10 Best Strategies to Lift Dwindling Sales
A successful business sale is the result of deliberate product creation and strategic marketing to inspire a purchase action. Having the right sales and marketing strategy can, therefore, make or break a business.
Your sales and marketing strategy or approach may include a wide range of activities from doubling your efforts to craft the perfect cold email to designing more targeted ads, personalizing marketing messages, and making more effective follow-ups.
Whatever sales approach you are currently focused on, you’ll benefit from learning more about the sales strategies that other businesses and entrepreneurs are using to increase their sales. These strategies can help lift dwindling sales.
Effective Strategies to Boost Conversions, Lift Dwindling Sales
Here are some top sales and marketing strategies that have proven effective for boosting conversions and lifting dwindling sales:
1. Lead with a Solution for Client Problems
Many business owners and entrepreneurs overlook the basic principle of what businesses should do, which is solve clients' or customers' problems and meet their needs.
Having an aggressive sales and marketing drive that only focuses on increasing your sales and profits may give clients the impression that you only care about your own bottom line and have no empathy or regard for their needs and problems, which is off-putting and may be contributing to dwindling sales.
Change your strategy and put customers’ needs at the forefront. Make an effort to understand customers’ needs and attitudes before engaging in any sales pitches and marketing drives. This way you’ll connect with them and offer more meaningful solutions that they can happily buy and become loyal customers.
Do your research and find the underlying issues and desired solutions customers need. Then offer the exact solution they are looking for to increase your business sales. Lead with a solution to customer problems.
2. Explain the Final Output Clearly
Customers want to see how the outcome of using the products or services you offer will impact and improve their lives.
After you know what customers want, have created a solution for their need, now explain clearly how it works and what clients can expect to get when they sign up to it. Educate prospects not only about how your product works, but also how much time they need to invest in it to see positive results.
Make your sales strategy more relevant by having a clear guideline on the type of support they need when they sign up. It is essential to draw timelines on deliverables and milestones and the overall impact it will have on the customers and business.
3. Target a Narrower Market at First
Smaller niches can dramatically increase the effectiveness of any sales and marketing campaign. Smaller markets are easier to cover and you can get a fuller understanding of the common challenges and issues to address in the markets.
By targeting a narrower market at first, it can prove more effective approach than trying to reach a broader market, especially when your marketing budget and human resource is limited.
Selling a product to a smaller market initially provides a good learning environment before you are ready to focus on larger markets with bigger budgets and prospects of all shapes and sizes.
After you successfully cover a narrow market, you can always branch out and continue to expand your scope and broaden the markets you serve, with the benefit of having honed your skills and increased your experience.
4. Cultivate Flexibility in Your Sales Strategy
Setting up business relationships with clients is bound to bring in new challenges and demands. This is bound to happen because of the different and varying nature of business operations and personalities.
Adopt a sales and marketing strategy that is flexible and changes with the prevailing ideas and trends in the market. The best sales strategy is one that adapts to market forces and client’s fickle nature and attitudes.
Selling entails making sure clients are reassured that their action to buy and close the deal is the right one, depending on the current needs, trends, and prevailing situations in the market.
5. Prioritize Prospects Lead Scoring
When dealing with a large prospective customer base, incorporating a lead scoring analysis in your sales strategy can help you focus your efforts and resources on prospect that are more likely to convert, thus increasing your sales.
Lead scoring is a simple and straightforward process. You only need to rank prospects on a scale of 1 to 10, based on their likelihood to buy. Use this strategy to assign points to each lead and allocate resources and attention accordingly.
After qualifying and ranking leads, prioritize prospects based on the most likely client to close the deal. Avoid wasting too much time having endless conversations with low-level prospects who demand a lot of attention and may not even buy.
6. Partner with Influencers
Instead of waiting months or years to build a large audience you can market to, why not just partner with influencers and decision makers in your industry who already have an audience and can influence audiences to buy your products or services?
A good sales strategy entails focusing on what can bring the greatest results in the fastest time possible and cost-effectively. Partnering with influencers to promote your products/services can immediately boost brand awareness and increase sales.
7. Make the Pitching Process Exciting
Once you have made connection with the right contacts and established a cordial relationship with prospective customers, have an effective sales pitch to turn the connection into a business relationship.
Pitch business opportunities that capture attention and inspire a desired action. Talk about the benefits of what you offer, other clients/partners you have worked with, why signing up is a good move for prospects, and so on.
Deliver your sales pitch convincingly and honestly to boost your business conversions and lift dwindling sales.
8. Incorporate Storytelling in Your Marketing
Storytelling is a time-tested practice that has persisted throughout the history of humankind. It is only the medium and setting of telling stories that has changed.
A solid sales and marketing strategy incorporates storytelling to captivate prospects in a more engaging and memorable way beyond just listing benefits of products and services.
Storytelling works well because human beings absorb information much better when told through stories. You can use storytelling to convey the story behind your product idea from conception to the design stage and final production.
Storytelling can help customers and prospects better identify with your brand and have an emotional connection with your products. When people become emotionally invested in your offering, they support and buy from you more.
9. Listen to Feedback and Reviews
Use the feedback, reviews, and insights you get from prospects and customers to improve your offering and introduce new features they may be requesting.
When customers give reasons why they do not feel compelled to sign up to your product or service, listen and make the necessary adjustments and changes to allay any concerns customers may have.
If they are getting better offers and deals from competitors that’s keeping them from you, look into how you can improve your own offering and compete effectively. Then you’ll see sales improve.
10. Address Sales Queries and Inquiries Promptly
Customer service is of the essence in any business. When a prospect calls for more information on offers, treat them with the respect and attention they deserve.
Failing to engage customers in a professional manner, showing a lack of concern to their inquires, or ignoring their queries after a sale will ultimately hurt your business' reputation and stifle your sales.
Be professional when talking and serving customers to give them the best possible experience and a reason to come back for more and to refer your business to their friends and family.
Customer service is of critical importance in sales and marketing. Strive to work in a distraction-free environment where you can listen to clients and give them your full attention. This way they’ll feel special and be compelled to become loyal customers.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the best way to improve your conversion rates and lift dwindling sales is to continuously tweak and enhance your products/services, hone your sales and marketing strategy, and deliver the best customer experience.
That'll increase customer satisfaction, boost their loyalty and engagement with your brand, and prompt them to come back for more and tell their friends and family about your brand.
Put your customers first while at the same time paying attention to your bottom line.
