5 Strategies to Increase Sales without Increasing Your Budget and ...
TODD BATES SYSTEMS
5 Strategies to Increase Sales without Increasing Your Budget and Without Adding Staff By Todd Bates
This guide provides a road map to grow your business without pain or frustration. You are about to discover 5 bullet proof strategies you can put into place immediately to increase your business. It concludes with a solution to the 3 biggest problems small business owners face when trying to put these strategies into action.
A message from the author What you are about to discover are 5 bullet proof strategies to increase your sale regardless of the economy. These strategies can be put into action in the 90, 60, or 30 days to help your company increase sales. You might be at a point where you feel you don’t want to grow. A business that fails to grow dies. Times change, technologies change, and economies shift. Regardless of your business, experience, or what you have tried in the past you will find these strategies can alter the course of your business forever. Each of these 5 strategies has been put into in each of my 47 different companies and I look forward to hearing how you put them into practice in your own business.
About Todd Bates Over the last 20 years Todd Bates has helped over 20,000 entrepreneurs and small business owners. He has authored multiple books and his book “6 Steps to a 7 Figure Net Income” guides entrepreneurs to increasing sales while focusing on their net. He has created 47 different companies that have helped small businesses put strategies into action that quickly increase their sales. He is well known for his ability to get attendees to overcome their fears to take their business to the next level. Specializing in direct response marketing, sales conversion methods, and social marketing strategies, Todd has a passion for helping individuals and business improve their bottom line.
2|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
Growing a Business in This Economy Can Be One of the Most Stressful Tasks You Growing a business is easy when you don’t have to worry about payroll, the economy, and delivering your products and services to your customers. You however exist in the real world. You are riding a fine line of growing your business while providing a place for your employees to grow. When you need to grow to meet rising costs you have limited options. You might be looking at:
How to make changes to your existing materials to generate leads provided you have access to all the original files.
What existing resources do you have that can be automated to save time and allow you to conquer the projects you have wanted to tackle for months or possibly years.
How to get more out of the current leads you have so you don’t always feel the need to generate more leads.
Often times you have so many things to do just to keep your company going you don’t have time to address any of the above. The good news is you are about to discover 5 strategies you can put into place regardless of your schedule.
How 90% of Business Owners Jump Start Sales Whether you have been in business a few years or well over 30 years getting sales going usually occurs when there has been a shift in economic conditions or a massive change in technology. While there are many items that you could tackle to get your sales going most business owners focus on three core areas to get back on track.
Eliminate Marketing that Isn’t Working When sales are rapidly coming in most business owners don’t have “time” to look at what is responsible for the income. When sales decline, it is time to take a harsh look at every bill that you are paying that is responsible for bringing in leads and sales. While some programs may take time to get off the ground, it is safe to say that you if an item of marketing can’t be attributed to a sale in the past 6 months it is time to cut it! Don’t hold on to something that 3|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
“might” work, be brutal. If you can’t remember the last time someone called you from your yellow page ad, cut it! If you have flyers distributed with a coupon on the local neighborhood but you can’t remember anyone coming in the door with it, eliminate it. Cutting marketing that isn’t working is just as important as focusing on what is working.
Fine Tune Existing Materials If you didn’t eliminate certain marketing pieces it means they are likely working to some degree. To help these pieces bring in the business that you really NEED, consider improving them. This is not a time to start from scratch; rather it is an opportunity to make small improvements to your pieces to get them performing better. Improving the response of a postcard, by as little as 1%, means 1 more customer calling per 100 postcards sent. Consider just two small items that can be changed. 1. Images – From your website, brochures, to even postcards, images are used, but not often thought about. Look at the images that you are using in your materials and see if they are eye catching, compelling, and are actually serving a purpose (if you don’t know why you have the image, cut it). Even something as small as the picture of person, facing towards your phone number, can improve the call ratio you receive by 7% or more. Take a look at every image you use. 2. Call to Action – When you are looking at each marketing piece is it obvious what you want the prospect to do? Are you looking for them to call? Do you want them to visit your website? Or maybe you are asking them to even text you for more information. Evaluate the call to action on each piece and make 100% certain that you have one blazingly obvious call to action. Don’t confuse your prospects by providing a phone number, fax, and website address to reach out to you as they won’t know where to start.
