Sales and marketing are the blood of your business – how rich is yours?

It’s a simple fact that not all business people are sales people. Just because you have a great skill, make a fantastic product or offer a valuable service does not give you automatic ability to market or sell that strength.Some people are born with the gift of the gab, or an inherent understanding of human nature and what drives people to buy. 

If you are one of those lucky people – great! But you can still use an external eye to run over the way you have systemised your skills. And if you are not blessed with natural sales nouce – don’t worry. Research, planning, strategy and assessment will put you ahead of most other business owners who hope that sales just kind of take care of themselves. 

On sales … 

How’s the “top line” looking? Are you maximising sales opportunities? Do you get the most out of each sale? Are your competitors taking business away from you? If these questions make you cringe then it’s time to get some help. Don’t shy away from the pointy end of targets, sales and competition. Dive in and learn all you can.

On marketing … 

How’s your image in the marketplace? Is it time to review your product range, pricing strategy, or how customers see your business? Perhaps it’s time now to analyse your customers in more detail, and refine your marketing strategy to meet their changing needs. You also need to ensure you are getting value for your marketing dollar.

You might not realise it but marketing is fun. It is a truly creative field and you have the one immense advantage of being passionate about the thing you are marketing – your business. So, brush up on some areas of strategy, put a number of concrete campaigns into place and enjoy seeing how effective marketing increases your visibility, appeal, customer base and profits. 

Don’t forget after sales strategies 

It costs many times more to attract a new customer than to resell to an existing one. Do you know how satisfied your customers really are? What if there were ways to entice them to spend more with you? 

The internet has vastly improved the speed and accuracy with which you can measure customer needs and loyalty. Combine online marketing with your current after sales strategies to turn customer satisfaction into long term, passionate customer loyalty. 

• Customer service and satisfaction monitoring 
• Customer surveys 
• Developing customer service strategies 
• Customer service training programs 
• Developing and implementing loyalty programs 
• Customer relationship management 
• Customer database creation