The first thing to help you increase sales is to set goals. Without setting a goal for your business, you will surely not reach anywhere. Before you start selling your services or products, you should have a set goal in your mind. This will help you find the strategies to achieve your goals and every step that you will take towards it will give you the required boost to move towards it more quickly. Your set goals help you remain on the track and will motivate you.

Next thing to increase sales is to plan ahead. You should have a well drafted action plan of improving sales. You should be aware of your marketing strategies and work continuously to improve them. As your services, products or clients change, you need to change your marketing campaign. If required, you should not hesitate to hire more people to better your marketing campaign. Your services and products should be able to entice your potential customers. You should write down every single thing you want to do, so that you can use it later as reference.

Setting up customer incentive programs is another way of increasing sales by 20% -50%. This will help you bring back your buying customers and also entice new customers. Although you do not have to spend a fortune on it, but spending a bit of time and other resources will do the job. For instance, you can reward your customers every time they buy your services or products. You can also give some special offers and discounts to your customers. These special incentive programs for your customers will make them use your products and services more frequently.

Next valuable business idea to increase sales by 20% to 50% is to cross-sell. You can maximize your business revenues per client with the help of cross-selling. For instance, when a customer buys product A from you then you can offer him/her product B to compliment product A. You should be good at highlighting the benefits of your other products too that will influence the decisions of your customers. And this way, they might something that they were not even planning to.

Lastly, you should keep your customers posted about your new products and services. Using these tips will help you increase sales by 20%-50%.

Summary: There are many things that one can do to increase sales by 20%-50%. All one has to do is be consistent and patient in improving one’s business sales. Setting proper goals, having a worthy action plan, creating customer incentive programs, cross-selling and keeping the customers posted are some of the techniques to increase sales.

1. Motivation Tips
Staying motivated from street to street, door to door and day to day is an ongoing challenge. It is said this sort of sales is just a numbers game, the more you knock the more chances you have to get a sales and while this is true it is only a part of the truth. If you knock unsuccessfully for too long it can get to you and the next call you will not be as lively or persuasive, having high motivation and energy throughout the day is essential for being persuasive and making each call count. The first thing you must do is not take any rejection personally, you are in an industry where you are selling to people who are not actively looking for your product and do not know you are coming, the conversion rate of sales is very low and you must expect this. Just think that every unsuccessful call has enabled you to get to the next call that may be a winner quicker! Another way to stay motivated is to keep track of sales but do not keep track of unsuccessful calls, only focus on positives not negatives and you will find success comes more easily, celebrate each sale, revel in it and stay on top of your game!

2. Planning Tips
While this may be a numbers game not all calls are equal so the adage of more is better is somewhat false. Good planning and research can help you to find the most profitable calls to focus on instead of just calling on whatever doors come your way. That also being said too much planning and too little calling is also a recipe for disaster. Choose your locations well for your products, some areas simply will not generate the same sales as other due to demographics. Also the time of day you call is important, calling at the wrong time can lead to a wasted call. You must strike a balance between numbers and quality of calls for a good sales conversion rate.

3. Persistence Tips
Persistence can be a double edged sword; I was once told that the difference between a good sales person and a great sales person is persistence. However later I learned that the difference between a great sale person and an annoying harasser is but small degrees apart. While you must be persistent in sales there is also the danger of following dead end too far and wasting time. If there is no chance of a sale why continue to try to make them come around? If you are pressing too hard you simple put people off, the art of listening is more important in this situation or even just giving up. That right, persisting when the outcome will not change is not good! If you apply your persistence where it can get results you will go far but you must prioritise calls and customers quickly or be stuck in dead end avenues. Having more time for more calls can often yield better results than simply trying not to take no for an answer! Remember that door to door sales is about quality and quantity, sticking with a low quality call means you have no quality and you are missing out on more quantity!

There are heaps of other small tips you can use from your opening to your closing to overall door to door coverage. Keep in mind these overall concepts for running your territory and you will be able to increase your overall sales however and more door to door sales tips will come to you in the process of your work!

How to Make Rebates Work for Your Company
Rebates may either be offered by the manufacturer or retailer but in either case, rebates usually offer products or services at a seemingly lower rate.

Tip #1 Calculate Carefully
Don’t just lower the price of your product and offer rebates without showing any serious thought about it. Carefully calculate just how much you can afford reducing the price without getting bankrupt.

Tip #2 Women Respond Better than Men to Rebates
If you really want to make the rebates you’re offering work, do your best to target female customers with your advertisements. Women are more patient than men when it comes to shopping. Secondly, women are more patient with keeping rebate coupons in their pockets until they finally find an opportunity to use them.

