Sixteen Ways to Increase Your Sales

"No one can be everywhere at once." Wrong! The job today is to be in
front of the customer when the need arises.

Here are practical, put-'em-to-work-now ideas for building sales:

1. Keep surprising your customers. Be dramatic. For example, one insurance agency offered to

2. Get to the right person. Addressing mail to "Facilities Manager" or "Office Equipment Buyer" is weak. Hitting the target is the name of today's game and the bull's-eye is coming in contact with the precise individual you want to do business with. Also remember that you may only be selling to one individual today, but others in the same firm may be prospective users or buyers.

3. Be creative. Just getting the mail to the mailroom isn't the goal! Will anyone be intrigued enough to read your mailer or newsletter before tossing it in the wastebasket? Today, it takes a highly creative approach to be distinctive and compelling. Yes, creativity costs money. But if people read your ad, your newsletter and your mailer, you have a much better chance to do business with them.

4. Focus on what your customers care about. No one cares about pictures of your staff or that you think you're the best, the oldest or the biggest. Figuring out precisely what works. When this is your message, your product or service will be in demand.

5. Let people know what they should think of your company. They draw conclusions by making comparisons. Ratings make a big difference to consumers. After several life insurance companies fell by the wayside, customers began asking about "company strength." The J.D. Powers' customer satisfaction surveys of cars and personal computers influence buying behavior. Wise companies spend time and effort consciously influencing the way they are perceived by customers and prospects (and stockholders, too).

6. Make your offer a good one. Customers are cautious. They don't like being put on the spot, because no one wants to make a mistake. This is why offers are so important. "Try it out. There's no obligation." "Use it for 30 days." "Your satisfaction guaranteed." "We'll buy you the biggest steak dinner in town if we don't save you money on your insurance." "Use it risk-free." Pull the customer to you. All this is another way to extend your hand, put people at ease and create confidence in your company and your product.

7. Be in the right place at the right time. "I wish I had thought of you last week, when we bought the new ..." Some salespeople shrug off such comments: "Oh, well. No one can be everywhere at once." Wrong! The job today is to be in front of the customer when the need arises.

8. Name your product or service. One way to stand out from the crowd is to give your product or service a distinctive name. "We provide 24-hour ComfortCare Service." Not just plain old service, but "ComfortCare" service. Give the ordinary a new meaning to separate your company from others in the business. Make sure, however, that the name appeals to your customers and not just to you!

9. Be relentless. In marketing and sales, persistence is power. Too many firms never stay with anything long enough to produce results. They never develop a consistent marketing momentum. This all adds up to wasted money, time and effort.

10. Identify new prospects. The single most important daily activity in any business is prospect identification. By making this a continuous process, companies have a steady flow of new sales leads. Keep asking the question "Who do we want to do business with if we have the chance?" To cultivate them over time, add prospects to a database.

11. Write customer-centered letters. "As per our conversation ..." "Pursuant to our agreement ..." When was the last time you heard someone talk this way? Yet, put many people behind a pen and they become stilted, cold and ineffective. Letters should be warm, friendly, interesting and customer-centered.

12. Focus on the question "Why should anyone want to do business with us?" What makes us different from others in the same business? Why do we deserve to be in business? Once companies begin asking these questions, they uncover the real reasons why customers should want to do business with them.

13. Only tell part of the story at one time. There's a tendency to try to jam everything we know into one brochure, one ad, one newsletter. We don't want to leave anything out! The really difficult job is to pull it all apart, break ideas into component parts and then develop an ongoing campaign.

14. Personalize everything. The day of "Dear Friend," "Dear Customer" and particularly "Dear Valued Customer" is gone. Don't bother mailing a letter that isn't personalized with a name. Use the power in personalization.

15. Take advantage of testimonials. Your credibility increases if you let a satisfied customer blow your horn for you. People are sometimes reluctant to provide a testimonial because they are not sure they're saying the right words or are afraid that you will be disappointed with their comments. A better way is to interview them, hear what they are saying, and then prepare comments for their approval. This way you reassure them and get testimonials that will work best for you.

16. Make marketing your mission. Too many companies only turn to marketing when they need to increase their sales. This "shotgun" approach simply won't work! Communicating your company's message in new and interesting ways is an ongoing process. Getting customers and prospects to believe in your product or service is the best way to attract and keep them.

It isn't good enough to produce the best product or service. The final goal is to get the customer to want what you sell. That's where these 16 down-to-earth suggestions can make a big difference to your sales.

John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. Mr. Graham is the author of four books on marketing and sales, including Break the Rules Selling: Success Strategies that Beat the Competition (Superior Books). Mr. Graham writes for a variety of marketing and sales columns for business and trade publications and he presents his Magnet Power presentations at company and association meetings. He can be contacted at 40 Oval Rd., Quincy, MA 02170; by telephone at 617-328-0069; by fax at 617-471-1504; or by email at j_graham@grahamcomm.com. The web site is grahamcomm.com.