Executive coaching and management consultancy tips on how to increase sales:

1.  Repackage your offering. Online law firm RocketLawyer developed a thriving business, selling downloads of legal forms. However when the credit crunch began to bite, sales began to drop.  

 The solution to increase sales? Instead of accepting their new reality, the lawyers changed it. The firm launched a new offer: download the first form for free, and pay a fixed monthly fee to download as many forms as you want. The result? The total number of downloads tripled, and sales of paid-for downloads soared by 50%. Executive coaching and management consultancy helps enormously in these areas.

2.  Identify related markets and new markets. I know the MD executive of an industrial roof fixings company, who acted promptly when he realised that because of the commercial property market’s travails, the demand for his company’s products was fading. Searching for a new product, he identified a specialist supplier of roof fall arrest systems (safety devices for roofers). Since then his company, working with this supplier and with executive coaching, has opened up a new market and identified exciting new business opportunities.
 
3.  Trumpet your environmental credentials. That industrial roof company isn’t the first to launch a roof fall arrest system. However its system has a competitive edge, because it has been specifically designed for “green roofs”. These feature in an increasing number of new property developments, at the behest of local authorities.

Which of your products and/or packaging can you make recyclable?
What environmental conservation project does your company support?
Are you telling your customers about the environmental benefits of your products and services?

4. Use Twitter as a sales management tool. A great executive coaching and business training tip… The popular microblogging network is a useful learning learning tool, according to the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. Teachers and lecturers use it to remind their students about homework assignments, and to reach out to those who were not in class. Students can use it to request additional guidance from their teachers. Teachers can also tweet amongst themselves, to find solutions to unexpected questions.

How can you use Twitter with your salespeople? Tell them about special deals, report team successes, run daily incentive schemes and competitions. Let’s have your ideas…

5.  Build a 6 plus prospective customer touch plan. We all know that only about 2% of prospective customers buy on the first sales call, so how do you beat your competition to the order?

Sales people perform well at the initial meeting with a prospect to increase sales. However if they do not secure an order or strong buying signals from that first contact they tend to lose interest. Top-performing sales people and organisation have a set programme called a 6 plus prospective customer touch plan, which they follow to ensure that every possible opportunity has been exploited. This includes follow-up emails, information packs, newsletters, a series of information-gathering phone calls, special offers and promotions, and invitations to special events.

Keep in touch has long been the mantra of sales managers and trainers. Now there are so many more communication tools available to you! Use them to increase your presence and your company’s presence before prospective clients. E-mails, blogs, tweets, e-newsletters, webinars and even digital photographs are the building blocks of new relationships.

Sales guru Jack Daly has a wealth of tips and ideas that will help you develop your 6 + customer touch plan and win new business. To beat the competitors, you just have to be that little bit more passionate and creative.

What else can you do to increase sales, even when the economic climate is hostile? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: bfick.