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Increase Sales with Local Internet Marketing

The early days of local Internet marketing…

When my wife and I first moved to Wenatchee in March of 1999 it was almost like a dream come true. Here we were living in the Apple Capital of the world and one of the sunniest parts of Washington State with over 300 days of sunshine each year.

We loved the weather and smaller town atmosphere. We really enjoyed it and it was an exciting time.  Plus we arrived in the still early days of the web and the local newspaper was just getting its feet wet in the online world.

I recall being the first residential test guinea pig in Wenatchee watching the three GTE techs hooking up the 115K ISDN connection to our home office. They had never done this for a residential customer and it was quite a sight as they took the better part of a day to get the work completed.

Those were the days of expensive banner ads and what I refer to as the wild west. I vividly remember discussing a potential banner buy with an account executive at Double Click. This was at the peak of the bubble, right before it burst and prices were sky high and just plain ridiculous. 

Local Internet Marketing in Wenatchee

I operated and worked from a home office, taking calls and emails from around the globe. The fax machine was still in use at that time and it wasn’t uncommon to come home to a pile of paper having to do with orders, questions and operations. This was during the Internet boom and our business was booming and cruising along. 

We found needs in the market and we filled them. Simple but true.

So all this leads to one question: As a small business owner in Wenatchee and Central Washington, how do you increase sales with local Internet marketing and market your business on the web and actually make it work?

There are Two Sides to this Web Coin:

Side A: If your business is located anywhere in Central Washington like Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Chelan, Cashmere, Plain or anywhere in between, and you have a product or service that isn’t restricted to being local, then you must seriously consider testing a ‘regional’ local Internet marketing strategy when it comes to your marketing on the web. 

Side B: If your business is really focused on the local or regional community in Central Washington, then a local web strategy will probably fit you better. Why – because you need local business, not business from outside the region. Local means people that are only going to shop and spend their money with a business that resides in their local area like Wenatchee or Cashmere.

With all that said, I can relate to both sides of this coin due to years of experience, testing, failing, succeeding and doing both sides from Wenatchee.

The bottom line is that if you want to increase sales with local Internet marketing and stay up with the ever expanding web, then you’ll need an Internet marketing strategy that is designed for your business. Not a cookie cutter approach. It may be a local internet marketing strategy and it may be a boader strategy. Either way, you need to target your market and focus versus throwing the wide net.

To your web marketing success,

 Dave Krygier

PS – Should you get stuck in the mire of web workings and require some assistance to make your way to safe ground, give the Small Business Mechanics a jingle. They have the tools and experience to help your business plus you may even see a bonus or two…

Direct Sales & The Return of the Milkman

Whether you’re lactose intolerant or love a mug of milk, this is a story you have to hear.

Recently I attended a local chamber of commerce function and one of the first people I ran into was the local milkman. Boy was this a surprise and more so that he was just getting started and had hundreds of customers who received their dairy products on a daily and weekly basis.

The most interesting part of this is that he was utilizing a method that most small business owners would look down on. But with this method he did in two months what most businesses do in a year or two. And with this said, I tip my hat off to him.

So maybe you’re not old enough or never met the milkman when you were growing up? Well I did and we even had a milkman back in the late 1990’s in the Central Washington Community of Wenatchee. This service was one my wife and I really liked but we ended up moving and didn’t find a milkman in our next community.

Fast forward to today and the milkman shows up on your doorstep offering you a variety of items and service to boot. And this kind of service fits hand in glove for the busy mom and dad who almost always forget to pickup milk on their way home from work or soccer practice.

Now with all this talk of the milkman how do you think this pertains to your small business or organization?

Here’s my Take…

Think outside the box and you might find the simplest method for marketing your business and increasing sales to be one that is time tested and still works, even though the techno folk will say you’re an old fart for doing it!

Direct Sales is still Alive and can be a very lucrative channel for certain businesses. Maybe your business is one of the ones that could still be utilizing direct sales.

Maybe your business or organization could increase or even double sales with direct response marketing and direct sales combined?

You know – you test some mailers with phone follow up or a little pay per click, video and a real person to answer the phone when the searcher clicks or calls.

So do not write off direct sales until you’ve sat down and put the pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard…

Because your next big client, customer or patient could be right around the corner when your mailer shows up or ad appears on his mobile device.

Think outside the box this next year and consider direct sales and direct response marketing if your business or organization needs additional revenue to keep the doors open.

To your success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher

PS – As of this post The SmallBizMechanic is still working in this arena and might be able to help you uncover a few new clients or patients.

PPS – If you come across this post and he’s swamped or no longer working taking on new clients, let us know and we’ll see who we can refer you to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret to Increasing Sales in Your Restaurant Business

Due to the amount of travel that I do on an annual basis, certain restaurants and food service establishments are frequented more than others. During one of my recent trips I encountered what I would have considered a fluke, but this particular restaurant business I had been to before and experienced marginal service.

It all started out when I called the restaurant on the property where I was staying for a carry out order. It took five phone calls and I was unable to get anyone on the phone that could take my order. This lead to a walk up to the restaurant, only then to order and wait.

