Increased sales. Practical advice from a business consultant. How to increase sales in a store - practical secrets of the director What can be additionally displayed in a supermarket

An entrepreneur who owns a retail store one day faces a problem. Sales revenue is falling. Visitors are leaving for competitors. Moreover, staff costs are increasing. In such a situation, the irrational use of consumables immediately becomes noticeable. For example, a manager begins to notice that they are purchasing too much office supplies. Action must be taken because increasing sales in a retail store can save the company.

Retail Challenges

Three years after opening, retail management begins to face problems. First of all, this is due to competition. Moreover, in recent years, many retail outlets have not been able to withstand price wars. Constant monitoring forces us to equalize prices for the main players. Small companies are closing. But first of all, we need to understand why problems occur.

What difficulties will any businessman working in this direction face:

• Revenue is less than expected when .
• Unreasonable marketing expenses.
• Low conversion rate.
• Lack of regular customers.
• Competitors offer more favorable conditions.
• Large general operating costs.
• High taxes.

Ways to increase sales in a retail store

There are methods aimed at increasing sales in a retail store. After all, the ultimate goal of solving problems that arise is to obtain high profits.

Today, problems of reduced conversion, and, as a result, a drop in sales in a retail store, are created by illiterate store employees. Moreover, visitors are faced with rudeness and the inability of sellers to provide useful information about the product. Often the “consultant” is not a consultant at all. There is no point in getting rid of such employees. Moreover, others like them will take their place. A wise leader organizes training programs. To do this, first of all, you should invite professionals in the field.

People must understand that every entry is additional profit for the enterprise as a whole. Moreover, the higher the average check, the larger the bonus. The question about should always be there. The fact is that unmotivated staff are unlikely to try to work. People will agree to receive a fixed portion of their salary instead of working for an idea.

In order for the staff to work, first of all, people need to be trained. Moreover, sellers need to know that they will be rewarded for their efforts. They need to be motivated to increase sales in the retail store.

Tricks of merchandising and marketing

First of all, a retail store manager must understand that proper product placement is part of successful trading. Moreover, beauty matters not only in large retail outlets. So, an effective method of increasing sales is quiet music. Many people have probably noticed that bakery products are located inside the store. For what? For example, a man ran in to buy a bun and bought sour cream, milk and cottage cheese. Thus, there must be proper placement of goods. These are clearly aimed at increasing sales in a retail store.

It has long been known that people are motivated to perform certain actions by colors. For example, the color orange makes visitors buy products they don’t need. It is customary to write price tags or terms of promotions on paper of this color. Moreover, color affects the mood of buyers. If the store is decorated in blue and gray colors, it is unlikely that people will want to come here again. Customers need to be in the mood to buy.

Moreover, the desire of customers to buy a product is influenced by the workplace of salespeople. They should be in the buyer's field of view. Fragrances also have an impact on people's purchasing power. And not just in grocery stores. A pleasant smell encourages people to make purchases.

In a retail store, first of all, it is necessary to create psychological comfort for the buyer. For successful marketing, you should not spare money on. Today we cannot do without marketers. Moreover, marketing trends change all the time.

This category of product should be available in any retail store. For example, an electrical store may have light bulbs or batteries available at the checkout counter. It will be useful for everyone on the farm. This is a minimal increase in sales in a retail store. However, with skillful marketing, you can sell out stale goods. Moreover, the check amount will increase.

Selling expensive goods

Each store has an assortment. Moreover, the same product is presented in different price ranges. There are also several manufacturers. Selling a similar product that is only more expensive will increase sales by 40 percent. For example, a buyer purchased a circuit breaker at a low price. The seller must persuade him to buy an expensive one as well. For what? This is where all the artistry, the ability to communicate and convince the seller come into play. He should tell you that an expensive machine is useful for protecting the main electrical equipment in a house or apartment. The manufacturer of the machine is known all over the world, its quality is the best. However, a cheap one is also needed. It can be used in a garage or outbuilding.

