How to increase sales in a small business?

A continuing challenge that most of the small business owners face is “how to increase sales in a small business?”

The only way to improve the bottom line of your business is by maximizing your sales. Increasing sales seems like a tough nut to track.

However, it isn’t an unachievable task.

Even the fortune 500 companies began small, but using the right strategies and tactics, they have paved the way to the top.

There are many ways to increase sales in a small business; you need to find and explore them.

No matter what’s your company’s size, trying something that you haven’t done before can always be beneficial for your business.

Instead of just wondering how to increase sales in a small business; try to adopt new techniques and technologies to achieve desirable results.

A little tweak in the way you function can help in expanding your profit margins.

5 ways to increase sales in a small business

To make your work easier, below I have stated few ways that can help you increase sales of your small business:

1. Get acquainted with your customer’s current situation

Getting to the heart of the customer’s pain point can help you in rendering a better buying experience.

Customers want to deal with companies who understand them and their business needs.

To demonstrate the true value of your product, you need to have a deep knowledge about the customer.

For example, Nike has treadmills in most of its store. Store employees conduct analyses as people test the shoes.

Based on the data collected, they used to recommend specific shoes to their customers.

Offering what your customer exactly needs can give them compelling reasons to purchase from you.

So, research and dig into details.

Try to understand –

• What are your prospects business goals and challenges?
• Where are they facing problems?
• Can your product help them in overcoming business challenges?

Investing time in the right customer is important.

So, ensure the prospects you are approaching are capable enough to invest in the product.

Find out the company size, annual turnover, and spending capacity, in the beginning, to avoid cancellations or returns later.

2. Listening is selling

Isn’t it exasperating when you enter a store, and a sales rep comes to you and starts showing the best clothes in their store without listening to your needs?

Most of the sales calls backfire because the sales reps are too engrossed in presenting the strengths of their product.

When you dominate a conversation, you tend to miss out on important details that could have helped in closing a deal.

“Selling is actually listening, it’s not talking. You shouldn’t be talking more than a third of the time max.”  says Patti Pokorchak

‘Listening’ is a skill you need to master as a sales professional.

Your calls and meeting should be centered on your potential prospect needs.

Learn about your prospect, understand their business issues and build a good rapport with them.

Ask questions and listen attentively to their answers.

Immediately after asking a question, most of the sales reps start thinking about the next question.

Listening is an active process; don’t pretend and waste yours as well as your prospect’s time.

To increase sales, you need to take your prospects seriously.

Show them you care by listening to their problems and presenting a valuable solution.

3. Create your FAQs

Have you ever been in a situation when a potential prospect asked a question, and your mind went blank?

It is embarrassing, isn’t it?

Prospect tend to lose interest when you aren’t able to answers their questions or solve their queries.

To avoid such situations, note down the questions that you get to hear quite often while interacting with a potential prospect.

Reflect on the questions and try to find the best possible answers.

A lot is dependent on the way you communicate with your prospects.

You can set an impression with your answers that demonstrate you know the market, your product, and the prospect’s issue.

For better answers, you can even mystery shop your competitors.

Contact your competitors by pretending as a potential prospect and ask the question you frequently face on the calls.

See –

• How are they responding to the questions?
• What is their approach to the sales process?
• What is their USP?
• How are they conveying their message?

Collect some insightful points of insightful points.

This will help you strike a meaningful conversation with your prospects.

set a lasting impression to influence their buying decision.

4. Create sales playbooks

Sales Playbook is a valuable source of information that helps in converting a deal.

It outlines your sales process, buyer persona, call scripts, meeting agendas, sample emails, negotiation questions and proposal guidelines.

Sales playbook is a team driven approach that compiles vital data with clear instruction that guides everyone to be on the right track.

It is the best way of disseminating effective techniques to increase sales.

Knowing what tactics your star performer used to win the deal can help in improving the performance of other team members.

Sales playbook is very useful in training new sales reps.

It helps them in understanding what do you sell, whom do you sell to and how do you sell it.

It gives insights into selling patterns and buying habits of the customers.

If you follow the instructions and you have the right selling skills, then you can easily achieve your desired sales results.

5. Use CRM to assist your sales process

CRM is the best tool to empower your sales reps and increase sales.

By choosing the right CRM, you can

• seamlessly manage your sales
• improve performance
• shorten your sales cycle
• foster positive relationships with the clients

It helps you in understanding where are your prospects in the sales cycle and what are the hindrances affecting your sales growth.

With a visual representation of each stage, you can get up-to-the-minute status of each deal in the sales pipeline.

You can know when is the right time to approach a deal and which deal need your immediate attention.

With instant notifications, you can follow-up your prospects in real-time.

CRM keeps you organized.

It gives you easy access to crucial customer data.

All the information related to your client is systematically stored in a centralized location.

You can connect with your clients from anywhere through internet enabled device.

Moreover, with insightful reports, you can measure the effectiveness of your outbound activities and track the performance of your sales reps.

It is the smartest way to increase sales in minimum time.

Concluding thoughts

How to increase sales?

We hope you might have found the answer to this important question in the above points.

However, to grow your small business, you will have to put these points into practice and dedicatedly follow it.

Stay abreast of the changing trends and keep updating your sales techniques to succeed.

As I mentioned above, implementing technologies like CRM can be very helpful in increasing your sales.

A small business CRM will be an excellent asset for your business. Salesmate is a CRM designed for small businesses.

With this high-end tool, you can easily streamline your sales process, organize your data, track your email and forecast future sales opportunities.

It is an all-in-one sales solution that helps you in selling better and faster.

To explore the various functionalities of the advanced CRM, get in touch with our team they will guide you.