Tip #3 Keeping It Simple
Don’t give out rebates if you’re only intention is to deceive your customer into buying your product at its original price. If you’re offering rebates, but there’s a procedure to follow before you can claim the promised reward, make sure that the process is kept short and simple. Don’t ask them to photocopy their receipt in triplicate, sign tons of paperwork, and do other things to discourage them from claiming the rebate.

How to Make Incentives Work for Your Company
Incentives take various forms but all of them generally work by rewarding people for taking the desired action.

Tip #1 Reward Customer Loyalty
If your company has long-time customers – those who keep coming back to you no matter what’s dangled in front them by your competitors – do make sure that you reward them appropriately. You can identify who your loyal customers are by giving out loyalty cards. It’s important to give them preferential treatment because this kills two birds with one stones: it encourages new customers to act in the desired fashion to get similar V.I.P. treatment, and secondly, it rewards old customers and gives them reason to keep coming back.

Tip #2 Reward Customers Who Give You the Information You Want
One way of increasing sales is by building your knowledge of your target market, and there are various ways to achieve that such as giving away survey forms or encouraging customers to join your opt-in list. To ensure that they’ll continue giving you precious data about your customer base, reward the people who have kindly taken the time and effort to give you what you need.

Tip #3 Bumps and Burdens are Always Welcome

Customers always like it when they receive something for free. When you’re using direct mail marketing, prospective customers are more likely to open and read your letter if you enclose something with it. The bigger or more noticeable the bump, the heavier the package, the better!

The most important thing to remember is to be ethical when dealing your customers. Just as long as you have no intentions to cheat or deceive when using rebates and incentives, they’re sure to work in the long run and ultimately cause your sales to increase.

1. Talk less, listen more. Ask questions. Listen for subtle cues as to what your customer wants. For example, when they say, “What I’m looking for is…” That’s a buying signal. Listen and take notes verbatim. Put quotes around what they said so that when you talk or write to them again, you can use their exact words, provided your product or service meets their need. Nothing helped me more in becoming a top sales producer than the above mentioned tip to increase sales.

2. Target people who are your best prospects. Is there a commonality among those people who have purchased from you in the past? What were their needs, similar circumstances, and greatest challenges?

3. Make yourself well-known as an expert in your field. Write articles. Post them online. Contact editors and get published in newspapers and magazines. Ask your clients for recommendation letters praising your services as a testament to your integrity, customer service and expertise. Nothing speaks louder than others singing your praises!

4. Start with selling yourself. It’s a fact: people buy from people they like. People buy from people considered trustworthy, credible, and honest. Present yourself professionally. Regarding attire, remember the 3 T’s: tailored, tasteful, and traditional. Practice a positive attitude. Show up on time. Further educate yourself about your product, your competition, and any possible objections.

5. Fail forward. If you don’t make the sale, or you lose a valued customer, find out why. What needs to be improved? What could be done differently? If you or your company made a mistake, admit it. Learn from it. Then move forward. Don’t dwell on it and dig further into defeat.

6. Communicate your competitive advantage. Like it or not, your potential customer is thinking, “What’s in it for me?” And, “What am I going to get out of this?” Once you know their needs, mention both the features AND the benefits to them.

7. Master and study your core competencies. You’re only as strong as your weakest link. What areas do you need to improve? Do you need to improve your time management skills? Do you need to improve technical skills? And, what areas must you absolutely master? For example, maybe you need to spend more time getting to the decision maker. So, work to improve your deficiencies, and master those areas you must excel at to increase sales.

8. Ask for specific referrals. This is one of the biggest tips to increase sales. Once your client has complimented you on your product/service, ask them who else they know who could benefit. Tell them the kind of clients you’re looking for and get specific names, phone numbers, and email addresses. See if they’ll talk with that person or make a phone call on your behalf and introduce you.

9. Practice professionalism and integrity to increase sales. Be a problem solver. If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it. When you lie you die. Let them know when you’ll get back to them with the answer and do! People will look to see if you practice what you promise.

10. Give samples. Give something away free to increase sales. Or, offer something extra as a value-added bonus. Outdistance your competitors.

Above all else, ask for the order. And incorporate silence. Practicing silence while your potential client is deciding is often when they say yes! They’re uncomfortable with the silence. As a result, they’ll often start talking and make a positive decision to fill the space. This is a technique I used frequently when I was honored as the number one sales producer in the history of the company breaking all previous records in the U.S. and Canada for a major Fortune 500 company. That technique…and a lot of patience, persistence, and diligence. Good luck!

What Will Happen?
You connect with people you’ve been out of touch with.
You create top of mind awareness again.
People will say “I was just thinking about you….”
You’ll get feedback and ideas.
You’ll sell stuff.
And most importantly?
You’ll learn you CANNOT IGNORE YOUR CUSTOMERS. (next time you do that I’ll smack you with a “wooden spoon”)
So there.
Love From Your Bossy Sales Diva,
Kim
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