Holding On…or Hoping It Gets Better Tragically there are some business owners that no matter what goes on they don’t make a change. You might have heard from other owners that they are waiting for the economy to get better, or that this is just a “seasonal” challenge. This even happens to businesses that are doing “OK” as they feel they just don’t need to change. They count on a past client base or word of mouth to keep them going. Hoping business gets better or that economic conditions not only leaves you open to a competitor coming in to take your market share, it counts on something changing that is outside of your control. While these 4|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
business owners may do OK in the short run, they won’t have a business that celebrates 50 years in business.
How to Ensure Your Business Grows, Regardless of Economic Conditions in 5 Simple Steps without Adding Overhead Increasing sales, especially with the right clients, can happen, when you have a clear plan. The plan doesn’t have to be complex and it isn’t one that you make and let it collect dust all year long. Consider the five following steps to jump starting your sales right now.
1. Referral Marketing Whether you refer to this “word of mouth” or “referrals” you might get a majority of your business from this manner because you do a great job. The question becomes, can you get even more business from referrals? In order to jump start your sales with even more referrals, you can’t simply just hope people refer you more business or provide even better service. To supercharge your referral marketing efforts consider the following key items.
Email marketing – Beyond a newsletter or sending out what sales are going on, how are you communicating with your past clients? Do you have a detailed email follow-up campaign that reaches to them, based on what they purchased, and lets them know you care? A good email campaign for referrals can last over a period of years which means more referrals coming into your business monthly!
Referral Rewards – Are you rewarding people for referring you business? Don’t just reward someone when something great happens (i.e. you get a sale), reward them for the right behavior. Having a plan in place to send a past customer a written thank you note for referring or even a small token of appreciation like a Starbucks card will have your past clients working eagerly to refer you friends and family. Just ensure that your reward program does not count 100% on you to put into action. Have a team member, staff member, or even an outside service be responsible for keeping these clients happy (and hold that employee or service accountable for getting the job done).
Direct Mail to your top customers – While email is nice because it is cost effective, you still can’t beat the mail. There is no finer way to encourage more referrals and repeat business then mailing 5|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
your customers. Two simple items, that most business owners overlook is mailing a customer a birthday card and mailing a newsletter. A birthday card with a reward to use at your store will bring in a happy customer. A newsletter that gets mailed gets to sit on a coffee table for a week or even get passed along to a friend. Make your mailing consistent and to the clients who love you the most.
2. Marketing Message A marketing message is “why” someone should select your business from your competition. When you are looking to create a marketing message, I want you to envision the following.
Your BEST type of customer is standing in front of you and is ready to buy
There 5 competitors standing to your left and 5 standing to your right
Before your favorite type of customer will purchase from you, he is going to ask one simple question: “Why should I choose you?” It’s a simple question, and one that 99% of business owners can’t match. If you say anything that sounds like “because I will work hard”, “because I am honest”, “because I have been in business X number of years” etc; then you might as well say nothing at all. Sadly your competition will say the same things and the customer will be left to guess on who he selects. A marketing message should make it resoundingly clear WHY someone should pick you. It should even be easy for someone to mention when they refer your business. A marketing message is not a slogan; a marketing message should clearly define how you can save someone time, money, or maybe even both.
3. Tracking for Success Whether your business is on pace for its best sales year ever or you are looking to jump start sales now, tracking is absolutely essential. Knowing your numbers helps you understand what areas of your business you can pour more money into and which areas need to be cut back. Here are a list of a few key numbers that you should be tracking at a minimum each month when you want to drive sales to the maximum.
Amount of money invested in marketing monthly broken down by category
What is an average customer worth to your business
Number of visitors visiting your website 6|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
Number of phone calls from new customers
Number of direct mail pieces
Number of calls and appointments your sales team makes (weekly)
Number of walk-ins
Number of leads or email requests (and cost per lead)
Number of units of your top selling product
Knowing these numbers monthly (or when you are even more serious weekly) will ensure that that you consistently put marketing into action that is bringing you sales.
4. Evaluating Your Current Assets Before starting new initiatives it is imperative to evaluate your current assets. Quite often you might have a “diamond in the rough” and not even know it. Improving your bottom line can be as simple as improving an asset that hasn’t been used effectively in quite some time. Consider the following items to evaluate.
Past Client Database – How many past clients have you helped over the years? How much communication have you had with them recently? Creating a strategy that reaches to the people that already know your business and empowering them to take action is a sure-fire way to increase sales fast. Be careful if you haven’t reached out to your past clients in awhile as you don’t want to turn them away with a “sales pitch”. Create a balanced marketing strategy that includes everything from email, direct mail, and even phone scripts to ensure your past clients become your most valuable asset.