All trading companies constantly hold promotions. For example, when you buy three light bulbs, the fourth one is free. Or, when purchasing a chandelier for 20,000 rubles, a table lamp as a gift. Moreover, you should always organize price discount campaigns. At this point, the store can earn a month's revenue in three to five days. Some retail stores sell goods below cost. However, prices for other product lines are raised in secret from buyers. A skilled trader will never be at a loss.

Information about promotions should be located in places where visitors go. Potential buyers will see bright price tags and will automatically be drawn to buy the product. Moreover, people like it when they are told that there will be a sale or a cheap product will be delivered, for example, on Monday.

discount cards

“Purchase goods worth 5,000 rubles and receive a discount card as a gift.” All buyers are accustomed to such information. It's convenient for people. You can always shop at a good discount. For the company, this is a loss of some part of the profit. However, discount card holders will come to this store more often than any other. Gradually the lost income will return. Of course, cards are produced in limited quantities. Some retail outlets issue personalized cards for regular customers. This is also an option. Because buyers are increasingly switching to competitors.

Individual programs should be provided for regular customers. Possibly installment sales. On conditions that differ in the direction of lower prices. Often clients bring alternative sales proposals from several sellers. To retain a customer, you need to do everything to ensure that he buys in your store. It is even possible to “go negative”.

In retail trade, one should strive to reduce the cost of running a business. To do this, first of all, you need to look for suppliers offering favorable conditions. Monitoring will allow you to select the best. Depending on the volume, suppliers will give discounts. Due to this, you can align prices with competitors. Setting prices 1-2% lower will attract buyers. Accordingly, sales will increase.

Conclusion

A retail store is a profitable business. However, an entrepreneur must keep his finger on the pulse. Today's market conditions are very tough. Therefore, in order to increase sales of a retail store, you need to constantly learn and explore the capabilities of competitors. This is necessary in order to implement the best methods in your business.

10.06.2017 1 617 1 Reading time: 16 min.

Let's continue the topic of increasing sales in business and consider one of the most pressing issues in this area: how to increase sales in a retail store. After reading this article, you will learn which four areas you should work in to increase retail sales, and what methods you can use to increase sales in each of these areas.

What determines sales volume?

Retailing is the most common type of business that most people start with. Naturally, each of them always thinks about how to increase sales in the store, but does not always know how to competently approach this issue. Today we will close this gap.

So, in one of the previous articles I wrote that it depends on four components. You can read all the details by following the link, but here I will repeat briefly:

1. Client traffic(the number of potential customers who have/may enter the store).
2. Conversion(conversion of potential buyers into real ones - the number of people who actually make purchases).
3. Average check(the total amount of a purchase in a store that the average buyer leaves).
4. Repeat sales(transforming one-time customers into store loyalists who will shop there regularly).

Thus, when thinking about how to increase retail sales, it is best to simultaneously work on increasing each of these four indicators. And how this can be achieved - I will consider separately later.

Client traffic

First of all, to increase sales in a retail store, you need to get more people to come there. This can be achieved primarily through two strategies:

1. Focus on branding. Turn the store into a recognizable brand, make sure that people go there, simply knowing that “it’s good there”, “they always have the right product”, “they have good prices”, “they have excellent service”, etc.
2. Focus on individual products. Make sure that people go to the store for certain goods or a certain group of goods, because they are the cheapest and/or the highest quality, the most delicious, etc.

The implementation of the first strategy is significantly more expensive (you can read more in the article), but you should expect a much greater economic effect from it than from the second option. The second strategy is easier to implement - it is enough, for example, to sell several “hot” goods (for example, for a grocery store - sugar, eggs, flour, cereals, etc.) actually at cost, with a minimal markup. Then people will quickly notice this and will often go into the store for a certain product, but many of them will also buy other products at a more significant markup along the way.

The methods and tools by which these strategies can be implemented are quite well known: these are advertising campaigns, holding promotions, sales, discounts.

High level of service. Beautiful and polite salespeople, smiles, great attention to each client, competent, professional advice - these are all the things that form in the client the psychological attitude “they treat me so well here, I simply have to buy something.”

