Whether you own an online store or you are running a local business offline, the process of gaining more sales isn't far-fetched. In fact, it's based on the same principles. To generate more sales, one may need more customers but that isn't always the case as a few loyal customers could literally place multiple orders thereby increasing your revenue.

Gaining more sales simply has to do with making more profits and as such we are going to focus on the several ways to make more profit from your business (by generating more sales through multiple new customers or through a few loyal ones). Lack of profit is one of the several reasons why businesses failure (here's how to avoid them) but when you know what you are doing as an entrepreneur or you have an experienced professional on your business leadership team, you are most likely going to prevent such disasters.

Even your profitable membership website is a business and should be treated as such. You need to know that the success of any business totally depends on you as the decision maker. Nothing is more painful than wasting several months and money in setting up and marketing a business (e-commerce store inclusive) and probably buying or creating the products without generating any tangible revenue enough to cover your expenses. Well, let's take a look at some factors that affect your sales.





1.Product quality

What's the nature of the feedback you get from your customers? Do they like your product? How about your services? Do they need some improvements?

What more feature do they want you to add to your product? If you can't answer these questions confidently, with a valid response, then you are not yet ready for business.

Successful businesses are known for the great entrepreneurs running them and these businessmen are great because they value their customers' inputs.

They listen to their customers and are always ready to make all necessary improvements on their products. Go ahead to do the experiment yourself – ask your customers how they would prefer your product to look like or what feature they want to the product to have.

Do this and you will be amazed by how many more customers you would be selling to right now assuming your product had such quality.

This is usually the first angle to look at when trying to increase sales conversion rate because a quality product would naturally sell itself. If you want to make more sales, make better products. Create the kind of product your customers want.

In as much as it's cool to be an inventor of something, remember that you are not building your product for yourself but for your target market. Make a customized version for yourself but sell the ones your customers want! Products affect the growth of a business. Here are the 7 effective methods on how to grow a business.





2.Call to action

Getting prospects to check out your business is never enough. When people visit your business or your website, they need to see a clear call-to-action. They need direction and you need to make it easy for them. What do you want them to buy? Is it clearly visible?

Does it have a 'for sale' sign on it? Will your target customers find it easily? Is it catchy and attractive enough to win their attention? No, the product doesn't necessarily need to have a rainbow colour but making sure it meets your visitor's eyes with a simple and effective call to action, can be very helpful in your bid to grow your sales rate.

Your items (whether in an offline store or on your website,) need to be well organized and easily accessible. In the case of a website, putting out a simple description (or sales pitch) that shows what your business is all about, can be literally double your sales. Forget all the tacky and lengthy episodes written by your marketing department and use a few lines of product benefits (to help your visitors see why they should buy it) and how to buy it. You can display the technical details on a 'more details' page. Just make sure your visitors know your product, why they need it and how to buy it. Read these tips on how to start a small business.





3.Price tag

It's true that the price of things tends to scare prospects away from purchasing great products (even when they wanted it) and this becomes worse if your competitor actually sells that same (or similar) product at a cheaper rate. Well, we all know that there are people who wouldn't mind paying for the expensive piece (people seem to attach more value and quality to expensive things) but at the end of the day, the larger market (the middle class) with the highest purchasing power may just skip your products for the cheaper one. Whatever price you set, just be sure it's worth it. Would you spend that amount on such a product?

Always set your prices with the masses in mind. These people cover over 70 percent of your customer base. If you make your goods too expensive for them, you lose them to your competitors. Your goods shouldn't be too cheap either (otherwise, prospects might think it's fake/worthless).If your competitors sell a fancy ceramic cup at $3.99 per piece, don't go selling at $10 or $2. If you sell at $2, you may be targeting the poor but you would lose some serious profits. Selling that same cup at $100 isn't bad if you are targeting the rich (believe me, no middle-class person will be quick at buying a cup at that price) but be ready to only promote it where the rich can be found and making fewer sales on it. You need to have a great plan for your business.





4.Marketing strategy

Inputting $100,000 in your marketing campaigns does not necessarily mean you will gain prospects and make sales. A good converting marketing strategy has to be in place. Sometimes, a $500 campaign can perform a lot more than that of a $10,000 advert. The kind of banner you use could be responsible for the number of sales you will make. Then, targeting is also a major aspect of each campaign. One example of money wastage will be running an advert on the screen of Australians for an online store that ships within Nigeria only. Yes, sometimes, Nigerians in Australia might order for products to be shipped to their relatives in Nigeria but the chances of that happening could be too little compared to the amount you spend on the adverts.

