Running a start-up is all about building momentum. When you are starting a business from scratch, it feels like you are pushing a rock up a steep hill, with only your persistence stopping it from rolling back into nothingness.
This puts a premium on any handhold you can grab on the way up. Every single sale how to do sales prospecting the right way matters in order to inject capital back into your burgeoning business, develop a customer base and build a healthy balance sheet.
However, increasing the number of sales you generate through your start-up will not be easy. When few people know who you are, what your business offers, and why your target market should trust you to deliver what is advertised (despite little social proof to prove otherwise), trying to pry hard-earned money away from strangers is no mean feat.
You will have to create an efficient sales funnel that converts skeptical prospects into loyal customers with relative ease, without you needing to spend days or even weeks persuading each individual customer to purchase a product.
Furthermore, you will need to price your offers at the right level to ensure you are competitive in the marketplace and that enough people are willing to pay what you ask to be profitable. This is crucial, especially as an unproven quantity.
Establishing a strong digital marketing strategy, targeting the right markets for your products, and cultivating a repeat customer base are all key to boosting the success of your business model.
Here are some top tips which will come in useful if you want to increase sales for your start-up:
Create a competitive pricing strategy
Establishing the right pricing strategy is key to more sales with your start-up. The reason for this is simple, in that no one is going to buy your products if they are priced too high. This is especially true if you are a new brand that is yet to make its presence known in the marketplace.
Prospects are understandably going to be sceptical of the quality and usefulness of your products and services – especially if they are priced at a premium compared to more trustworthy and desirable alternative companies.
At this point, you are probably thinking about simply offering your products or services at bargain basement prices, in order to lure customers in and gain some quick credibility. Although this is certainly a tried and tested solution, you must remember that you may not be able to physically afford to lower the prices, depending on how much your product costs to construct and distribute.
What’s more, in many markets dropping the price is a sign of weakness – an admission of fault rather than an enticing deal. If you operate in the luxury goods industry, for example, then you are unlikely to win fans by offering cheap products.
Instead, you have to do a detailed cost analysis of the product itself, how much money the supply chain requires to produce it, as well as the prices of rival products, and the type of industry you are in.
Once you start trading, you should also establish a quoted price, which will tell you how much you will charge as part of customer quotes. This is essential if you are being asked your price for a particular project. It looks unprofessional to have to mull over an answer, so having a standard approach will save you time and earn you more customers.
Build a sales funnel
Once you have the right pricing strategy in place, you should focus your attention on how to turn cold prospects into customers as efficiently as possible.
The best way to do this is through a sales funnel – especially funneling prospects onto your website to buy your products. It will hold their hand through every step of the process, from finding your website to navigating to the correct landing page and placing an order.
It is vital that these sales funnels are as simple as possible to minimize the chances of a potential customer growing bored or distracted and opting out of the process.
Improve your digital marketing
Another crucial element you need to consider if you are going to increase the sales for your start-up is your digital marketing strategy.
This is because the only way you are going to sell more products or services is if your target market knows who you are and what you offer. Naturally, this is especially challenging when you are a start-up because you don’t have an existing presence to rely upon.
However, this can work to your advantage.
When you carry zero baggage and don’t have the livelihoods of thousands of people hanging on every business decision, you can afford to be more daring with your marketing. This could involve teasing your more established rivals, launching eye-catching marketing stunts, injecting each social media post with a presence, and railing against the conventions of your industry.
Design additional offers
If you are struggling to physically produce enough of your existing products fast enough to increase sales, then it might be time to broaden your range of offerings.
The best way to do this for a start-up is to create additional products that require little extra resources to make or can be offered easily alongside your existing product or service range. This makes it both cost-effective and
Encourage existing customers to buy from you again
Attracting first-time buyers is tough, time-consuming, and resource-sapping, which is far from ideal if you are a cash-strapped start-up.
Once you have your first few customers on the board, your primary aim should be to convert these people into repeat buyers. By encouraging customers to buy from you again and again, you will establish more consistent cash flow, generate more revenue without having to spend as much on marketing campaigns or sales funnels, and begin to create a loyal customer base.
This is worth its weight in gold because once people start to enjoy what you offer, they will become marketers on your behalf – recommending you to friends and family, writing reviews and testimonials, and sharing your content on social media.
