My focus is helping you achieve your business goals – be that a certain profit level, a quality of life or the ability to sell the business and retire. For any of these goals, creating a consistent, high level of profits is critical. So for the next 5 months we’ll be reviewing the 5 Steps to Increased Profits framework – focusing on one of the five steps each month.
As a review, the five key profit-generating areas are: Lead Generation, Conversion Rate, Average Dollar Sale, Average Number of Transactions, and Profit Margins. Those areas are highlighted in the following equation:
Avg. Dollar Sale
Avg. # Transactions
This month we’re focusing on Sales Conversion. You may remember that ActionCOACH has developed and proven 83 systems to help you increase your sales conversion.
Here are my top seven ways to increase sales conversion:
1. Written Guarantee: This is where you write a guarantee addressing the customer’s key frustrations in buying from you. For example, a hairdresser that guarantees ‘you will like your haircut and so will 98 per cent of your friends’. For an attorney the guarantee could be a fixed price — You’ll get for patent filed for $5k.
2. Use Sales Scripts: These are absolutely essential whatever business you’re in. Once you find the right (or very close to right) way to sell something to someone, why change it? Write down exactly what you said, and then do that every time. And make sure your team does the same. Every customer is different, but the objective is always the same: match the product to the buyer. You should have scripts for everything – from answering the phone to saying good-bye.
3. Define Your Unique Value Proposition: If there’s nothing different about you, people will only buy from you because of convenience, or price, nothing more. Added to that, you’ll never be able to raise your prices; if there’s anyone doing it cheaper, people will buy from them. You need to work out what is special about you, and then make a big deal about it.
4. Print Benefits and Testimonials: This is a sheet (and a page on your website) that you can give to every person who meets with you. It contains the 4 most important things about your product, or the 7 reasons yours is a better choice for them. Also include testimonials on it – that is, direct quotes from your past customers about how good you are. A video testimonial is the most powerful way of communicating all that you do for your customers.
5. Build Trust and Rapport: There are some simple things that you can do to make sure this happens. First, always use their name, and make sure you introduce yourself using your full name. Ask them questions, and genuinely listen to the response – these are your clues. Do your best to help them with ideas and advice. If you believe in your product/service, then you know that one of the best ways to help them is to sell them your product/service.
6. Provide Something Extra: To seal the deal, throw in something they didn’t expect – something that gives them the perception that they are getting a great deal. Then place a time limit on it, which pressures them into making a decision. Make sure it’s something that they will value highly which doesn’t cost you very much — i.e.: high perceived value, low cost to you.
7. Provide Quality Products: People will buy quality when it’s affordable. By providing the best, you put yourself a cut above everyone else.
Brad Sugars founded the brand Action International in 1993 when he realized there was a disconnect between business advice and implementation. The answer was Action! Brad Sugars created a business coaching company so that business owners throughout the world can realize their goals in business. Today the company is known as ActionCOACH. To learn more about business, visit Brad Sugars Review blog!