Fortunately the food was good, satisfying ye ole’ stomach and thus the frustration seemed to settle and lead to a relaxing evening. But morning came and the prior nights episode led me to contact the director of food & beverage who had an open ear and apologized more than three times. Although this individual was very pleasant, he missed the key to retaining my future business and could have avoided this call had he surveyed his patrons.

So in today’s article I want to share two steps on how you can take a dissatisfied customer and turn him or her into an advocate and possibly a raving fan.

           How to Create Raving Fans that Return and Bring their Friends to your Restaurant Business…

1. If you have a Dissatisfied Customer – Find out what you can do to make it right.  It might only take a complimentary drink or appetizer to appease and please. And what’s that worth to you, the proprietor or manager? It should not be about cost. It should be about retention and keeping that customer, so when he or she comes back around, your establishment is at the top of the list. This is a mindset and one that you will need to instill in yourself and your staff.

Note: In this economy you need all the happy, satisfied customers you can bring through the door. In most cases it is expensive to bring a new customers in, so why not do everything possible to keep the customers instead of letting them fume and never return.

By doing so you may well turn an upset, angry, dissatisfied customer into a positive, happy, referral-generating advocate.

2. Train your Managers and Service staff to be Customer Friendly and Oriented. This takes time and finding the right people, plus it’s not easy to do, but it is possible. The secret here is to hire the best people who will treat and care for your customers like they are their friends. If you don’t know how to do this – find someone who does or can offer assistance.

Remember – food is only part of the equation. You have to serve good to great food in order for people to continually return to your business and be comfortable referring others. Service is the other part of the equation that in my opinion gets left out more often than I can say here today.

If you are going to retain customers, you need people to do the work. So find people you can train, trust and allow you to build repeat/referral business for your restaurant business. This way you can sleep better at night and your reputation could even blossom.

Are you involved in a restaurant, food service company or coffee bar and want to learn how to increase sales and retain customers? If so, then contact The SmallBiz Mechanic and see how you can Retain Customers & Increase Sales in your Food & Beverage establishment.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

 

 

 


Increase Sales and Avoid the Prevention Pitfall

In a recent conversation with an industry veteran he made a comment that brought a chuckle and laugh but rang true and loud as a church bell. We were discussing a particular project which eventually lead to the topic of sales. 

His comment, “The only department that isn’t shrinking is the ‘Sales Prevention’ department,” made me think about how many owners, managers and directors of small businesses and organizations get in the way of the sales process.

Yet I have seen this time and time again and it amazes me how some businesses even stay afloat as the owner continues to stunt the growth while thinking he or she is what makes the operation run. I have experienced this during my years with The Tiny Store and ad agencies as we encountered so many different businesses that got in the way of sales and business development.

It’s a sad, sad story that makes me wonder and think how more small business owners and managers could avoid this prevention pitfall?

With the economy as tough as it is and consumers being more cautious with their wallets, you would think that the small biz owner/manager would wake up and smell the coffee! 

But noooooo! He or she continues on the prevention path adding blockades and boulders anywhere they will fit. And the funny part about this is that he or she might actually enjoy the prevention but not know that it’s hurting ye ole’ bank account.

Sales prevention can be fixed, corrected or even prevented if you, the business owner will allow your team to sell and give them the tools they need to bring in the sales.

If you are a solo-practitioner – I understand that it all comes down to you doing the selling, whether it be live, on the phone, via email, e-commerce or virtually, using Paypal or a shopping cart. I’ll go into more about this in another post, but just do your best to focus on sales and bringing in business versus the busy work that seems to clutter the path to your bank account. This busy work can sometimes be the one obstacle that prevents sales and stunts growth for the solopreneur and you can avoid by simply keeping your mind focused on bringing in new business and servicing existing clients.

           Sales Prevention – “How to Increase Sales and Remove the Obstacles”

So now it’s time to take a Step Back and Review to see what or who is getting in the way, or is something that you are doing preventing your business from moving forward and intercepting possible sales. This is tough for some owners but necessary in order to determine what the root of the problem is. 

Because if you are going to increase sales – then you best open the hood and see what’s causing the engine to cough and sputter.

Yes, it’s that simple – look yourself in the mirror and say, “Am I the one causing the decline or lack of sales in my business????”  Because you might be able to fix your problem and increase sales with a simple turn of the screwdriver or maybe identify that there is a bigger challenge and you need outside help.

Anyway you look at it, if you are going to increase sales and get away from sales prevention, it all starts with you – the small business owner. It’s your business and your dream. So look in the mirror and have an honest conversation with the person looking back at you. Then make a decision to change and improve, or get out of the way and let someone else make the change for you.

The bottom line is that in order increase sales and avoid the sales prevention pitfall you will need to identify and remove the roadblocks. One of the them may be you or someone else, possibly a third party or even outside factors like location, marketing, or even merchandising. Once you remove the roadblocks, your sales should increase and business should begin to improve.