To be successful in marketing your online store, you need to make your store known to those who actually need your products. There's no point selling Manchester united kits to Chelsea fans. If you are selling gym kits, market it on fitness discussion platforms – that's where your customers are, mainly. Sometimes, finding a social media influencer in your niche to recommend/review your products to their fans, could work wonders. You should get a standard website for your business (if you haven't done so already) as it creates a larger customer base for your business. Lati Codes can help you with this. Sometimes, simply making sure your items can be found through search engines (especially Google), can generate several sales without carrying out any marketing campaign. Also, do not hesitate to blog about your business as it increases your business visibility. This feature should be added to your website. Or if you already have a following on your social accounts, making your first few sales become easier. Also, consider doing some email marketing campaigns.





5.User-friendly platform

Believe it or not, you could lose lots of potential customers due to the structure and design of your eCommerce store. I personally do avoid some websites that frustrate my browsing experience.Have you ever tried to download a software online? The experience isn't always pretty, especially if you are doing it from a third-party website. Annoying things such as clouding adverts, pop-ups, too many images, slow loading speed, bad colour combination, terrible layout, auto-refreshing feature, tinny font size, or videos & audios automatically playing in the background, are enough to drive your prospects away.

They have other options anyway. Also, note that no one will enter their credit card details on an unsecured website. When setting up your store, you have to make sure it's easy to operate. It should be responsive and mobile friendly to say the least. Sorting through your products should be as easy and simple as possible. Your products should also contain as much information as possible. People like to know what they are paying for. Making your store simple, unique and yet attractive is a clean ticket in your first bid to retaining your customers.





6.Customer service

A business with a bad customer service is slowly heading to the path of failure. Such businesses don't last long. For instance, there is an airline in Nigeria that is known for its bad customer reviews. They actually have nice planes but have a terrible customer service. Their staffs are so rude that it seems to be a requirement for the job – perhaps, they are underpaid, who knows? The effect of their terrible customer service only has chased away several prospects including me. I don't ever fly with them again. As if that isn't enough, several other potential customers have completely avoided them just after seeing their poor user rating.

This is no different from your business. You need to try as much as possible to keep your customers happy. And in the event of an unsatisfied customer, consider offering a refund. A refund is a better option to losing hundreds (or thousands) of potential customers due to a bad business transaction. Once your customers are happy, they will buy more and recommend you to their friends too! Just make your customers feel special and your business will make more verified sales than you can count.





7.Product varieties

Making more than one version of your product does not only give your customers options but also indirectly persuade new prospects to make a choice instead of making excuses. Some people would have bought your product but didn't, because of the features. If you are in the business of creating products, you need to understand that people have different tastes and would likely buy your product if it appeals to them. For instance, if you are making a dress, make it in different colours. If you thought the dress-colour differences were just out of fashion, you are mistaken. Fashion designers do that to create more available options to those who wouldn't have bought if it was all black.

Sometimes people buy things just because of the appearance (colour, design). This doesn't end with clothes. Even tech guys who make gadgets are always out there trying to add as many options as possible. Options such as the processing speed, the operating system, the storage capacity etc. Your business shouldn't be left out otherwise, you could lose a lot more customers than you think. However, be sure to hear from your customers and know the options they need before producing them. Do a thorough product validation! You may want to join me on every step I take in setting up a new entertainment company.





8.Bonuses and discounts

Value-added services are a good way to attract more sales. At some point, we have all come across a promotion such as 'Buy two and get one free' or 'Get 20% discount when you place four orders'. These are the strategies used by many businesses to generate more sales, and yes, it works! I remember buying two laptops at once (I needed only one) just because of the discount offer. Also, I once bought a 4G sim and subscribed to a huge internet service deal (even when I didn't have a 4G device to use it on) just because of the added bonuses. The people who don't need your products now, might still buy it for their loved ones or store it – just because of your discount offers. People don't like to miss out on special deals. You may want to follow my 101 financial education series.

Each time you want to generate more sales and gain new customers, you should consider adding a bonus offer to your product or services. Even if you run a hospitality business, you could add a free service (like massages, drinks, free internet, free gym etc.) to your packages. Sometimes, the price of your packages may even cover the free service but people would generally have a money-well-spent satisfaction and show some gratitude when they feel that they paid less for a great service. Such sentiments attract more sales and tend to retain customers.



Conclusion

Generating more sales for your product doesn't depend on the quality of the product alone. Factors such as price, call to action, variety, customer service, discounts and marketing, also affect your sales. To make more profits, all you really have to do is act positively on each of these factors while taking your target customers into consideration. Now, go ahead to implement any of the above necessary options in gaining more sales for your business and let me know how it goes.

Source: See Ghavoch for links and more

What kind business are you currently running? How do you maximize your profit pulling power?
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Great piece. You really nailed it

roughdiamond:
Great piece. You really nailed it

That was the goal. Good to know you found it helpful. Now, let's help others too.

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