the image of the store and the overall loyalty of customers, etc.

2. measures aimed at increasing the average check and store conversion

• provision of cumulative discounts
• sale of sets
• providing a discount on the purchase of a certain amount

3. Activities aimed at increasing the conversion in the category:

1. Cross Merchandising
2. Additional display of products
3. Carrying out price promotions
4. Participation in sets, promotions held in the store as a whole
5. Activities aimed at increasing the amount of the average check in the category:
6. Discount for a set in a category
7. Quantity discount
8. Stimulating the purchase of more expensive goods
9. Any kind of marketing activity

Each manager is required to draw up an action plan for 6 months.

Based on the action plan, we draw up a monthly plan for achieving indicators. When drawing up a plan, we take into account seasonality and sales statistics, since the task of our technologies is to increase retail sales in addition to seasonal and other factors.

Table 3. Monthly plan by indicators.

At the first stage of application of technologies retail goods, when setting the target, we considered the growth of turnover by 5% as an ambitious goal. At the same time, we knew the general set of methods, but were not ready to use them purposefully and evaluate the effectiveness of the selected retail sales technologies.

We have created the best situation for increasing turnover:

• Determine what indicators affect the turnover
• We found out which departments and employees affect the values ​​of indicators
• Set a task for each department and employee
• Created an action plan to achieve the goal
• Created a plan to achieve the goal for each indicator

Now you need to compose master plan shop.

Table 4. Plan for increasing turnover.

Table 4 shows that our plan, which provides for the growth of individual indicators by only 5%, can increase the turnover of the store by 10%. If the growth plan for all categories is fulfilled, then the growth in trade turnover can reach 16% due to the synergistic effect. At the same time, a specific performer is responsible for the growth of each of the indicators.

The same technique can be used in solving the problem of reducing costs, increasing profits and other tasks facing the company.

In order to be the best in a crisis, you must:

1. Choose indicators that are important for assessing the performance of the company
2. Determine what and who influences the value of each indicator
3. Assess the values ​​of these indicators from competitors and industry leaders
4. Set a goal for each of the indicators
5. Using the best situation synthesis technology, develop a plan to achieve target values
6. Determine and reserve a budget to achieve the goal
7. Regularly evaluate the results and, if necessary, adjust the technology to increase sales.

And do not forget to keep an eye on the market and the actions of competitors. They, too, can set themselves ambitious goals.

With development market economy The private business sector is growing from year to year. This is quite natural - more and more people do not want to work for someone, they want to open an independent business. And depend only and exclusively on yourself. Despite the fact that your business is always a risk of burnout, business acumen, ability and endurance can help bring your small business to success. But still, owning a business is not an easy task, especially if we are talking about trade. Quite often (and at any stage of development of this, the question arises of how to increase the level of sales?

It should be noted that it is quite difficult to give an unambiguous answer to this question. Any trade is both a profitable and very risky business, since it requires a careful study of market conditions, flexibility and resourcefulness in business decisions and, of course, luck from the businessman. Let's consider the simplest, and therefore a clear example, in a store.

First, it should be noted that any trade is based on compromises. There are several. The first is between the price and the quality of the goods. IN Lately such a concept as “brand” has “wedged” into this scheme (which most often does not affect at all, but can increase the price). The quality of the product (and better both the quality and its fame trademark) should be at maximum high level, while the price should not be a penny higher than the price set by competitors. On the contrary, an artificial, albeit small, underpricing is encouraged (especially at first).

The second important trade-off that must be observed if you want to learn in practice how to increase the level of sales is the ratio of supply and demand. The first, as you know, gives rise to the second. Accordingly, there are two options: either to sell goods that will always be needed, or to occupy a specialized (narrow) niche of the market sector, securing a lasting influence on it. To do this, either expand or, conversely, narrow the range of products sold.

However, this is not the only way to ensure an increase. First of all, it should be remembered that various kinds of promotions and advertising moves give only a one-time effect, possibly attracting a small wave of buyers, but it is the quality of the services provided that will make this spontaneous wave regular customers. To understand how to increase the level of sales, we turn to following scheme. The work of people and for people is always necessary, that is, we start from the individual. In order to ensure an increase in sales, it is necessary that all managers, salespeople, warehouse workers - in general, all staff work like a well-coordinated mechanism, well versed in own functions and understanding what corporate ethics is.