To your small business success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher

PS – If you are still looking in the mirror unable to find any roadblocks, but your sales continue to decline…contact The SBM for some guidance. He might be able to help you before it’s too late. 

 

Increase Sales – The Soft Sell Way

In part one How to Increase Sales in small business I wrote about the existing customer side of the increasing sales equation. In this post I want to cover how you can increase sales using what I call the soft sell way.

This soft sell process is one that I started implementing many, many years ago, prior to the world wide web. You see, I was never really interested in sales per say, but it seemed that no matter what I did in small business, I always ended up being in sales and thrust into the biz dev role. So the soft selling process evolved over the years and I really believe that it contributed to my ability to increase sales and develop new business.

The thing is, there are many different ways that you can increase sales including hard driving tactics that many businesses still use today and maybe you’ll even see results and maybe you won’t.

It’s a sad state of affairs to see so many small businesses with no clue as to how they can drive more traffic and increase sales. They think they need to reinvent the wheel with some new ‘salesy’ tactic that will bring droves of prospects through the door, yet they continue to struggle and fail not knowing what to do next.

How did I increase sales using this so called soft sell approach? I simply worked hard and studied from the greats like Dale Carnegie, Frank Bettger and Og Mandino. I also attended live seminars and trainings and then I implemented, tweaked and adjusted over the years.

Notice I wrote implemented, which means action was taken and the information put to good use in my various businesses. If you study and learn but do not put the information to good use, then it’s wasted time and money.

One other thing to mention here – I still research, study and learn as much as I can about the topics that have to do with sales and marketing. I am continually in the hunt and keeping my eyes and ears open for anything that can help further my business and my client’s businesses.

Let’s get down to it:

The bottom line is that you have to sell something in order to have sales revenue come your way. Whether you are selling on the internet or selling offline, you are still selling.

To increase sales in your small business you don’t need to be pushy. A matter of fact, pushy will usually get you less sales and more un-subscribes, if you use email.

Think about it – do you like sales people who are pushy and over the top or the
sales person who takes the offer off the table or even let’s you make the decision when the time is right?

Maybe you’ve been subscribed to some marketer’s email lists that are all about sell, sell, sell and not a lot of content? Maybe you’ve been approached too many times by salespeople who are pushy, overly talkative or just plain rude?

You see most people will put up a wall and turn the opposite direction when these kind of salespeople enter their world. It’s a turn off and they feel kind of dirty.

By the way – what I’m writing about here also applies to online marketing and list building. Because the sales/persuasion tactics you use to attract people to your squeeze and landing pages directly reflect on you even though you’re not there in person.

Here’s my suggestion to you; instead of the hard sell, sell, sell – you take the soft sell approach, throw out the bait and then let the person warm up to you. This keeps them in your world until he or she decides to purchase, stay around or just plain exit at their leisure.

This way you have a higher retention rate and in the long-run you maintain credibility and close more business.

This is the way we did it at The TIny Store and how I still work with clients at SmallBiz Mechanix.

To your small business success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher 

How to Increase Sales in a Small Business

Ever seen the business that is complaining about lack of traffic, lack of sales and how the economy is hurting business? How to increase sales in a small business is simple. There are two ways to accomplish this: One is through your existing customers and the other way is through new leads and fresh prospects.

Today I’ll cover the existing customer side of the equation.

Here’s a story to kick things off:

I was on the telephone(yes, ye ole telee) with a business acquaintance from the past and this person mentioned how a particular store he was dealing with had fantastic sales numbers. His company, we’ll refer to it as #1, had been trying to figure out how to bring in more sales yet he couldn’t quite figure out how to duplicate his customer’s success.

As I asked more questions it became apparent that the people in that particular store were the key, if he was going to increase his sales in other stores.

Yes, the people were the key that could unlock the door to additional sales. Because the sales staff at this particular store have been ecstatic about his product. They love it.  Why?

Because the product speaks quality, the marketing materials support this quality and they deliver on time. Now these are the two major factors as to why this manufacturer is still in business after more than 50 years.

On the other hand you have this business’ competitor, company #2, who hasn’t updated their marketing materials or catalog in years and the owner is turning over his company to a family member and people who may not have the best intentions.

Company #2 is struggling and it looks like a long up hill battle unless they can change their plan and give it an overhaul.

Now let’s get back to company #1. What could they do to increase sales?

Simple…Use Social Proof and obtain Testimonials from the store owner and staff about his product. Then take these testimonials in written form, audio and video and use them in all of his marketing and sales efforts to obtain new business.

Because there’s nothing better than a satisfied customer singing your praises to help bring new prospects to the party.

Like I said in the beginning of the post, how to increase sales in a small business is simple; look at your existing customers and dig deep to see how you can bring them back into the fold. This should create repeat and referral revenue and once you do that you can begin to  cultivate and build on the relationships you have started. 

Want to know how we generated 20 to 25% repeat and referral revenue? Check out Secrets of The TIny Store and learn how to increase sales in your small business or touch bases with the Small Biz Mechanic and maybe he can help you tune up your sales engine.

Dave Krygier
Publisher