Average check

When thinking about how to increase sales in a store, you need to take care not just that visitors make some kind of purchase, but that they make the most expensive purchase possible, thereby increasing the so-called “average check”. What actions can be taken in this direction?

Attracting customers with cheap goods and selling expensive ones. A good option for those who have chosen the second option of the sales increase strategy. Roughly speaking, you can set the cheapest prices for flour and sugar in your store, and sell, say, sausages and meat products nearby with a more significant markup.

Selling cheap goods with a large markup. Setting a large markup (100%, 200% or more) on the cheapest product (chewing gum, coffee bags, lighters, etc.) is a good way to increase the average bill, because these goods are usually bought “at the same time” and at any price.

Cross-selling. To increase the average check, you need to train sellers to competently perform cross-selling. For example, a person who buys a fishing rod can also sell a reel, fishing line, hooks, sinkers, float, bait, bait, fish tank and even a boat.

I wrote more about this area of ​​increasing sales in a retail store in a separate article, so I won’t dwell on it any longer and will move on to the last component.

Repeat sales

And finally, in order to increase retail sales, you need to make sure that as many of your current customers as possible return to the store more than once, and become its adherents, and ideally, they would also recommend it to their relatives, friends, and acquaintances.

How to achieve this? Of course, a lot depends on the specifics and specialization of the store, but all methods come down to personalizing customers: meeting the needs of each customer individually. In everyday life this is known under the expression “individual approach to each client.” Let's look at the most common of these methods.

Personalized communications. When communicating with a visitor, the seller can introduce himself (say his name) and ask what the client’s name is, and then address him by name. This psychologically immediately emphasizes individuality and encourages the desire to return to this store again, because it has individual service.

Identifying personal needs. Again, when communicating with the buyer, the seller must find out exactly what goods he is interested in and for what purposes. Based on this, offer what is presented in the store.

Information about new products, promotions, discounts. To increase repeat sales in a retail store, it makes sense to collect a database of customer contact information (phone numbers, emails, etc.) and send out some new offers that might interest them. A certain number of such customers will be interested in the offer, return to the store and make a new purchase.

Maintaining groups on social networks. Many stores open their own groups or public pages on popular social networks (primarily VKontakte), where they inform subscribers about new products, discounts, promotions, and answer questions. This is also a good way to communicate and expand the number of store followers. Moreover, there you can hold various sweepstakes for subscribers and further expand the target audience.

Personalized infrastructure. Finally, you might consider targeting different customer groups individually. For example, if you equip a bike rack at the entrance to a store, this will significantly increase the likelihood that cyclists will visit your store more often than competitors who do not have such a rack.

In this rather lengthy article, I only briefly described how to increase sales in a retail store: I showed you the necessary courses of action and some popular techniques in each of these directions. Of course, you need to experiment, try, introduce something new, analyze and draw conclusions.

I wish you successful business development and a stable increase in sales! Stay tuned: there is a lot of other important and useful information that will come in handy more than once!

Estimate:

Recently, due to the crisis, as a business consultant, many clients have been asking me questions related to increasing sales. Businessmen have almost no questions related to the search and purchase of materials or finished goods, as well as the organization of production. It's no secret that today half of Russia is engaged in resale, and the other half dreams of doing it. That’s why, first of all, everyone is concerned with the question: how to increase sales.

In addition, when I lead projects related to the organization of an accounting system, the implementation of CRM and other software products, I also encounter these issues. While working on the project, I constantly communicate with business owners, managers, and heads of sales departments. I get a lot of information about how different companies sell, how different groups of products are sold, what sales methods are used in this or that case, what ideas lead to success, and what decisions turn out to be unsuccessful.

When I was faced with the problem of increasing sales, I realized that these issues were poorly covered on the Internet. There are no normal sales materials. On the Internet you will find either fantasies on the topic: how to increase sales in 14 days, sales scripts and other similar information, or various books on marketing and pricing, but they are not relevant for small and medium-sized businesses (how can a book on how to increase your Coca-Cola sales?)

