Ask any business what they want and whatever answer you get will boil down to getting more sales. Sure many will talk about funding and sponsorship but if you drill down you will find the ultimate goal for this money is to help them achieve better sales figures. That’s business in a nutshell, sell more and do it profitably. One way to increase your sales is to find a way to automate your sales process. By this, I mean instituting a system that brings some reliability and predictability to your customers’ buying behaviour.
Subscription
This is not possible for every single product or business but where it is creating a subscription system is the best way to automate your sales process. Customer acquisition is hard and having customers that are engaged for continuous business is a blessing in the business world. Subscriptions are best built around existing customer behaviours and you can read more about them here.
Newsletter
It doesn’t sound like much but the humble newsletter can go a long way towards automating your sales process. And yes, newsletters can be adapted to platforms like social media including instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram. It works best where you have a varying line. up of products or specials that regularly change. It’s best to go weekly or monthly with these depending on your product.
Loyalty discounts and rewards
Customer acquisition cost is an often ignored but very important part of doing business. Whether expressly or implied there is a cost associated with attracting new customers. Your favourite good or service provider offers you a loyalty discount or reward because that discount represents a lower cost than the cost of acquiring a new customer in your place should you not return. So for your business, it should be the same. Offer loyalty discounts and rewards to automate repeat business from customers.
Ask
The number one reason for missing out on a sale is not asking for it. Not really scientifically proven but it does capture a very important concept. Shoot and you might score if you don’t shoot you can’t score, the more shoot, the more likely you are to score. Asking for repeat business is not that complicated yet many struggles to do it. You’re already in business, you’ve done the hard part. It’s best done after a sake, something as simple as “please come again when you need more” can boost your repeat business.
Relationship
Like it or not relationships are the key to selling. You will achieve a lot more by cultivating good strong relationships with your clients and generate a lot of repeat business if done right. Relationships do not mean being the best of friends with every customer. You can create a good working relationship simply by giving great customer service. Look into the use of Client Relationship Management systems to learn how to cultivate strong business relationships.
Follow up
Following up. with clients is another super skill that can automate your sales in the long run. Follow-ups or after-sales services are all about communicating with your customer and allowing them to express themself. People love to be heard and this alone puts you in good stead with customers. Follow-ups are not additional sales calls, do not follow up to aggressively sell the next product or push the next order. Follow-ups are about gathering customer feedback to use it to your advantage.
The sales process is complicated and this complexity is compounding as we enter the world of digital selling. However, the principles still apply as the customers are still people and only the media we use have changed. Automating your sales process as much as possible will give your business the best springboard to growth.
