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Home Running A Business 5 Resolutions to Up Your Sales In 2012
Note: This is a guest post by Ron Volper, Ph.D., and author of “Up Your Sales in a Down Market.”
The most profitable companies are the ones that regularly re-examine their business assumptions, and change their sales and marketing strategies, based on what worked well and not well in the previous year.
Here are 5 Resolutions and Action Plans to help you grow your business in the New Year.
Most company’s say they are customer driven, but in most cases their customers would disagree with their assessment. Yet the companies whose customers do perceive them as customer-focused usually attract and keep more customers and are more profitable than their competitors.
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Actions to make this resolution a reality:
It’s understandable that many companies are cutting their advertising and marketing budgets, but unless they are in dire financial straits, it’s a mistake. Because customers are now more skittish, you need to show up more often, both in advertising and in face-to-face meetings with customers. Because many companies have cut back on advertising, your message is now more likely to stand out. And because media outlets have seen a drop in demand, you can now negotiate better rates.
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The most successful companies offer the most and the best sales training. Their training programs measurably improve the knowledge and skills of veteran salespeople as well as rookies
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The key to profitability is keeping your current customers. The longer you keep them the more profitable the relationship usually becomes. For example, there is a 25 times greater chance that an existing customer will purchase an additional product than that a prospect will purchase anything from your company. And the key to acquiring new customers is getting referrals from current customers.
It’s understandable that successful businesses are reluctant to change their marketing or sales strategy, But in this fast-paced environment, where customer needs and tastes rapidly change, and where both local and global competition represent on-going threats to your business, the companies that succeed are the ones that are willing to make major changes to their business. So evaluate what may no longer be working for your company and have the courage to stop doing it.
IBM as a case in point is one of our country’s most successful companies and a global business icon. It became successful initially from selling business machines, such as typewriters, then from manufacturing and selling mainframe computers. Today, however, a major part of its revenue is derived from its consulting services and outsourcing services. For example, IBM now manages global purchasing for The Coca-Cola Company.
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About the Author Ron Volper, Ph.D., is a leading authority on business development and author of Up Your Sales in a Down Market (Career Press, Nov. 2011). He has been interviewed on Bloomberg Television, MSNBC, and CNBC, and featured in Fortune, INC, Nation¹s Business, Success, Accounting Today, and others. As Managing Partner of the Ron Volper Group‹Building Better Sales Teams, he has advised 90 Fortune 500 Companies and many mid-sized companies on how to increase sales in tough times and good times; and he has trained over 30,000 salespeople and executives over the past 25 years. He is an Adjunct Faculty member at New York University, and a sought after speaker. He and his wife live in Larchmont, NY. Learn more at www.ronvolpergroup.com.
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