In this article, I decided to talk about tools that lead to increased sales. My advice is practical in nature and requires organizational rather than financial costs, which is very important when revenue is falling.

I will talk, first of all, about increasing the efficiency of working with the existing client base. Finding and attracting new clients, promoting the company on the Internet and offline will be the topic of a separate article.

Some of the solutions discussed below will work in a comprehensive manner, i.e. will not only increase sales, but also attract new customers. But still this will not be the main focus of the article. Here and now I will talk about increasing sales volumes.

All the ideas and solutions that I will talk about have been tested in practice by my clients. However, I recommend that you take any advice carefully and implement it based on the realities of your business. Some solutions are intended only for manufacturers, others are suitable for almost everyone.

Increase the value of the product.

If your company produces a product, then one of the solutions that has a positive effect on sales is to increase the value of the product. In many cases, you can change the appearance of a product, such as its packaging, to increase sales. And, as a result, the value of the product in the eyes of buyers will change.

Example of solution implementation

My client's company produced cheap clothes that were sold in markets and cheap shops. As a result of the analysis, it turned out that the main competitor of this company was China. The goods that the company produced were perceived by consumers as Chinese, and the price of the products was slightly higher.

It is clear that clothes created in Russia cannot compete with Chinese ones in price. Even the fact that the quality of the products was higher did not help in the current situation, since the nondescript appearance of the product, together with the relatively high price, reduced the interest of buyers.

We analyzed the product and its perception by customers. We consulted with dealers and sellers. And they came to a rather risky decision: they changed the packaging to a better and more modern one.

What we did:

• We changed the logo, fonts, and design. We made it bright, stylish, attractive.
• We chose a different material. Instead of cheap plastic bags, we used high-quality cardboard packaging.
• The packaging contains as much information as possible about the product.

As a result, the product, in the perception of buyers, “fell out” of its usual price category. Thanks to the packaging, it began to be perceived by customers as more expensive and of higher quality. At the same time, at first the price was not raised at all, and the real cost increased quite a bit.

Thus, in the perception of buyers, the product has “gone” from the niche filled with Chinese goods, and the real price has not increased much, since the cost of cardboard packaging per unit of product turned out to be very small. Of course, we had to tinker with the introduction of new packaging; in production, any changes are associated with certain difficulties. But that's a different story.

But thanks to the new packaging, there was a transition of the product from one value category to another in the perception of buyers, which became a real “springboard” to increasing sales volumes.

High-quality work with the order.

For some reason, many companies still neglect to process customer orders. Of course, certain actions are being taken. The manager accepts the order, processes it, issues an invoice, then ships it, etc. At the same time, most small and medium-sized businesses, and let me remind you, I work specifically with these segments, do not work to order.

Sales departments of companies are somewhat reminiscent of stalls: they sell what they have in stock. And if the requested product is not in stock, the manager does not even offer to place the required item “to order”. Most often, this happens because the system does not have the necessary tools, and the manager simply does not know how to place such an order.

It would seem that the solution lies on the surface. Don't refuse customers! Offer not only analogues, but also “custom-made” design of the desired product. Those. your client orders everything he needs. And the manager accepts the order and notifies the buyer about the delivery time, taking into account the deadline for receiving items missing from the remaining balances. All companies that implemented this system received a noticeable increase in sales.

In this case, I’m not talking about online stores that operate without a warehouse at all, i.e. only to order, regardless of whether they inform their customers of this fact or not. I'm talking about companies that have their own warehouse, but at the same time they can order goods from a supplier.

What is the problem with implementing such a work scheme? The problem is that companies do not know how to technically implement it. Now I will give an example of how such a scheme was implemented with my client, who is engaged in the wholesale sale of ceramic tiles.

All products are divided into two groups:

• The first is goods in our own warehouse, i.e. those goods that you yourself ordered from your main supplier.
• The second is “foreign” goods, i.e. those that can be quickly ordered from another supplier or competitor. This “Alien” attribute was filled in in the product card to indicate goods ordered from competitors. The product card also indicated the supplier (competitor) from whom this product was purchased.

