Businesses should know who they are targeting and why before they can develop marketing or sales strategies to convince consumers to become customers.  You must first be clear on whether or not there is a need for your product or service.  You must clearly understand the priceline at which you plan to enter or penetrate the market and know the consumer you are going after by understanding how and why their particular demographics, geographics, psychographics, and other factors fit into your business plan projections.

Small business owners must pay attention to their customers if they want to stay in business and must develop sales strategies that work for their particular products and services.  One goal that many businesses have is to turn their first-time customers into repeat customers.  The amount of times that this process can be repeated will help tremendously with increasing revenue and maintaining a healthy cash flow and balance.  People have to perceive value in what you have in order for them to want to have it.  Whatever the consumer perceives is their reality so you have to work hard to create positive perceptions that can be relied on.  When marketing and selling, you should always focus on the question that is foremost on the customers’s mind – “What’s in it for me?”  If you can answer that question to their satisfaction your marketing campaign is a success and you are on your way to improving sales. 

There are many different strategies that can be implemented and a few are outlined below:

Excellent telephone and interpersonal skills

Clients must be able to hear the smile in your voice.  Good telephone etiquette is key to your success and you must never hang up before your clients do.  In today’s fast moving world we tend to forget to bring the personal touch to many of our transactions.  We are all creatures of habit and we buy with our emotions.  Being pleasant, having a great attitude at all times, smiling, being helpful beyond the call of duty, under-promising and over-delivering instead of the opposite are all great tools amongst others that can be used to increase sales and improve customer relations.

Exceptional service

This should be a vital part of any business.  Operating with excellence all the time regardless of the circumstances will send a message to your customers that they are important to you and not only because of how much they spend.  As business owners, we have to deal with many different personalities and we must never make the mistake to serve those personalities based on their differences.  We must give equal exceptional service to everyone.  This can lead to priceless positive word-of-mouth advertising for our businesses.

Measuring the Success of Marketing Strategies 

Every business should have a good marketing plan that is strategic to its target.  After implementing the plan, the results must be measured to access whether or not they are working effectively and efficiently.  One must be able to measure how much sales are derived and in how much time from the particular media that are used to get the attention of customers.  Not measuring the success of your marketing strategies may cause you to waste marketing dollars and thereby lose sales that may have been gained by simply changing the strategy or the media.

New Media Marketing

We live in a world when New Media [Internet] Marketing is now the norm.  No longer are we dependent on newspapers, magazines, radio and television as much as we are dependent on the internet to get the word out.  Consumers first look to the internet and search engines when they are looking for products or services; therefore, it is imperative that small businesses have a website that effectively sells their products or services to those that seek them.  There are so many search engines and social sites to choose from; however, we still have to be creative to get and keep our target customers’ attention.  We may sometimes have to use Old Media like radio, television, newspapers or magazines along with direct mail to get the word out about our websites, but we must use such media effectively.  We have to focus only on those audiences that fit the criteria for our target to get the best results.  Remember, everyone is not your customer.  Put your target in the bullseye and don’t focus on those in the rings outside.

Setting time aside for Marketing

Marketing is not sales and sales is not marketing but we need great marketing if we want to be successful at selling.  Marketing is like fishing with a line and sales happens when the fish bites and is caught on the hook.  Business owners must set aside some time everyday or every week exclusively to market their products and services.  You should never be in a position to say “I have enough customers”.  History has taught us that customers come and go as much as we want to keep them only to ourselves.  We live in a capitalistic society and competition drives our economy.  Businesses are constantly looking for ways to take market share away from their competitors by using their differential advantages.  Marketing is key to a business’ success and should never be an afterthought.  Many businesses neglect marketing and pay the price with low sales and negative cash flows.

Gift Certificates and Discounts

Gift certificates and discounts may be another way to increase sales.  However, you must be sure that you run your numbers to determine if any or both of these tactics are cost effective and how soon you will get a return on your investment.  Understanding your business’ cash flow and turnover will help you determine if using gift certificates and discounts will be useful to you.

Personal contacts

Never underestimate the power of networking.  Personal contacts that we make every day may be useful to us when trying to increase sales.  Stay in touch with contacts that complement your business or even those that are your competitors.  We can make and get referrals to and from those that complement our businesses and we can learn from those that are our competitors.