Employee Skills- When was the last time you asked your employees what skills they have learned recently? In today’s age your best employees are often learning on their own, researching, and they WANT to help more, when you empower them. Set meetings with your staff members (of every level) and ask them what skills they have that they would like to use but aren’t currently able to put into action.
Machinery & Equipment – Do you have machinery or equipment in your business? Have some pieces of machinery or equipment not been used in quite some time? If they haven’t been used in quite some time, then these are underperforming assets. I would challenge you to ask yourself IF 7|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
they are even needed. If they are needed, how can you get more use out of them? How can you ensure that every piece of equipment is actually earning its keep?
5. Automation of Your Most Important Processes When the word automation comes up among my clients they start picturing expensive computer software. Usually entrepreneurs exist in two camps when automation comes up: those who have tried it and failed those who want to automate yet aren’t sure how to proceed. Automation is a critical when you want to increase sales without adding overhead and staff. Let’s be clear that there is no one perfect solution to automating a process. Before proceeding into the world of automation consider the following:
How much additional revenue will your company gain? Before you look to automate a process look at the potential gain you will receive. Automating certain follow-up procedures can increase sales 2X-3X over a 12 month period. Processes with the highest return should be focused on first.
How much time will you save? Do you have an employee, or maybe you do it, that has to call, email, or even mail clients and prospects to generate a sale. It’s an old cliché however time is money. What task is currently being done that can be reduced. Can a 10 hour weekly task be turned into 2 hours? What does 8 hours of labor weekly spread out over a year save you?
Will you increase leads to your company? Automating a relationship with your clients will increase the referrals you currently receive for your services. How would your business change with 17% more referrals over the next 6 months?
The Next Step The strategies that you just discovered are extremely powerful. When put into action correctly you will have a business that that can operate 24/7/365 and grow regardless of the economy. I have 6 additional strategies that I would like to share with you. I have a Audio Training “11 Rules For Business and Sales Success” that I will mail out to you FREE. You can get your own copy of this training by calling me directly at 303-841-8008 or sending a message to my personal e-mail at [email protected].
8|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
5 Strategies to Increase Sales without Increasing Your Budget and Without Adding Staff By Todd Bates
This guide provides a road map to grow your business without pain or frustration. You are about to discover 5 bullet proof strategies you can put into place immediately to increase your business. It concludes with a solution to the 3 biggest problems small business owners face when trying to put these strategies into action.
A message from the author What you are about to discover are 5 bullet proof strategies to increase your sale regardless of the economy. These strategies can be put into action in the 90, 60, or 30 days to help your company increase sales. You might be at a point where you feel you don’t want to grow. A business that fails to grow dies. Times change, technologies change, and economies shift. Regardless of your business, experience, or what you have tried in the past you will find these strategies can alter the course of your business forever. Each of these 5 strategies has been put into in each of my 47 different companies and I look forward to hearing how you put them into practice in your own business.
About Todd Bates Over the last 20 years Todd Bates has helped over 20,000 entrepreneurs and small business owners. He has authored multiple books and his book “6 Steps to a 7 Figure Net Income” guides entrepreneurs to increasing sales while focusing on their net. He has created 47 different companies that have helped small businesses put strategies into action that quickly increase their sales. He is well known for his ability to get attendees to overcome their fears to take their business to the next level. Specializing in direct response marketing, sales conversion methods, and social marketing strategies, Todd has a passion for helping individuals and business improve their bottom line.
2|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
Growing a Business in This Economy Can Be One of the Most Stressful Tasks You Growing a business is easy when you don’t have to worry about payroll, the economy, and delivering your products and services to your customers. You however exist in the real world. You are riding a fine line of growing your business while providing a place for your employees to grow. When you need to grow to meet rising costs you have limited options. You might be looking at:
How to make changes to your existing materials to generate leads provided you have access to all the original files.
What existing resources do you have that can be automated to save time and allow you to conquer the projects you have wanted to tackle for months or possibly years.
How to get more out of the current leads you have so you don’t always feel the need to generate more leads.
Often times you have so many things to do just to keep your company going you don’t have time to address any of the above. The good news is you are about to discover 5 strategies you can put into place regardless of your schedule.
