As a business owner or manager, profit will be one of your main driving points. This is why you should be looking at quarterly sales, and not just annual ones. This guide will go over how your business could boost sales for the next quarter, offering helpful advice at all levels of business.
Examine Current Sale Figures
Before doing anything else, you should be looking at your current sales figures, and analyzing them to find out what you’re currently doing. If you wish to make an impact and achieve your sales goals month after month, then you will need to do better than guess.
This means you will need data and relevant information to do with your customers, as well as your own business. All of this is in the aim of helping your business to have as much information as possible for you to make the right data-backed decisions, meaning you should conduct sales analysis quite regularly.
Focus On Month-End Rather Quarter-End Sales
Whilst it’s easy to get carried away with focusing on quarter sales, it may benefit you and your business to take a step back and focus on a smaller scale, such as each month, or even week. Whilst it may seem counterproductive, focusing on each month to get the best out of it, should organically boost the quarter’s sales.
Once you know your current sales figures, start breaking that down into months. This will give you and your employees more accountability and a focus on performance.
Follow Up On Unsold Customers
If possible, try to make a list of and customers you’ve dealt with in the past that have bought from you, as you may have a better chance of making key sales. Perhaps you know of people or organizations that used to work with you, or were tempted to. You could look to offer them a deal or offer of some kind that could bring them into the fold.
Utilize Sales Prospective Tools
Sometimes, you could be doing everything you possibly can to improve sales, but without the right tools at your disposal, you could be missing out. Previously, businesses would turn to cold calls and cold emails as a method of generating leads and making money. However, those days have passed, and modern technology has ushered in new ways to find leads.
For example, the internet and social media have allowed sales tools to be more efficient, as they can be much more automated than they used to. This means that you can gather much more useful data and information about a potential sale before ever making contact.
Currently, on the market, there is a variety of sales tools to choose from. You should consider looking into guides that delved into these tools, such as the one by OpenPhone that looks at a few brands, and what they can offer your business. It’s useful to have as much information as possible so that you can make the best decision that benefits your business.
Don’t Overmanage Employees
Some sales managers put too much emphasis on numbers for employees, putting in unachievable goals and deadlines that are designed to improve performance but end up stressing out employees too much. This does not only lead to a decline in productivity and motivation, but it could also lead to employees leaving the business as a whole.
Instead, effective sales managers should be working with team members in a way that isn’t overwhelming, to find the best ways to help them work. This could be motivating them or rewarding them, you’ll know best after speaking to them.
Overmanaging employees will benefit from no one. At the end of the day, you have hired these employees for a reason, as they are capable of what you want them to do. They won’t appreciate being overworked, or constantly being watched over the shoulder.
Hire The Best Talent
In terms of making an impact for the next quarter, you’d be surprised at how much simply hiring a talented employee can do to make this happen. If you’re searching for the talent when hiring a salesperson, or even a whole team, then this can help to motivate everyone who is still within your business, as it will push them on to do more.
Of course, the initial cost of hiring could set you back, but as you’re planning for the next quarter, you’ll soon make that money back. You should work hard during the hiring process to find someone who not only helps in the short term but can assist in the long term too.
Incentivize The Workforce
If you set targets and goals for your workforce and promise them rewards for meeting these goals, then you will find they are more likely to reach these goals. Employees may not have the same reach or vision as a business owner, due to the fact they are not personally invested in the business, and won’t be compensated as much.
That’s why leaders within businesses should be helping them to work, and find joy with what they do, which leads to incentivizing. This could be with money bonuses at the end of each quarter for reaching a specific number of sales, or something like extra time off through vacations days. Any goals that you set should be incentivized, to drive employees and give them something to work toward, benefitting not just them, but the business as a whole.
Market And Sell Existing Overstock
If you’re looking to sell more for the next quarter, then you may benefit by looking at your current stock situation. You may be able to make a major impact for the next quarter by running a promotion on products that you have too much of, that have struggled to sell in the past.
This will allow you to recoup some of your investment, or even make a small profit on the stock you didn’t expect to sell. This boosts your overall numbers and can give you more money to invest in other areas of the business. Clearing your stock gives you room to invest in new products, even small price discounts at specific quarters of the year, such as the holiday season, can make a big difference.
