1. Focus On Profit Margins
- Are you focused on selling products that return a high profit in dollars as opposed to profit percentages?
- There’s a big difference between the two, especially when you realize you can’t take percentages to the bank.
2. Focus On Your People
- Is your staff on board with your company’s goals, philosophies and culture? Explain to them that you’re building a championship team positioned to dominate your business category.
- If they’re not with you, you shouldn’t employ them.
3. Communicate Your Differentiation
- Do you have a differentiation or value story? Do you have a position that’s different than others’ and makes you stand out?
- If you do, people will remember you and talk about you. If you don’t, they’ll forget about you. Give your customers something to talk about and they’ll become your best marketing ambassadors.
4. All About Connections
- Be the mayor; your business is up for election every day of the year. What’s your platform? What do you stand for?
- Put your time and energy into developing relationships within your community; nurture your connections. The only cost of doing this is your time.
5. Be A Personality
- Be the face of your company. Speaking in front of 100 people is worth more (financially and in good will) than you can imagine.
- People would prefer do business with someone they know and like.
6. Love Your Customers
- Your customers are the sole reason your business exists – a lot of companies have forgotten that. Make your customers feel important. Ask them for feedback. Once a year, invite your key customers to a special event to thank them for their business.
- It’s easier and far less expensive to market to your most loyal customers than to find new ones.
7. Be Fascinating
- Everything you do and everything the customer sees – your showroom, products and services, telephone greetings, landscaping, washroom and lobby area – must be remarkable.
- If those are mediocre, you’re just another easily forgettable, average company unable to sustain any real customer loyalty.
8. Develop A Written Sales-Building Plan
- Ideas don’t mean anything if they remain stored in your head. Write down your vision, your deadline for achieving it and what it’s going to take to get it completed.
- From this, develop a six-month sales-building plan. Get feedback from your staff so they buy into the program. Get someone to hold you accountable for seeing the plan through.
- Having a written plan and someone to make sure you implement it will make you unstoppable.