10 Ways to Increase Sales for Your Business

Has the COVID-19 pandemic taken a huge toll on your company’s sales over the last 18 months? Or is there something else that has caused your company’s sales to take an unexpected hit throughout the course of the last year?

Regardless of why your company’s sales are slumping at the moment, you should know that there are steps you can take to reverse your fortunes. You just need to make it a point to learn about some of the different ways to increase sales.

In order to figure out how to increase sales, you might need to throw your entire business plan out the window and change the way you do things. You might also be able to get away with simply tinkering with your business tools just a little bit to get better results.

But whatever you do, don’t sit there another minute and let your sales continue to trend in the wrong direction. Here are 10 ways to increase sales in no time at all.

1. Begin by Trying to Determine Why Your Sales Have Been So Low

Before you can start trying to figure out ways to increase sales, you’re going to have to try to get to the bottom of the sales problem that you’re having. You should be able to do this by asking yourself one very simple question: “Why are our sales so low?”

In some cases, the answer is going to be obvious. If your business was forced to close for months on end during the COVID-19 pandemic, it won’t take a rocket scientist to determine why your sales were on the lower side.

But in other instances, you’re going to have to do a little bit more digging to gauge why your sales have been so low. Whatever the case, you shouldn’t let up until you’re able to determine why your sales are stuck in the state that they’re in right now.

2. See If There Is a Quick Fix for Your Sales Problem

Once you know why your sales are in a slump, you can start to do something about it. You might be able to make a very quick fix to turn things around in a hurry.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re able to determine that your sales problem was caused by a change that you made to a product or a service that your company offers. In this case, you might be able to send your sales soaring again by changing things back to the way they were before.

There isn’t always going to be a quick fix for a sales problem. You might have to spend weeks or potentially even months working on a sales problem before coming up with a solution.

But you also might be able to fix the problem you’re having in a matter of just days. It all depends on what kind of problem you’re having at this time.

3. Find New Ways to Incentivize People to Buy Products and/or Services From You

If your sales aren’t as high as you wish they were right now, you might not be providing your customers with enough incentives to purchase your products and/or services. In this day and age, companies can’t really get away with not incentivizing their customers at every turn.

You can’t just stick a bunch of products onto your shelves or list a handful of services on your menu and expect people to buy them up in droves. You instead need to look for ways to provide people with the motivation that they need to pull the trigger on a purchase through your company.

The easiest way to incentivize people to buy products and/or services from your business is by slashing the prices on them early and often.  Even if you don’t realize that you’re doing it, you’ll be trying to convince customers to buy things from you on a psychological level when you hold sales.

You can also try to package up different products and/or services in an effort to entice people to buy them. Any time you can make people feel as though they’re getting a better deal than they should, it’s going to give them more of a reason to buy the things that you’re selling.

4. Rethink the Approach You’re Taking to Customer Service

Is your company providing your customers with the best possible customer service around? If you aren’t, that could be the No. 1 reason why your sales are on the lower end of the spectrum.

One survey after another has shown that customer service is very important to people. Many of them say that they would actually be willing to pay more for products and/or services from companies that set them up with good customer service versus those that don’t.

With this in mind, you might want to take a good, long look at your company’s customer service to see if it’s up to par. If it isn’t, you’ll want to change that ASAP to start winning your customers over again.

5. Put New Marketing Practices Into Place

Business marketing is going to be of the utmost importance when it comes to your company’s sales. If you aren’t spending somewhere between 7 and 8% of your annual revenue on marketing, you’re making a mistake.

And it’s not enough to simply spend a whole bunch of money on marketing. You also need to create strong marketing campaigns for your company and put them to good use.

With your sales in the tank right now, the last thing that you might be thinking about doing is earmarking money for marketing purposes. But you might be amazed to see what a good marketing campaign can do for your sales in a relatively short period of time.

6. Make Sure You’ve Developed a Strong Enough Online Presence

As long as your company has a website set up, you might be under the impression that you have a strong enough online presence. About one-third of businesses don’t have websites, after all, so you’re going to have a clear advantage over them, right?

