So sales are slow? What now?
Over the past few months there has been a lot of chatter amongst our female business owner communities that sales are slow. The cost of living crisis. The economy. I think it’s so prevalent that we’ve even forgotten the ‘algorithm’ for two seconds.
And while I am the first to agree, that it is definitely true, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t buying and that you can’t hit your financial goals.
It might just be the time to do things differently. Or a season of ‘more’.
So here are some LOW to NO cost ideas that are working right now to grow sales in your business.
1. More proactive outreach.
How much cold sales outreach do you currently do right now? Whether it be cold email, LinkedIn outreach or even phone calls. Do you do it daily, weekly, monthly, just when things are slow or (gasp) not at all. Whatever category you fall into (no judgement) ask yourself whether while you have less on right now whether you could step up this activity.
I personally send 100 cold emails every day (I send 50 and my VA sends 50) and my VA maxes out my LinkedIn connection requests every week to keep building my network. And while, yes, conversion does appear to be down, it is still working. PLUS, this activity is also forward looking, these new contacts are now in my network and I can nurture them over time to convert at some point in the future.
In case you missed it, I created this quick video a couple of weeks ago to go more in-depth on how I approach LinkedIn outreach, in case that’s something you’ve wanted to try.
2. Collaborate with other businesses
You have spent all this time building up your community of social media followers, email subscribers and website visitors - and so have businesses just like you. Collaborating with other brands who have the same target audience, but a complimentary product (not competitive) is a fantastic way to get exposure to more customers at no to very little cost.
We are taking our own advice and have recently teamed up with our friends at One Roof to offer a 2-4-1 membership offer to both of our communities.
You could collaborate on a blog article, a giveaway, an exclusive offer, a pop-up store, a new product, a masterclass… the world is your oyster!
If you are looking for awesome women in business to collaborate with, why not start by searching the SPARK Women in Business Directory for some inspiration?
3. Re-think your messaging
If you’ve had the same copy on your website, same proposals and same email templates floating around for the last however many years.. it might be time to reflect on whether they speak to how your consumer is currently feeling. Does your language connect with them as the world has changed and does your offer still make sense? The best way to figure this out is to speak to your customers. Speak to the new ones and ask why they purchased from you. Speak to the ones who said no and listen for the language they use when they explain why it wasn’t for them. Work in these new sentiments and language into your copy.
4. Retention, retention, retention.
When sales are slow it can be easy to take our eyes off our customers and spend more energy worrying about what’s not happening. During this time, it’s more important than ever to retain the customers you do have. Make them feel loved and adored and definitely deliver on what you said you were going to deliver. If you have happy customers, there’s also a chance that you can upsell them into something new, bigger or longer depending on what your product is. If they don’t need to buy more, get a testimonial to further enhance your marketing messaging and help new customers convert.
These are my two favourite customer retention stats:
Acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than retaining existing customers.
There is a 60-70% chance of selling to an existing customer. With new customers, the chance of closing a sale is just 5-20%.
5. Make more offers
Sometimes we like to overcomplicate sales. We think we need a giant strategy document, a fancy CRM, pre-prepared scripts.. when really we just need to tell more people how we can support them. When was the last time you spoke about your offers? If it was any longer than a few days ago, you need to communicate it again, here are a few ways how:
Jump onto your Instagram stories and share a success your client is having, then end by saying ‘if you want to chat about how i can support you with X, DM me for a chat’.
Send an email to your list - add value, then remind them what you do.
Re-introduce yourself and your services across all of your social channels.
Host a masterclass for your community - add value, then REMIND them what you do.
Host a masterclass for someone else’s community - add value, then TELL them what you do.
On your own or someone else’s podcast - tell the audience how you can support them.
Follow up every proposal you’ve sent in the last 12 months with a success story and how you’d still love to support them with X.
If you are a SPARK member reading this - maximise your membership, record your podcast episode, keep your biz directory listing up to date, submit a blog article.. let’s get you in front of more customers.
The message is that we can focus on the negative or we can try something new in our business.
A final little trick I want to share with you - you can feel scared, overwhelmed, like your business is on fire and you want to quit… and still send the email.
The MOST important thing to do right now, is to just take action. I know it can feel overwhelming and stressful when the money isn’t flowing like it used to… but the thing I can guarantee you? If you don’t make a move, it’s not going to get any better.
I can categorically tell you that in 90% of my 1:1 sales coaching sessions, the problem isn't their strategy.. it’s that they’re not executing the strategy.
So today, choose one small thing and take action.
I promise you your goals are worth it.
