Revenue is the economic engine for any business. If you have no revenue, you can’t cut a profit, much less stay viable in the long run. A strong revenue stream gives business partners, employees and other stakeholders the assurance and confidence to support your company. Especially if you’re a startup looking to fundraise, having solid numbers in your pitch could be the game changer. A business that is able to consistently generate more sales over time definitely catches the attention of any investor.
To avoid the wrath of stagnating sales, read on for four essential points to think about when planning your sales strategy. Or best yet, get real advice when you come to TechAsia in Jakarta this November 17.
1. Target the right KPI
KPIs are the business equivalent of a compass. They provide the direction for your company. But unlike compasses, KPIs are never one-size-fits-all. It should be tailored to your primary business operations. A business strategy design must include ways tonmwasure the key reasons to say your business is successful and growing. KPIs around customer, revenue, cost, operations efficiency and operations effectivess are some, but a few of the top KPIs to rightly manage your business. Some other smart and savvy SMEs have become very sophisticated by even linking KPIs with macro/micro economic indicators in other to shape their business in response to the market.
2. Indicators Need a benchmark
Watching the market, and reflecting on your competition and peers is a good way to know where and how your business is fairing. By having a periodic Jew of the market and keeping effort at this, your bound to be ahead of any possible challenges and opportunities. The industry might be large and require you to understand the segmentation within it. Also changing industry conditions may lead to requiring revisiting your previously defined KPIs on a regular basis to steer forward.
By having an integrated view of your market, trends, customers and of course your business, this will allow you to regularly target the right set of KPIs and enable you shine a light on performance so that you may highlight areas that need attention towards deliveringthat crucial success.
2. Sustainable sales funnel
Sustainability is about optimizing efficiency while reducing costs. Sales may be a numbers game but stop clogging your funnel (and precious time!) on prospects that aren’t ready to commit. Leads with low potential should be moved out right at the beginning. Instead, focus your efforts on understanding the buying behavior and motivations of your customer. Develop a sales process that works bests for them. A lot of time and effort needs to be invested, but upon perfection, you’ll be making money on autopilot!
4. Leverage on customer loyalty
Studies have shown that it costs six to seven times more to obtain a new customer than to maintain an existing one. Want to increase your profits dramatically? Retaining your customers could do the trick! Loyalty isn’t about giving out dozens of stamps or thousands of rebates. Perceived value is what keeps customers coming back. What unique value does your product offer to them? Beyond their wallets, develop strategies that encourage loyalty through value. This could be the missing ingredient for your long term success.
Rudiments of Business Management with KPIs
Having the right KPI and sales funnel is all good. But at the end of the day, it all goes to naught if you can’t close the deal. This boils down to one thing – negotiation skills. Negotiation is simply a psychological strategy. In your pitch, be clear and confident but not needy or desperate. No matter how your customer responds, do not succumb to negativity. Everyone loves a good laugh, so stay positive and weave in a joke to lighten the mood. Sales humor may be daunting, but it can also lead to great strides!
Payment scheduling, strategy and processes are the narrowest part of the sales funnel and the final step to seal a deal. With advances in technology, digital payment present an opportunity to lock down interest and perhaps secure a sizeable part of your cost to sell. In the case of an online store, implementing a digital checkout process with integrated digital payment can help improve sale complenteness. On the other hand if you’re a service providing entity, consumerism your complete service delivery process and allow that to be easily customized and committed to by customers. This way, it’s possible to inject in a cause for part payment based on a reasonable service description and use that to secure the digital payment setup for the customer. Also, offline payment modes may be applied that can adopt a similar approach to demonstrate value to the customer.
Whether you operate an online store or a traditional, brick-and-mortar business, take advantage of online payments to improve efficiency and create a smoother buying experience for your customers.