In this company, which sells imported goods with a long delivery period (about two months or more pass from the moment of order to receipt at the warehouse), a special system was developed when, when accepting a buyer’s order, if there is no product in the warehouse, but until the next delivery another month, the manager can find out whether a competitor has this product and order it. The manager includes this product (Someone else's product) in the customer order with the designation To order (To be supplied), and when the customer order is posted in the system, an order/orders are automatically created for the supplier/suppliers (data about suppliers is taken from the product card).

As a result, the client receives all the assortment he needs and continues to actively work with your company. He will not go to a competitor in search of the position he needs, because you have everything he needs.

This approach significantly increases sales volume, while in many cases profits increase slightly, because you buy goods in small quantities, perhaps even from competitors, and therefore sell some items with almost no markup. What's the point?

You gain customer loyalty. Your customer does not leave, fills out an order with you, and buys other goods along with the unprofitable “alien” position. And you will notice an increase in profits from such a work scheme at the end of the month, quarter or any other reporting period. By increasing customer loyalty, sales volume and profits will increase significantly.

Sale of related (additional) services.

Many companies sell only products without any additional services. But often it is the service that helps customers make a choice in your favor.

For example, among my clients there was a company specializing in the sale of cable products. At some point in time, they decided to introduce an additional service - cable laying. Those. In addition to the delivery available to everyone, they began to offer on-site cable cutting, as well as installation at the customer’s location. As a result, not only the profit increased due to payment for additional services, but also the volume of sales of goods.

What is the reason for this increase in sales? Some customers of such products consider it a big plus to be able to order everything in one place: both goods and services. They don’t want to waste time searching for contractors and cannot install (lay) the cable they need on their own. Those. in this case, clients reason like private buyers: “if I bought a sofa, then I need to assemble it right away, albeit for an additional fee.”

For some reason, many companies neglect this opportunity to increase customer loyalty, the attractiveness of products for new customers, as well as profits. In fact, selling services is a great method to increase sales. Don't forget about him.

Make the terms of cooperation easier.

Many companies work with their clients under very strict conditions. This is especially common among those who have been working in the market for a long time, often since the 90s, working with imported goods, with products that have no analogues on the market, and so on.

For example, I had a client who sold imported professional cosmetics for beauty salons. Despite the fact that one jar of the product can cost from 17 euros and more, in order for the dealer to receive a 5% discount it was necessary to complete a purchase volume of 2500 euros, and to get a 20% discount - 7500 euros. In addition, dealers took it upon themselves to buy and distribute magazines that no one wanted. There were other requirements, often inconvenient and unfriendly towards clients.

What has been done to increase sales in this company?

The company has reduced the threshold for receiving a discount. They did not make a one-time total discount or promotion; they made the conditions more lenient, which ensured not only sales growth, but also customer loyalty.

Those. To increase sales, you can simply soften the terms of cooperation. This is very important for your clients. The market is constantly evolving, competition is growing in all areas. Even if you are selling something exclusive and special, sooner or later some analogues will appear on the market.

For example, the client discussed above sells products for beauty industry professionals. The end consumers of his products were and remain private craftsmen and beauty salons. On the one hand, professionals get used to the quality and features of a certain brand. On the other hand, if the price becomes too high or an analogue appears that is more profitable to buy, they may reconsider their preferences.

Typically, clients who do not want to soften the terms of cooperation give the following arguments:

• We sell the best product, we are the best and they will work with us on any terms.
• If conditions soften, we may lose margin, resulting in lower profits.

But! It is better to lose 10 kopecks on a discount, but earn 2 rubles, than not to lose these 10 kopecks, but not earn anything.

Synergy.

Synergy is the summative effect of the interaction of two or more factors, characterized by the fact that their effect significantly exceeds the effect of each individual component in the form of their simple sum. Wikipedia

What is synergy from a business perspective and what do I mean when I talk about synergy?

Many companies that work simultaneously in several directions, for example, sell goods and services that are in no way related to each other or are only weakly related, completely separate these directions, even to the point of creating different websites and different legal entities for each direction. Also, the sales departments do not interact with each other in any way, which is a noticeable disadvantage. What can be done in this case? Unite different areas under one brand.