Right. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still work to make your online presence even stronger than it already is.

In addition to having a website, you should also have social media pages set up on the various social media sites. You should find out how to utilize digital marketing as well.

OrbitWeb is a company that can cater to all your digital marketing needs. They’ll help you embrace the power of the internet and show you how to increase sales by doing it.

7. Take a Look at What Seems to Be Working for Your Competitors

Are your competitors having a difficult time in terms of sales right now just like you are? If they are, they might not be able to provide you with ideas on how to increase sales.

But if it appears as though your competitors are doing just fine at the moment, you shouldn’t be shy about trying to learn some things from them. You should try to get some sense as to what they’re doing to keep their sales strong while you’re stuck in a slump.

It might take you a little while to crack the code and figure out what it is that they’re doing right. But they may be able to supply you with the secrets to turning your sales around.

If nothing else, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. It’ll show you what you’re up against and help you come up with ways to make your company stand out.

8. Ask Your Employees for Honest Feedback on Your Products and/or Services

When you’re the owner of a business, you’re going to feel a lot of pressure to come up with solutions to sales problems on your own. You’ll feel like it’s your job to get your company out of a sales slump.

To some degree, you’re right. It is your job to play a big part in solving any problems that your company might face. But that doesn’t mean that you should feel like you have to do it alone all the time.

If you’re struggling to come up with ways to increase sales right now, you should bring a group of your employees together and have them lend a hand. Your employees might be able to provide you with some suggestions on what you can do to make your sales strong again.

Your employees are the ones who are spending the bulk of their time selling your company’s products and/or providing your company’s services. This will provide them with a unique perspective on the products and/or services that you’re trying to sell.

They might be able to give you some feedback on your company’s products and/or services that will help to increase your sales. It would be well worth checking in with them to see what kind of feedback they can give to you.

9. Listen to Complaints About Your Company That Come In From Your Customers

Has your company been fielding a lot of complaints from customers in recent months? If you have, you might be tempted to ignore it at this moment since you have so many other things going on.

But now would actually be the perfect time to check out some of the complaints that customers have sent in your company’s direction. They could be the key to solving your sales problem.

Your customers might be complaining about how much you’re charging for your products and/or services these days. Or they might be complaining about how some of your products and/or services aren’t as good as they used to be.

You’re obviously not going to be thrilled to hear these kinds of things. But they will give you the sense that, if you make some tweaks to your products and/or services, they might make your customers happier. And that could lead to increased sales in the coming weeks and months.

It’s why you don’t want to turn a blind eye to your customers’ complaints. They could provide you with a roadmap on what to do to turn your company’s sales around.

10. Tear Up Your Old Business Plan and Create a New One

When you first established your company, you put a business plan for it into place. You then used this business plan to get your company off the ground and to guide it through its growing pains.

This business plan may have worked wonders for you at first. But it might not be as effective as it used to be anymore.

If you feel that this might be the case, it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to tear up your old business plan and create a brand-new one. Starting fresh might be the best way to get your sales back on the right track again.

Coming up with a new business plan for your company might not send your sales skyrocketing in the short term. It might take at least a year or two to see a real increase in your sales.

But it’ll be a much better long-term solution for your company. If you’re able to come up with the right business plan, it could have your sales soaring for many years to come. This will put your company back on the map and make you way more profitable than you could have ever imagined.

Believe It or Not, These Are Just Some of the Ways to Increase Sales

If your company’s sales aren’t as strong as you want them to be, you might be on the verge of panicking. But before you do that, you should test out some of the different ways to increase sales.

We’ve listed a bunch of suggestions here. But this is just the start. The truth is that there are dozens of ways to increase your company’s sales.

Try out some of the things that we’ve come up with or put your own ideas to the test. You should be able to right the ship and get your company’s sales moving in the right direction again.

Browse through our other blog articles for more tips on increasing your company’s sales.