Your business’ life is going to go through a lot of stages. Before you started this venture, you might have been under the impression that it’s going to follow one, straight, and prosperous line – but this is, of course, far from the case.
Even large corporations such as Coca Cola and Amazon have experienced declines in their sales and a dip in their revenues before everything hit the ceiling so there is, in other words, no reason to give up quite yet.
What you need to avoid, however, is falling into the trap of ignoring it and doing nothing at all. The ones that found success despite a period of decline were only able to do this because they analysed their businesses and fixed whatever they needed to fix – so, whatever you do, don’t stick your head in the sand and wait for things to get better.
Here is an emergency guide to improving your business sales and make sure that you won’t succumb to the decline. That way, you’ll at least have a few rules of thumbs to follow and something to hold onto when everything seems to be sinking.
Get in Touch with a Professional
Before we get started, it’s a good idea to keep in mind that a professional will be able to help you out in an entirely different way than any general article can. While general advice is great to follow and often a big help, a professional will be able to consider your individual business with all of its unique sides so that you can get back up on your feet a bit faster.
Look for a team that can help you to boost those sales, first of all, such as an award-winning marketing team and those specialising in sales pipeline stages. You can read this article as well, by the way, to make sure that you’ve covered everything. It just makes it a bit easier to pinpoint exactly what your business needs in order to start prospering again.
First: Consider Your Business
Now it’s time to have a proper look at your business and what it’s been going through lately. A dip in sales could, after all, be due to many reasons and it’s impossible to fix something when you have no idea what’s actually broken.
What did your previous marketing campaigns focus on, for example, and how have you been communicating with your market lately? If you’ve just launched a brand new product, it’s easy to understand that your business might have been focusing on this – and maybe it wasn’t as big of a hit in the market as you thought it would be.
In this case, we’re talking about a failed product launch and you should try to figure out how you’re going to bounce back from this before you do anything else. Have a look at this article, to begin with, to learn more about how you can get back up on your feet after a product launch has backfired and affected your general sales.
Another point to this that may be linked to a failed product launch is the dreaded fact that your business brand may have taken a hit. If you haven’t recently launched a new product that went wrong in the market but, perhaps, saw your reputation take a hit due to something else such as negative feedback from your customers or an issue with your customer service, in general, you definitely need to address this.
Sometimes, it’s possible to fix your reputation and repair what needs to be repaired by simply addressing the issue and making sure that you never let something like this happen again. The sooner you address it and avoid letting your customers hang around to wait for a response, the higher your chances are of fixing it.
When this isn’t the case, however, you might want to think about a rebrand. It’s definitely something that requires a lot of work and probably not what you saw yourself doing in 2019 but it’s important enough to focus on as it may otherwise leave your business in crumbles.
A complete rebrand means that you need to create new associations for your company. Logos will need to be changed, your business name should be swapped out for something new, and it requires, in general, an entire makeover in order to steer clear of the disastrous reputation your business has built up.
Sure, it’s going to be a lot of work and you will certainly need to hire a professional team to help you out with it. If you don’t do it, on the other hand, and just try to build on a foundation that is already broken, you’ll be wasting your energy and investing in a business for no good use.
Of the two, rebranding and starting fresh is definitely the lesser of two evils.
Next: Get in Touch with Your Market
When your sales are in a rapid decline and you have nowhere else to turn, rest assured that your market will hold the answers. They are, after all, the ones who decide whether or not they’d like to buy your products or services – and, if there is a specific reason to why your sales are dropping, it’s better to know about it as soon as possible.
Perhaps you’ve simply picked the wrong market segment for your business, despite all your hard work and analysis. It’s difficult to predict the trends and there might be a better alternative out there for them so figure this out sooner rather than later so that you’re able to either tweak your product to fit them or perhaps even choose a different market.
By getting in touch with those who have the final say, you might also realise that there is something wrong with the product or service. It could be something as simple as not being quite able to understand how they’re supposed to use it – or it could be something worse such as poor quality.
This is why customer reviews are so important and why you need to take them seriously. The Internet offers great opportunities for business owners to get in touch with their customers, ask for feedback, and create lasting relationships with them; unless you take advantage of this, it’s going to be tough to pinpoint exactly how your business is doing.
Social media is your best friend when it comes to customer relations. Make sure that you have several ways for your fans to get in touch with you, both per email, social media, live chat, and phone so that they can choose whatever they prefer.
It’s all about making it convenient for them, after all, and the more options they have when they have a question or some feedback, the easier it will be for you to get their honest reviews and improve your business.
In case your sales have been dropping and you don’t have a specific kind of feedback that keeps repeating itself, you might feel a bit at a loss. You’re looking for a certain answer to your situation, after all, and generic feedback and general customer reviews aren’t quite what you’re looking for unless they have the kind of negative feedback you’re able to fix in order to stop the decline.
The best way to solve this problem is to send out a few questionnaires to your customers. Make the questions as specific as possible so that you’re able to figure out what’s lacking; how did they experience the recent product you launched, did they feel like the customer service they received was adequate, and do they consider your product or service to be the best compared to similar alternatives on the market?
The more you’re able to cover in the questionnaire and the more people you’re able to gather information from, the easier it will be to piece everything together.
Make sure that you offer them something in return, though, and don’t expect them to complete it just because you’re asking for it politely; a discount is a great place to start, for example, or a freebie of some sort should be able to lure an honest answer out of them.
Find New and Exciting Marketing Campaigns
When you feel like you’ve figured out the reason for the decline and are ready to bounce back, it’s time to put your creative side to work. You’re done with all the dry analytical aspects now, after all, and can focus on bouncing back for real.
That’s why you need a new and innovative way of marketing your business which you haven’t used before. Try to create a few videos, for example, in order to catch your potential customers’ attention, roll out a fantastic new product or service together with a sharp discount, and use social media for everything it’s worth.
The general idea is to vamp things up a bit in a way you haven’t tried before. It will help you to realise that all of the hard work was worth it, in the end, and that your business is finally ready to start climbing toward those green numbers again.
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