Let me again give the example of a company whose activities are related to beauty salons. This example is very convenient and visual, and therefore I often use it. This company has beauty salons, a training department, and a wholesale sales department for hair care products. And they all work independently of each other.

Yes, they work under the same brand, but in essence they are not united: they have different unlinked sites, the culture or business process for transmitting information about the company as a whole and its divisions is not developed. It is almost impossible for a salon client to find out that the company has training, just as a wholesale buyer will only be able to find out about the salon and its services by accident.

What have I done for this company?

The first and simplest thing was to combine all three divisions into one website. Those. a person who visits the site sees all three areas of the company’s activities. This increases credibility, the level of trust, and also informs people about certain additional capabilities of the company.

If, for example, a specialist comes to the site in search of a product, then in addition to the assortment, he will learn that he can always get training in working with these products, as well as evaluate their effectiveness by visiting a beauty salon. Similarly, combining directions has a positive effect in other cases.

Moreover, such an association increases the level of trust in the company as a whole, since people see that the company is large, reputable, engaged in several areas, etc. Also, specialists from different fields began to recommend each other. Thus, a synergistic effect manifested itself, i.e. The joint work of different areas led to increased efficiency in each of them.

Start selling through the website.

Until now, many wholesalers and product manufacturers do not use their websites for direct sales. As a result, some potential customers are lost.

Even if you beautifully presented all your products on the site, but there is no price next to the product, the person who found you through search engines or followed an advertising link will most likely leave without making a purchase or calling. There is a rule: a product without a price is not a product. As long as a person does not see the cost figure, he can think whatever he wants. But not everyone agrees to call or send requests, especially since nearby (in the search engine on adjacent lines) there are most likely competitors’ websites with prices and convenient order buttons.

Now I’m not talking about sales to the end consumer, where the need for an online store is obvious, I’m talking about sales in the B2B sector, where representatives of the commercial sector are looking for materials and goods for their own business, and therefore look mainly at the websites of manufacturers, dealers, regional representatives, etc. d.

What do they write on such sites? “Call us during business hours,” “Send a request for a price list.” But a visitor may end up on the site after hours or on a weekend. Not everyone leaves a request and not always. In general, many people, in the absence of a price, subconsciously begin to suspect that they may be deceived here, and therefore try not to leave any contact information. Or they suspect that the price is not shown on the website because it is too high. In any case, potential buyers leave the site without making a purchase or application. Therefore, show your prices!

The question often arises: if we, distributors, start selling products through the website to clients of our own dealers, won’t this interfere with business?

No, it will not. First, you, as distributors, can set a single price. The main thing is that it is not lower than that of your dealers. And secondly, you can add a page with a list of your dealers so that the client can decide whether to buy from you and wait for delivery from another city or choose a supplier in his region.

This solution will even help increase sales. For example, if a buyer from Murmansk comes to your website, he will in any case not order the product from you in Moscow; the product will have to wait too long and delivery will be expensive. Moreover, if he finds on your website contacts of a dealer in his region, then the sale will take place, albeit from the dealer, who, in turn, will order more goods from you.

If you promptly inform your partners that you are posting prices on the site, and also promptly inform them of any changes in pricing policy, this will not harm their business in any way. And if you invite your partners to post their data on your website, they will gratefully provide all the necessary information.

Don’t forget that your customers and partners are, most often, small regional companies that have little presence on the Internet. And your website, most likely, occupies a leading position in search results, since you are a distributor. So, such interaction will benefit both you and your partners.

Post prices on the website, develop your project, and based on the brand name, it should be among the first in search results. Make sales through the website. And post the contacts of your partners. As a result, the number of sales will increase significantly, customers will find your website and order goods either from you or from your dealers.

Another common concern is that dealers will be against you displaying prices because buyers on your site may, after viewing the prices, express a desire to become a dealer themselves.