How 90% of Business Owners Jump Start Sales Whether you have been in business a few years or well over 30 years getting sales going usually occurs when there has been a shift in economic conditions or a massive change in technology. While there are many items that you could tackle to get your sales going most business owners focus on three core areas to get back on track.
Eliminate Marketing that Isn’t Working When sales are rapidly coming in most business owners don’t have “time” to look at what is responsible for the income. When sales decline, it is time to take a harsh look at every bill that you are paying that is responsible for bringing in leads and sales. While some programs may take time to get off the ground, it is safe to say that you if an item of marketing can’t be attributed to a sale in the past 6 months it is time to cut it! Don’t hold on to something that 3|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
“might” work, be brutal. If you can’t remember the last time someone called you from your yellow page ad, cut it! If you have flyers distributed with a coupon on the local neighborhood but you can’t remember anyone coming in the door with it, eliminate it. Cutting marketing that isn’t working is just as important as focusing on what is working.
Fine Tune Existing Materials If you didn’t eliminate certain marketing pieces it means they are likely working to some degree. To help these pieces bring in the business that you really NEED, consider improving them. This is not a time to start from scratch; rather it is an opportunity to make small improvements to your pieces to get them performing better. Improving the response of a postcard, by as little as 1%, means 1 more customer calling per 100 postcards sent. Consider just two small items that can be changed. 1. Images – From your website, brochures, to even postcards, images are used, but not often thought about. Look at the images that you are using in your materials and see if they are eye catching, compelling, and are actually serving a purpose (if you don’t know why you have the image, cut it). Even something as small as the picture of person, facing towards your phone number, can improve the call ratio you receive by 7% or more. Take a look at every image you use. 2. Call to Action – When you are looking at each marketing piece is it obvious what you want the prospect to do? Are you looking for them to call? Do you want them to visit your website? Or maybe you are asking them to even text you for more information. Evaluate the call to action on each piece and make 100% certain that you have one blazingly obvious call to action. Don’t confuse your prospects by providing a phone number, fax, and website address to reach out to you as they won’t know where to start.
Holding On…or Hoping It Gets Better Tragically there are some business owners that no matter what goes on they don’t make a change. You might have heard from other owners that they are waiting for the economy to get better, or that this is just a “seasonal” challenge. This even happens to businesses that are doing “OK” as they feel they just don’t need to change. They count on a past client base or word of mouth to keep them going. Hoping business gets better or that economic conditions not only leaves you open to a competitor coming in to take your market share, it counts on something changing that is outside of your control. While these 4|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
business owners may do OK in the short run, they won’t have a business that celebrates 50 years in business.
How to Ensure Your Business Grows, Regardless of Economic Conditions in 5 Simple Steps without Adding Overhead Increasing sales, especially with the right clients, can happen, when you have a clear plan. The plan doesn’t have to be complex and it isn’t one that you make and let it collect dust all year long. Consider the five following steps to jump starting your sales right now.
1. Referral Marketing Whether you refer to this “word of mouth” or “referrals” you might get a majority of your business from this manner because you do a great job. The question becomes, can you get even more business from referrals? In order to jump start your sales with even more referrals, you can’t simply just hope people refer you more business or provide even better service. To supercharge your referral marketing efforts consider the following key items.
Email marketing – Beyond a newsletter or sending out what sales are going on, how are you communicating with your past clients? Do you have a detailed email follow-up campaign that reaches to them, based on what they purchased, and lets them know you care? A good email campaign for referrals can last over a period of years which means more referrals coming into your business monthly!
Referral Rewards – Are you rewarding people for referring you business? Don’t just reward someone when something great happens (i.e. you get a sale), reward them for the right behavior. Having a plan in place to send a past customer a written thank you note for referring or even a small token of appreciation like a Starbucks card will have your past clients working eagerly to refer you friends and family. Just ensure that your reward program does not count 100% on you to put into action. Have a team member, staff member, or even an outside service be responsible for keeping these clients happy (and hold that employee or service accountable for getting the job done).
Direct Mail to your top customers – While email is nice because it is cost effective, you still can’t beat the mail. There is no finer way to encourage more referrals and repeat business then mailing 5|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
your customers. Two simple items, that most business owners overlook is mailing a customer a birthday card and mailing a newsletter. A birthday card with a reward to use at your store will bring in a happy customer. A newsletter that gets mailed gets to sit on a coffee table for a week or even get passed along to a friend. Make your mailing consistent and to the clients who love you the most.
