In this week's issue of Profit & Joy Simplified, we are going to talk about finishing the year with STRONG SALES!
Happy Small Business Saturday, my friend!
The SBA defines businesses with less than 500 employees as "small"…so we qualify for this day! Some of these facts about us small businesses may surprise you:
I don’t know if your small business offers promotions, but I do know you want to finish out this year with great sales numbers.
Unfortunately, many businesses get into “holiday mode” in December and stop focusing.
Instead, let's be proactive & smash our year-end goals, my friend!
Why Now is a Great Time
As consumers, we are in holiday purchase mode. So we are already buying. It makes us more likely to purchase for our businesses too.
There's no reason we can't finish this year strong! Historically, the 4th quarter can actually be a great time for B2B sales. "Black Friday" is when many companies become profitable for the year (in the "black" in accounting terms!)
# Clients x $ Spent per Client = Revenue
The only way to increase revenue is to adjust 1of 4 levers (or a combination of them).
Ready to learn?
4 Ways to Increase Revenue:
1. Increase the number of clients you serve
2. Increase the average transaction value
3. Increase the frequency of client purchases
4. Increase prices
1. Increase the number of clients you serve
Among the options available to get new clients are paid advertising, leveraging social selling, and asking current clients for referrals.
Referrals are a very effective source of new clients & the secret sauce for many businesses (mine included!).
Get over the discomfort of asking for referrals. We all love to share our good experiences with others. Consider adding a referral or affiliate program that rewards your clients for telling others about your business.
In Influence, Robert Cialdini cites the principle of Social Proof - which means we tend to follow what others are doing. For this reason, adding testimonials (to your website, emails, social media) is another very effective strategy to get new clients.
Are there some potential clients you've had your eye on? Find a way to connect with them. This may be a cold outreach (done right!), captivating them with your social media, engaging on their LinkedIn, or asking a mutual connection for an intro. Think outside the box.
2. Increase the average transaction value
This is one of my fave strategies. Can you think of more services you have that would benefit your current clients? Even without new clients, if the ones you had spent more money, revenue increases, right?!
What could you offer? Think of an add-on to your services (or product) that would be beneficial for your clients.
It isn’t pushy for you to offer something to your clients that you know would be of value to them.
TIP: If you need ideas of what you could offer, take Justin Welsh's advice - search your own Google Drive for what you already have that could easily be packaged up and sold as an extra. Is there something small that could help clients?
3. Increase the frequency of client purchases
Do you have clients who are receiving quarterly services from you that might benefit from monthly? Or annual ones that might benefit from quarterly?
It's Small Business Saturday today so there are a lot of people shopping. Let your audience know about your expiring discount, a special bonus, or a new end-of-year special offer. People love to get a good deal!
Serving your current clients with the same services they now receive but on a more frequent basis will increase sales revenue.
If you keep good notes on your clients, it makes it easier for you to know which ones are most likely to need more frequent services. And treating your clients like gold makes them far more likely to want to say yes too.
4. Increase prices
Costs are up for us all. It’s no surprise that many businesses are raising their prices.
Increasing rates by a small percentage doesn’t surprise most clients. We all understand that everything has gotten more expensive. And this alone will increase your revenue.
Now What?
Don’t just nod your head that these are good ideas and go about your business.
Take these 3 steps to JUST DO IT & finish 2022 sales strong!
1. Idea Soup
I learned this years ago (thank you, Rachel Hollis) and have implemented it a zillion times for myself & my clients since.
Get out 4 blank pieces of paper.
Label each with 1 of the 4 methods above as a question. ("How can I get more clients?")
And now write down every idea that comes up.
Don’t evaluate whether the ideas are good or not. Just write them all down.
Doing this gets your subconscious brain thinking of all the ideas too & solving that question. It's backed by science. Who knew? And how cool!
2. Pick (up to) 3 of those ideas to implement
No more than 3 ideas in total to implement. If you do more than that, you won’t do it or won’t do it well.
How to choose? Pick the ones that are most likely to have the most impact on your revenue AND are also ideas you can/will easily implement!
3. Just Do it!
Don’t worry about perfection.
Once you've decided on the ideas to implement, the key to results is ACTION. So just do it! Evaluate results & tweak as you go.
TL;DR Summary
We often overcomplicate things. No reason to do that. Revenue can be increased only by 4 methods. Let’s gooooo!
1. NOW is a great time to implement simple methods to increase revenue
2. Brainstorm ideas to apply the 4 methods to your business
3. Pick (up to) 3 ideas to implement
4. Just do it!
I hope this inspired you. Don’t let revenue just happen. Make a plan, put it into action, and take control of your business’s finances.
Thanks for reading!
See ya again next week, my friend!
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