What can we say here? These concerns are dealers' problems. For you, such interest from new potential partners is only a plus. Any business must grow and develop. And the potential threat that you can change a dealer in a particular region will stimulate your dealers to work better, develop more actively, and sell more. The dealer will not go to another supplier, even if you have a buyer, and he has a competitor in his own region. And your business must develop.

Discounts for volume of production.

Many companies assign discounts for one or another order, announce various promotions, but very rarely use discounts on product volume. Or they set a very high, one might say, unattainable threshold for receiving such a discount.

Most likely, you yourself know this marketing law: with each unit of product purchased, the customer’s desire to buy decreases.

Accordingly, the more he has already bought, the less desire he has to buy more. And a volume discount helps overcome this psychological factor.

And here again objections arise: due to discounts, part of the profit from the sale of goods is lost.

Let me remind you: in a falling market, losing a small part of the profit from the sale of a unit of goods is not the biggest loss. It is much worse if this product ceases to be sold at all or its sales volumes decrease.

And the volume discount encourages the buyer to order more. As a result, you will fully compensate for the loss of profit due to a reduction in price by increasing sales volume and will receive a loyal customer, which from the point of view of business development is much more important than short-term profit.

A smart move is to hire a “star”.

Today, sales managers are in great demand. The number of vacancies in this specialty is huge. At the same time, very often businessmen offer their future managers a very low salary and a more than modest percentage of sales. Who will they be able to hire under such conditions? How successful will this specialist be?

In a falling market, when sales skills are incredibly highly valued, companies are trying to save money on sales managers.

This is such a paradox. And the reason for this paradox is simple greed. But do you understand that momentary greed does no good to anyone?

It is worth understanding that in most successful companies, a significant part of sales rests on one or two specialists who know everything about the products, know how to find a common language with any client, and are able to sell at a “star” level. But these specialists also cost much more than a regular sales manager.

Don’t skimp, hire such a “star” for your sales department. Believe me, the quality and sales volumes will recoup all your costs for purchasing the “star” a hundredfold. You should not bet on a large number of cheap and weak sellers. It is better to spend the same funds on one really cool manager.

Yes, the “star” will have to pay a lot more. Yes, you will have to check its level in practice. Yes, there is always a risk of running into a scammer. But all these costs and difficulties will be fully paid off when a real “star” appears in your sales department.

If you study the work of companies that have a strong sales department, then in almost every case you will see one or two cool “star” level specialists in this department. These “stars” can always suggest a good solution to their colleagues; they pull others along with them, help and teach along the way. As a result, the entire sales department works much more efficiently.

As Elon Musk said: “Quantity never compensates for talent, and two people who don’t know something are no better than one.”

Therefore, you should not buy a lot of cheap employees, look for talent!

Accepting money through cards, online wallets, etc.

Oddly enough, such an obvious advantage as expanding the list of payment methods is overlooked by most businessmen. I would like to remind all businessmen: we live in the 21st century, and cash along with bank or postal transfer are far from the most popular payment methods.

Today, Internet wallets, credit and debit cards are actively used in all areas, and in some cases even mobile phone accounts act as a source of funds. And the more payment methods available to your customers, the higher the likelihood that the purchase will go through.

Often, when refusing to connect payment via the Internet, the argument is heard: “Why should I lose money (3-4%) when cashing out funds?”

It's simple: in cases where a person, for one reason or another, cannot pay your invoice within the period of time specified by you, does not consider it possible to spend time and effort on finding a form of payment convenient for you, or does not want to pay for the goods in cash, the sale will not take place at all. And then you will lose not 3-4%, but all possible profit from the sale.

For example, when placing an order through a website or by telephone, some customers strive to pay immediately simply to be sure that the goods are reserved and will be delivered within the specified time frame. And if you cannot offer him a suitable payment method, the customer may go to your competitors.

One more example. Small companies often do not have terminals for paying with bank cards or card accounts for direct transfers from card to card. They work as they did many years ago: they issue invoices that can be paid at the bank, or offer to pay for goods in cash.

