Every day I come across
different people having different personalities, opinions and ideas. One
important aspect which I have gauged from years of my experience with different
businessmen is that each person is cribbing that competition in market has
increased. Be it a small businessman running a small grocery store or a big
businessman running a big mall, each and every person attribute that
competition is eating away their business. They forget that they need to find
out their competitive advantage, i.e. what they have different with them which
their competitor may not possess. That competitive advantage has to be taken
benefit of.
A question which every
person in his or her astrological consultation with regard to business asks is
how to get more and more customers for buying their product or service. In this
post I am sharing my experience by giving you some tips through which you can
increase sales of your product or service. My objective with these tips is to
ensure that all people connected with our centre become wealthy and successful.
Tip
Number 1 – Know your
product/service offerings
An important point to
remember is that people buy products for their results or for the attributes of
product or service. You should know “what are the benefits of your product or
service to the customer”? Make a list of such benefits so that you can ensure that
they are present in the product or service being offered. These then can be
used in marketing campaigns also.
Tip
Number 2 – Make a
profile of your customers
Every person doing
business should make a profile of his or her customers. For example you can
seek answers to questions like what is the age of customers buying your product
or service? What is their purchasing power? Are they educated and well
informed? For whom they are buying product? Do they want customized products or
services? These things will help you in getting a clear idea of your customers
and then you can target them efficiently and will be able to price your
products or services also looking at these aspects.
Tip
Number 3 – What is
your competitive advantage or how you can develop it?
This is an important
area because if you have some competitive advantage, then you will be able to
outperform the competitors. For example, you are offering same product which an
MNC is offering but at a lower rate, then it is your competitive advantage.
This will attract customers to your store. Always focus on giving customers a
higher value proposition. This will motivate them to stay with you only.
Remember customers always look at their own benefit and till the time you are
giving those benefits, they will stay with you and be loyal to you and once
they find a good alternative better than your product or service, they will
shift their loyalty. So develop your competitive advantage and be ahead in
competition.
Tip
Number 4 – Make use of social media marketing to further your competitive
advantage Today social media like Facebook, Twitter, personal
blogs, Instagram, Whatsapp have become popular. You can use these to your
advantage. You can build relationships with your customers. The advantage of
social media is that first of all it is free and secondly you get an option to
make good lead and pitch for your product or service to customers. If they find
something unique in your product or service, they will definitely avail your
services or buy your products.
Tip
Number 5 – Reach out to your potential customers
You can reach out to
your potential customers either by calling them on phone, connecting with them
through social media or even through visiting their offices. Relationship which
you build at this place will go a long way in getting future orders but I would
caution you not to overdo it. For example, you want to sell a vaccum cleaner
and make a pitch to potential customer and in your over enthusiasm you contact
him several times thus irritating the customer and eventually when he decides
to buy vaccum cleaner, he buys from someone else. So you have to fix a dividing
line between reaching out to a potential customer by building relationship as
compared to over enthusiasm in contacting him again and again.
Tip
Number 6 – Choose the
right price
This is the most
important area for increasing your sales as it implies revenue for you while it
is a cost for the customer. Generally customers are price sensitive and if you
are able to fix up right price for the product or service offered, you will be
able to close the deal. People ask him how to fix the price. The simple answer
is that first of all you need to consider your costs and once you consider
them, do a market research to find out what competitors are charging. Remember
if you charge a high price, the perceived value of your product would increase.
So check whether you are offering truly a better service or product quality. If
you are able to price the product slightly at a lower price than that available
in market by other competitors, you will be able to drastically increase your
sales. You can work for measures to reduce cost of production so that you can
offer products at slightly lower price. I give you an example for it. The area
in which I am living in New Delhi has many dairies selling polypack milk along
with other dairy items. There is one dairy which is doing brisk business as
compared to other dairies although the product range is similar. I researched
for the reason of his increasing sales. I found out that he is giving a
discount of Rs. 1 on 1 litre polypack milk of any brand. This is the margin of
the retailer on selling one litre milk but he is parting with it. The secret
lies in initiating higher footfall at the dairy by customers who wants to save
Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 per day depending on their purchase quantity but when they visit
that dairy they also buy other items like cheese, bread, ghee, curd etc and
they pay normal price on purchasing those commodities thus leading to increase
in his sales and hence profit margin. You can think of any other pricing
initiative which will help you in creating word of mouth publicity for your
product or service.
Tip
Number 7 – Learn
proper techniques to negotiate and close the deal
When you go for
striking a business deal, do not go with negative attitude. Look for the “win
win” situation where both parties may achieve satisfaction. A good negotiator
is one who has positive attitude, has the ability to ask right questions to
know client requirements and above all he should be patient and well prepared
to answer queries.
Tip
Number 8 – Try to
make an effective presentation
When you visit your
client or you have a store where people visit for buying goods, and then make
an effective presentation to them. For clients you can make use of PowerPoint
slides to explain your product or service and for visitors in your store, you
should make proper assortment in retail store where the customer can see
available items. It would be better if you have a catalogue ready for giving an
idea of product or service being offered.
Tip
Number 9 – Focus on
long term relationships with customers
In my experience, I
have found that long term relationships with customers help you not only in
getting repeat business but referrals also. Pareto 80/20 rule also say that 20%
of your customers are responsible for your 80% revenue. So concentrate on
existing customers and the process of sale should not end with sale itself
rather focus on getting customer feedback, address his or her complaints and
hence achieve value addition.
Tip
Number 10 – Offer your
potential customers an idea of your product or service or a free sample
It is possible that
your potential customer would go in for buying product from you only if you
give an opportunity to try something of your product or service at free. For
example, you can shoot a short video about your product and show them to
customers to know how it is functioning. You can create excitement among them
by giving a free sample. For example, you are selling protein powders and you
offer them a small trial pack for free to induce them to go for higher quantity
by purchasing from you. You need to show them how you are different. For
example, you are selling protein powder and you know that many fake sellers are
operating in the grey market and if your product is genuine, you can tell your
customers that it comes with importer seal and proper bill so that you get what
you want. This will also help you in differentiating your product offering from
that of competitors.
Tip
Number 11 – Make use of sales promotions
You can use sales
promotions by offering off season discount or sales or you may offer some
services at lower cost to induce customers to buy your product or service.
Remember that your product or service should be a good one so that you are able
to win their trust and at the same time motivate them to refer you to others
also. The key lies in offering genuine and good quality product offerings.
There are some people who tend to push their sales by promising wrong
attributes of product. They may become successful initially in increasing their
sales but in the long run; they would not be able to generate repeat business. You
can inform your customers about future sales at lower rates to induce them to
buy higher quantity also. There are many companies like Amazon, FlipKart etc
who announce some days before the actual sale about the event to create a buzz
among customers about their products.
Tip
Number 12 – Create a clear sales message
Here the need for you
is to create a clear sales message. This could be done by thinking of two three
benefits of your product and highlight them in your sales headline. For
example, you are offering lower prices of jeans, readymade garments and related
stuff, and then you can make a title like “Branded Jeans at unbelievable price”
or “Jeans at prices never bought before” etc. Be specific and highlight two
three attributes so that customer can know your message.
I have tried to cover
most important things that would definitely help you in achieving higher sales.
The techniques I have discussed are tried and tested one on many cases and
results are awesome. You also make a note of them and “Achieve what you want”.
Please like and share for the benefit of all.
Acharya Vikas Malhotra
Lal Kitab Astro Centre (LKAC)
lalkitabastro.com
Lal Kitab Astro Centre (LKAC)
lalkitabastro.com
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