2. Marketing Message A marketing message is “why” someone should select your business from your competition. When you are looking to create a marketing message, I want you to envision the following.
Your BEST type of customer is standing in front of you and is ready to buy
There 5 competitors standing to your left and 5 standing to your right
Before your favorite type of customer will purchase from you, he is going to ask one simple question: “Why should I choose you?” It’s a simple question, and one that 99% of business owners can’t match. If you say anything that sounds like “because I will work hard”, “because I am honest”, “because I have been in business X number of years” etc; then you might as well say nothing at all. Sadly your competition will say the same things and the customer will be left to guess on who he selects. A marketing message should make it resoundingly clear WHY someone should pick you. It should even be easy for someone to mention when they refer your business. A marketing message is not a slogan; a marketing message should clearly define how you can save someone time, money, or maybe even both.
3. Tracking for Success Whether your business is on pace for its best sales year ever or you are looking to jump start sales now, tracking is absolutely essential. Knowing your numbers helps you understand what areas of your business you can pour more money into and which areas need to be cut back. Here are a list of a few key numbers that you should be tracking at a minimum each month when you want to drive sales to the maximum.
Amount of money invested in marketing monthly broken down by category
What is an average customer worth to your business
Number of visitors visiting your website 6|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
Number of phone calls from new customers
Number of direct mail pieces
Number of calls and appointments your sales team makes (weekly)
Number of walk-ins
Number of leads or email requests (and cost per lead)
Number of units of your top selling product
Knowing these numbers monthly (or when you are even more serious weekly) will ensure that that you consistently put marketing into action that is bringing you sales.
4. Evaluating Your Current Assets Before starting new initiatives it is imperative to evaluate your current assets. Quite often you might have a “diamond in the rough” and not even know it. Improving your bottom line can be as simple as improving an asset that hasn’t been used effectively in quite some time. Consider the following items to evaluate.
Past Client Database – How many past clients have you helped over the years? How much communication have you had with them recently? Creating a strategy that reaches to the people that already know your business and empowering them to take action is a sure-fire way to increase sales fast. Be careful if you haven’t reached out to your past clients in awhile as you don’t want to turn them away with a “sales pitch”. Create a balanced marketing strategy that includes everything from email, direct mail, and even phone scripts to ensure your past clients become your most valuable asset.
Employee Skills- When was the last time you asked your employees what skills they have learned recently? In today’s age your best employees are often learning on their own, researching, and they WANT to help more, when you empower them. Set meetings with your staff members (of every level) and ask them what skills they have that they would like to use but aren’t currently able to put into action.
Machinery & Equipment – Do you have machinery or equipment in your business? Have some pieces of machinery or equipment not been used in quite some time? If they haven’t been used in quite some time, then these are underperforming assets. I would challenge you to ask yourself IF 7|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
they are even needed. If they are needed, how can you get more use out of them? How can you ensure that every piece of equipment is actually earning its keep?
5. Automation of Your Most Important Processes When the word automation comes up among my clients they start picturing expensive computer software. Usually entrepreneurs exist in two camps when automation comes up: those who have tried it and failed those who want to automate yet aren’t sure how to proceed. Automation is a critical when you want to increase sales without adding overhead and staff. Let’s be clear that there is no one perfect solution to automating a process. Before proceeding into the world of automation consider the following:
How much additional revenue will your company gain? Before you look to automate a process look at the potential gain you will receive. Automating certain follow-up procedures can increase sales 2X-3X over a 12 month period. Processes with the highest return should be focused on first.
How much time will you save? Do you have an employee, or maybe you do it, that has to call, email, or even mail clients and prospects to generate a sale. It’s an old cliché however time is money. What task is currently being done that can be reduced. Can a 10 hour weekly task be turned into 2 hours? What does 8 hours of labor weekly spread out over a year save you?
Will you increase leads to your company? Automating a relationship with your clients will increase the referrals you currently receive for your services. How would your business change with 17% more referrals over the next 6 months?
The Next Step The strategies that you just discovered are extremely powerful. When put into action correctly you will have a business that that can operate 24/7/365 and grow regardless of the economy. I have 6 additional strategies that I would like to share with you. I have a Audio Training “11 Rules For Business and Sales Success” that I will mail out to you FREE. You can get your own copy of this training by calling me directly at 303-841-8008 or sending a message to my personal e-mail at [email protected].
8|Page © Todd Bates Systems, www.ToddBatesSystems.com All Rights Reserved
