Podcast Episode

Transcript:  

Hello and welcome to the sales Show. I'm Maree Kirkpatrick, your sales and business strategist. I'm a mum, a wife, and a multi-business owner myself. With over 15 years experience in sales and business, I have worked with startups all the way through to multimillion dollar. I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I love helping service-based businesses make an income as well as an impact. Let's jump into talking about all things sales and business.

Today, we are talking about three ways to grow your business and to make more sales.

Many businesses want to grow. Many businesses want to scale. Many businesses want to increase their sales, yet they feel like there is something that they are missing, that there's some new technique or some new technology or some new guru that can show them the ins and outs of how to grow and scale their business. Now, whether you've been in business for years, and you are a seasoned business owner, or you are new to entrepreneurship or new to business, these tips are really going to help you take your business to the next level.

When I chat to business owners, they can give me many reasons as to why their business isn't growing. They can blame the economy. They can blame the government, they can blame consumers. People are still blaming covid. Now for me, yes, there are always external factors when it comes to business. However, I'm more interested in what have you tried, what's worked in the past, what hasn't worked in the past? Business owners will continuously tell me what they have tried that didn't work. Let's flip the coin and look at ways that will work.

Today I want to give you three ways, but it's really back to basics on how to grow your business and to make more sales. Now, for me, over the past few months, specifically in my business, I've been working on the backend and behind the scenes of the business, which aren't always money generating. For me there's been a little bit of a mindset change because I'm so normally focused on growing the business and money generating activities and how do we get more sales, how do we service our clients better? All that sort of stuff. But I needed to take a step back and, and optimise and repolish some of the backend things within the business.

We've got a brand new website that's launched. We have changed up a few bits and pieces from a service base element in the business. We have got some new things launching, but it means that I've taken my focus off sales growth. Now, once all the backend stuff was sorted, it was time to refocus on growth and to generate more sales within the business.

I want to share with you exactly what I focused on, and I know a lot of the time there's gurus and fancy people out there that will tell you that their way is the best way to do things and that it's really complicated. But for me it's focusing on these three basic things in business whether you've just started or whether you've been in business for years and you're wanting to grow.

The first thing is expanding your reach or branding, positioning out in your industry. So that can look at things like reaching new customers, increasing your visibility.

Some ways to do that are pretty obvious. Things like the social media side of it. Creating more posts on Facebook, connecting with more people on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, whatever those platforms that work well for your business, depending on where your ideal clients are. These tools can really help you get out into the industry a lot more. It can also help to do some content marketing to provide some really great value.

Value being the key word. So don't just put stuff out there for the sake of it. Give people some really good tips, advice, knowledge that they can implement into their business or into their life, or that will help them move forward, whether that's with your service or without it, or your product or without it.

What are some things that you can do to create some value? Value doesn't always have to be tips and advice. Sometimes it can just be pure entertainment. Sometimes it can be a bit of a laugh or a joke or a funny video or something that gives people a feeling and ways to move forward. The other thing that I did when it came to expanding recently, was looking at more outreach. Whether that's collaborating with other people, whether that's reaching out to people that service similar clients to you.

For me, I love working with women in business, and so when things came up from other companies, things that they were doing for women in business, I would reply back and be like, 'Hey, loving what you're doing. Just wondering if you'd love to sit down and have a chat about potentially working together, or maybe I can sit down and help some of your customers or clients with sales and business growth and marketing to really help them expand'. So building those relationships has been monumental when it comes back to growing the business and increasing those sales, and it's something that I'm so passionate and I love doing.

There's no point in trying to find ways to grow your business that you don't enjoy, because guess what's going to happen? You are not going to do it. If someone said to me, 'Maree, you need to sit down and write five blogs a week to generate more sales in your business,' guess what I would do? I would shut up shop and go and find a job.

I don't enjoy writing. I'm that person who looks at the screen and the little cursor is just flickering at me saying, 'Are you going to write something?' But if someone says to me, 'Jump on and do a video,' or 'Let's have a conversation,' or 'Can you tell me a little bit about this?' I find it so much easier. It's something that I can continuously do within the business, and it's something that I enjoy doing, which means it's likely to happen a lot more often. So find ways that work for you. You can also outsource some of this stuff, like your social media. Or, there are also companies that do cold outreach. I don't really like to dip into that sort of stuff too much because for me, I want to make sure it's personal.

I want to make sure that the person I'm dealing with and reaching out to is the right person for me. I have a say in who we work with and who we don't. So, you can definitely outsource some of this stuff if you find that you're a little bit busy doing other bits and pieces. Look at your social media, ways to generate content marketing, and opportunities for collaboration, outreach, and partnerships.

Find people that can help you expand your business or work with your clients. It will also help you expand your reach by tapping into an existing customer base. We want them to complement each other. Don't go to people who are in competition with you; it obviously won't work. Find complimentary businesses or people that would work well with your business.

The Second thing that you can do to grow your business and increase your sales, as I said, back to the basics is to either implement a sales process if you don't have one, or improve your sales process if you do have one.

I've worked with companies in the past that set up a sales process five years ago, which is great, great that they've actually got a sales process within their business. However, it was not great that they haven't done anything about optimising or improving it or tweaking it over five years.

Things change in industries. Consumers' behavior change, markets change, pricing changes your sales process, and business needs to move with that stuff as well. So if you are finding that your sales have dropped, if you are finding that you want to make more sales, look at improving your sales process. Make it easier for customers to buy from you. Find ways to increase the average order value that people are purchasing from you. Putting things together like packages or multiple bundle opportunities for people to buy. I know there's businesses that do buy two, get 30% off, and so automatically as a consumer you go, 'cool! well I might as well buy two cause I'm gonna get 30% off'. That is part of your sales process and your sales strategy.

