Thoughtful Thursdays - Increasing Sales Part 3

If you have followed my last two blog posts, http://tbdcblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/thoughtful-thursdays-increasing-sales.html and http://tbdcblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/thoughtful-thursdays-increasing-sales_26.html you have developed a sales forecast for the next twelve months, unidentified by customer how much your existing base will contribute to the projected growth, and calculated the gap you want to bridge in order to meet sales expectations.

Closing this gap is what we will be discussing today. Where will the sales come from?

Perhaps the easiest place to grow your sales it at your existing customer base. Have you thought about ways you can add value to your already loyal customers?

Knowing what keeps your customer up at night will help you identify what additional products and services you might want to add to your offering.

An example for website design/development firms might be to add a monthly service that provides relevant traffic statistics. Most know that traffic information is important, but many have not allocated the resources to retrieve the information. If this is the case, they will not have a good sense of how the website is performing. You can help your customers maximize the effectiveness of their websites and ultimately increase their sales by making it easier for them to access this valuable information.

Most of us also know that backing up our files should be a routine practice, but how many of us actually do it? How many keep their back ups in a secure place where their computer is not?
As an IT service provider why not make it easier for your client and simplify the process for them. Consider adding a back up service to your ongoing maintenance contracts for an additional fee.

Now that you have ways to further increase sales at your existing base, let's talk about new business at new customers.

• How many targets are you working on?
• Are you calling on enough prospects?
• Where are you in the sales cycle?
• Do you have an idea of the probability of closing the sale?
• What is the value of the potential sale?

The answers to these questions will help you manage your time spent with your prospects. The higher the potential, the more time you may want to spend on it. Temper this with where you are in the sales cycle. Ideally you want to have a balanced mix of prospects in various stages of the sales cycle. That way there is always something developing.

In my experience missing sales targets on a regular basis is linked to not getting in front of enough of the right prospects on a regular basis.

You might want to have a list of your top ten targets that you will focus on. This list will change as sales are closed and new prospects are added. Approaching sales in an organized fashion will make the best use of your resources and result in faster growth for your business.

By taking the time to think about what you want to accomplish and planning and executing accordingly, you will meet your sales expectations on regular basis.

Good selling,
Richard