3 Proven Sales Growth Strategies With Examples From Successful Businesses
Regardless of whether your organization is easily achieving its financial targets or struggling to make its next quarter all organizations face the growth challenge. How to get it, where it will come from and what tactics will be the most effective. Here are three strategies for accelerating sales growth that work.
Number 1 – Go Offline
Yes you heard me correctly. When is the last time you thought about how to grow your business and the first thought that came to mind was to do something that did not involve the internet?
While digital provides many new and unique ways of reaching people it does not replace the need to actually meet your existing and prospective customers in person. The best digital strategies include both on-line and offline components
Consider online marketplace Etsy. When it was starting out it actually went offline and sent employees to craft fairs across the US to meet with sellers that it wanted on its online platform
Etsy focused on influencers and asked them what would convince them to sell on Etsy
Using this approach including implementing the feedback they gathered, fueled Etsy’s growth leading up to a successful IPO
Number 2 – Serve the Customers You Keep Turning Away
How many times have you turned away a potential customer? Or does your organization deliberately not serve certain segments of the market because they believe they are too expensive to serve?
The customers that you are ignoring or should I say avoiding may be more lucrative than you realize
Think about the company Square that was created by Jack Dorsey. Before Square there was an entire market of small businesses that did not accept debit or credit card payments because it was too expensive to do so
Square comes along and offers a cheaper way for small businesses to accept credit and debit card payments on their smart phones or tablets by using a Square reader
Who are the customers in your industry that you are not serving today? Is there a way that you have not thought of where you can serve them either through a different business model or a more tailored offering?
Number 3 - Word of Mouth
According to a study by Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all types of advertising
The success of your organization is dependent on word of mouth. In industries such as skin care and phones, word of mouth is twice as effective as paid advertising
Have you figured out how to generate more word of mouth for your brand? It is easier said than done but it works
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References:
Holiday, Ryan. Perennial Seller. Profile Books, 2017.
Brown, Morgan and Sean Ellis. Hacking Growth. Crown Business, 2017.
Kim, W. Chan and Renée Mauborgne. Blue Ocean Shift. Hachette Books, 2017.