Really simple, easy ways to increase cash into the business, and really easy to implement from the backend, for the business as well. You can also look at things like in your sales process, upselling and cross-selling. Offering additional products or services that to people that may have already bought your products or services and there's add-ons or there's the next level up for them to purchase that will still give them a great product or service or experience. Also from a business perspective, it allows you to increase your sales. You can also look at the way that people pay and check out. To purchase your products and services, there's definitely ways that you can implement easier ways or optimise what you've currently got. I've been onto websites or wanted to work with people and I can't find anyone to pay, or I can't find the button to click.

Perfect example. I walked into a homeware store the other day and I was looking at purchasing something, and it wasn't a small purchase, over a hundred dollars. When I went in there. I was walking around the store. I was actively looking for someone to take my money to say, 'oh, can I help you with that?' Or 'Would you like to take that home today?'. Ask for the sale, do something, take my money. But I couldn't find anyone. I was frustrated, so I just popped it down and walked out. Now that would probably be a retailer that would be sitting there saying sales are slow, the market is low, people aren't spending, increase in interest rates, all that sort of fun stuff or external factors.

But what they haven't looked at is how easy is it for people to buy. Are we greeting consumers when they come in the door? Are we helping them make some decisions or better decisions or understanding what it is that they want and how we can provide that? Simplify your checkout process. Simplify the way that people make that process really easy to understand for both you, your team, and your consumers.

Another great way that you can increase your sales and grow your business is by looking and focusing on your current customers. Increasing customer retention. That means that we are looking after the people that have already purchased. Our existing customers are happy and have the potential to be loyal to us. Now, that seems quite simple, right? But a lot of companies don't look after their current customers, so they lose customers because they're not nurturing them. They're not connecting with them. They're not touching base and staying connected.

So the ways that you can increase your customer retention and to keep your clients happy is to provide, obviously, great customer service. Now, this one goes without saying, but customer service can make or break a relationship. It can build strong relationships with customers and really earn their loyalty.

I still have customers or clients that I started that are still on my journey path when I first started working in consulting nine years ago. Huge. Absolutely huge! Because I've looked after them. I've helped them in any way that I possibly can. I send out thank you cards, I send out Birthday wishes, I check in on them when things happen with their family. I actually care. That is a really important value for me to look after my customers, and it means that they become repeat buyers. It means that they refer. They refer clients to me, which is also beautiful.

So, look at that customer service that you're providing. Are you checking in with people once they're finish with your product or service. I know one of my clients, her service that she provided wasn't necessarily a one-off service, but there was time in between someone purchasing and then the delivery, and then potentially them needing another service. It may be 12 months, 18 months, 2 years, 5 years down the track.

However, you can still connect in with those people. You can still check in, see how they're going, see how they went after using your product or your service. There are plenty of ways that you can look at providing that customer service and to build that relationship. You can also look at offering loyalty programs.

I purchased a few dresses today online, it was the first time I'd purchased off that company. On their thank you page, they said that they offer a loyalty program.  If you refer people, they either give you a discount or they give you points towards getting to the next level of discounts or something along those lines. They also do a points system. So maybe you need to get to a hundred points or a thousand points for you to then get a $10 gift voucher. They are loyalty programs. They don't tend to cost companies a lot. It doesn't have to be 50% discount or a 20% discount. It can even be a free gift with purchase, or it could be a little added something in the parcel. It doesn't have to be overly expensive, but it can really create a better client relationship and increase that customer retention.

The other thing you can do to increase your client retention is to ask for feedback. When I ask for feedback or more information on how they found our service or what we can improve on, it can be daunting because I want everyone to have such a great experience. If people haven't had a great experience, I feel bad about it and want to go and fix it. However, asking for feedback gives you two things. Firstly, it gives you the opportunity to fix anything that may be a challenge. You don't want to have an unhappy client and not know about it. The second thing is that it can help identify areas for improvement, show you what's working, what's not working, things that you can implement, things that you can remove, things that may be necessary, and things that may not be necessary. Your clients are really great for that feedback.

Furthermore, getting feedback can also help from a marketing perspective and sales perspective because they will give you their thoughts and the value they found before purchasing with you. One of my clients said to me the other day when I asked her what made her choose us, and we've been working together for years. I asked her, "What made you choose me to work with?" And she said, "I loved your passion for what you do, and I felt like you were the sort of person that would be in my corner when it came to business." I've seen so many businesses and consulting firms that don't do that. They have a sales process that's very disconnected."

Lack of emotion and connection is a common issue I see. For me, I want to know exactly who I am working with. What are your big, scary, hairy goals? What keeps you up at night? What do you do when you're stressed out? What's your family life like? Do you have kids? Are you married? What does all of that look like?

Because, for me, that is what makes things personal and helps clients stick with me. We grow through all of it - the kids, the marriages, the honeymoons, and everything in between. Getting that kind of feedback from clients can be really effective from both a service point of view, as well as from a sales and marketing perspective.

So, these are the three ways that I would suggest you look at when it comes to growing your business and sales. First, look at expanding your reach and getting your name out there in your industry. Second, evaluate your sales process. Third, Focus on taking care of your clients.

That's all from me today. I hope you have an amazing day. Go out there, kick some goals, grow your business, and enjoy what you do. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Sales Show. Please share it on social media with your friends and make sure to tag me at Maree Kirkpatrick so I can personally say thank you.

If you would like to show me some love, leave me a review. I'd love to hear from you. Email me at [email protected] and if you would like to work with me further or see any of the free resources mentioned on today's show, they can be found at mareekirkpatrick.com.

I truly hope this podcast provides useful information and so much value to you so that you can build a business with impact and income.