Further, constant and thoughtful work with the client is necessary. Clear, fast and polite service will make the store popular for enough short term. We must not forget that the seller himself must be well versed in the goods being sold.

That's the whole answer to the question of how to increase sales. The answer is simple, but the main thing here is to bring all its elements to life. And, perhaps, based on the tips above, come up with something of your own!

A sales increase plan is a specific instruction to increase the number of transactions in your company. Such a plan is universal pattern, which suits all enterprises, regardless of the field of activity.

How to start creating a plan to increase sales? As a rule, the preliminary stage is a sales audit. When conducting an audit, you collect statistical data such as:

• total number of clients;
• sales volume for the period;
• average bill and number of purchases per customer;
• percentage of customer failures;
• ROI for each of the sales channels.

This is a necessary minimum of indicators on the basis of which you can build a preliminary solution to increase sales. Let's analyze its components.

What is a Sales Growth Plan?

A typical plan to increase sales may contain (and most often contains) the following elements:

• sales to new customers
• sales to existing customers
• resuscitation of "sleeping" clients
• decrease in customer churn

In this article, I will outline the structure of a true sales force growth plan.

Sales to new clients

New customers are the backbone of any business. Some of them become permanent and interact with your company for quite a long time.

Depending on the scope of your company, the sales cycle is determined. There are companies with long and short cycles. Specific sales tools also depend on the duration of transactions.

For companies with a short sales cycle, discounts, promotions, customer cards and special offers are suitable.

Companies with a long cycle are better off using a two-step sales technique. Let's take a look at these tools with a practical example.

Example 1 . An online store may well reduce the price of a hot item and thereby attract new customers.

What is two-step selling? This is the method used by B2B companies, as well as all enterprises with a long sales cycle. Its essence is as follows: first we get the client's contact information (or "close" it for a test drive / trial purchase), and then we sell the main product.

Alternatively, you can first give the client a trial period to test the product, and then start selling the main functionality. Many companies do this: from IT services to auto centers.

You can earn from new clients more money, thanks to upsell, crossell and downsell technologies. I talked about them in more detail in small video available below.

In short, then:

• An upsell is an additional sale to a client of additional options. For example, offering insurance when buying an mp3 player.

• Cross-sell - the so-called cross-selling. Thanks to this tool, we raise the average check with an offer to buy a product from another category. The man wanted to buy a drive, and we sold him a flash drive that holds more data.

• Down-sell is the sale of a product that costs less than the original offer. The only condition is that you earn more money on a cheaper product. Instead of a wooden table, you sold a plastic table to a client, but you made more money from it, since its purchase price is lower.

After selecting sales tools for new customers, we move on to sales to existing ones.

Sales to existing customers

Attracting a new customer costs, on average, 7 times more than selling to an existing one. What tools can be used at this stage?

• "Closed" sales - you give a discount on some product, but only a part of existing customers can use it, but you can notify the entire base.

• Pre-order - knowing the needs of regular customers, you can collect an advance payment and place orders for the subsequent delivery of the product.

• Lotteries, contests and drawings - by holding such events for customers, you not only increase the credibility of your company, but you can also give a discount or a gift certificate for a purchase in your company as consolation prizes.

• Club cards - the algorithm of their action is similar to bonus cards. However, in the club format, in addition to discounts or bonuses, free services of your company and partners are provided.

Resuscitation of "sleeping" clients

Among your existing customers, there is almost always a part that suddenly stopped buying. Such clients are called sleepers. In the third part of the plan to increase sales, we will just solve this problem.

As a rule, it is difficult to immediately sell to such customers. Therefore, the tools you have chosen for their resuscitation should, first of all, encourage them to contact you.

• A call or an email - the purpose of such a touch will be to communicate with the client and identify the reasons why he stopped buying from you.

• Special offer - if the client has not left at all, then such an offer can return him to the list of active buyers.

• Exclusive - let's say you have a new product that is not yet available for mass sale. Try to offer it to "sleeping" clients and measure the result.

What should be in the plan to increase sales

First, specific deadlines for each stage. Let's say you can work with new clients throughout the entire implementation period, and 2 weeks are allotted for informing "sleeping" clients.

Secondly, you must have a team to put the plan into action. It can be both your employees and invited specialists (consultants, temporary staff, freelancers).

Thirdly, it is necessary to appoint a person responsible for the development and implementation of a plan to increase sales.

Conclusion

A sales growth plan is necessary for the systematic development of sales in your company.