Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Most people get into business to make money which comes from sales. If your business is not generating sales, you must troubleshoot it to determine why and if you can rectify the situation. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Reasons Why Your Small Business is Not Making Sales.
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If you are concerned about your small business not making sales, then you are in the right place. This guide will tell you whatever you need to know, while also helping you to empower your business by making the right decisions from the get-go.
You Are Marketing and Not Selling
Reaching out to a contact is a sales call, if you know that there is a need or interest for what you are selling. If you are calling to introduce your offer and your pricing, then this is a marketing call. If you want to succeed then you need to make sure that you know the difference. They also spend time tweaking their site, creating blogs and catching up over coffee. This is great for marketing and it may well lead to sales over time, but at the end of the day, these activities won’t be generating sales directly. If you want to fix this, then you need to be honest and you also need to look at which meetings are generating sales. If you find that you are only selling to 10% of your marketed customers, then find out what profiles are buying from you the most and then go from there.
You’re Targeting the Wrong Buyers
Being able to reach 300 people might sound very impressive, but you have to think, are all 300 people actually possible buyers for what you want to sell? In the case of a training or teaching business, you may be more successful in following up with 30 people who all work in HR, or even people who are business managers. Sure, you may talk with someone who is not actually a buyer, but they may know someone who is. This is useful but it’s not classed as selling, you’re technically still marketing. If you want to fix this, then you need to take the time to review your contact list and you also need to try and prioritise those who have a need. If you want to target people more, SEO is a great way for you to do that.
There’s No Urgency
You may be able to connect with someone who is interested, and they may even have the budget to buy your product, but at the end of the day, they may well have other priorities. This can include budget, time and even attention. If you want to close a sale, then you have to make sure that your offer is a priority. During your sales process, you have to make sure that you confirm deadlines and any constraints that your audience may be facing. You need to remind your prospects about what you offer, and why it is so important for them to buy from you right now.
There’s A Better Alternative
Your prospect might need whatever your business has to offer right now, but they may have other choices to fill that need. There may be other companies out there that are able to offer what you do, or it may be that the customer is trying to fulfil the need themselves. Either way, the fix for this would be for you to remember that your customers have choices. You need to make sure that yours is always seen as the best one, one way or another.