I personally observed the work of one of these companies in the process. And what I noticed: some of the customers came to them with credit cards. They were all sent to an ATM located nearby. But not everyone returned. The reason turned out to be that when cashing out funds, these clients lost 2% of the amount. Their discount did not exceed 5%. And paying in cash presupposed the absence of documents. As a result, the discount no longer looked so attractive, and buyers left to look for a more profitable solution.

Accept as many types of payment as possible! Your clients should feel comfortable. Remember: it is better to lose 2 rubles by cashing out 100 rubles than not to make any profit at all. Yes, you won’t lose anything, but you won’t earn anything either.

Increased conversion.

In this case, conversion is the conversion of your visitors in the office, store or website into buyers, i.e. to the people who placed the order and made the payment. And if you have a question about increasing sales, then you also need to increase conversion.

Have you ever wondered why so many people show interest in your company, read information on your website, ask questions in the office or store, and leave without purchasing?

But in addition to the objective reasons for this behavior, there are also your mistakes and shortcomings. For example, lack of prices on the website. I have already talked about this above. There are other mistakes that negatively affect the conversion of a visitor into a buyer.

I had a client who collected a record number of such errors on his website:

• He had as many as 7 phone numbers on his website. And none of them were multi-channel. Therefore, all of them could be busy at one time or another. As a result, some potential clients left simply because they couldn’t get through.
• Some goods did not have a final price. Those. the price for the product item was indicated, but it was constantly changing, and on the website it was written: “due to fluctuations in the euro exchange rate, this price may not be relevant, call and check the cost of the product.” From my point of view, there is nothing worse than telling a client that we are selling you something unknown for what money, and let’s call us back. To increase sales, it is very important to sell at the price that was first announced to the client. Otherwise, the level of trust in you will fall catastrophically, followed by sales.
• Long application processing period. In some cases, from the call to the answer to the client - when and how much he will receive the ordered goods - it could take up to 2 weeks! Naturally, during this time some clients were also lost.

What did I do to increase conversions for this client?

First of all, I introduced electronic document management. Now, when an application was received from the site, it immediately entered the general database, and a responsible manager was appointed for it, who was obliged to work with this application in a short time.

I also improved the quality of interaction between employees. There were many moments here, a lot had to be changed, in fact, the entire structure of the company underwent changes to one degree or another. I also put things in order on the site, helped correct errors and make it easier for customers to access information.

As a result of the transformations, the number of requests from the site, and also, more importantly, the number of purchases that took place, increased significantly with the same number of visitors to the web resource.

I recommend that you analyze and identify points where your client may fail: a “falling off phone”, poorly speaking managers, an inconvenient or uninformative website, high prices or strict terms of cooperation. Carefully work through these points, think over the loyalty program - and then the conversion will certainly increase.

Use all channels of interaction with customers.

Quite often, companies use only some of the possible channels to interact with customers and find new clients. For example, some work only through the website, others use ads in Yandex.Direct and nothing more, others work at exhibitions, and others use SMS newsletters. In fact, they, like the drunk man in the old and well-known joke, search not where they lost, but where there is light, i.e. They use only those methods that once showed good results.

Use all the channels available to you. Inform your customers that you are running this or that promotion, prices have been reduced, new products have appeared, and anything else you consider important. Apply all methods at once to do this. Let it be news on the website, email and SMS mailings, leaflets and letters on paper, advertisements on the Internet, meetings, seminars, calls to clients, etc. Do not neglect any of the possible channels of information. This way you will be able to reach the maximum audience.

Take orders online.

When I talk about the need to accept orders online, I mean the B2B business segment. Until now, many companies ignore the opportunity to receive orders via the Internet. At best, some forms in Excel and email are used. And most often, all orders are accepted by telephone.

The arguments of those who refuse to work online are quite similar: “they won’t understand, they won’t want to study, we’ll just waste time,” etc.

In fact, today Russia ranks 6th in terms of availability and prevalence of broadband Internet in the world. Most of your clients now have very good Internet. And the ability to use online order forms is also very well developed. Therefore, do not underestimate your customers. Those of them who do not like the online order option will say so themselves and can always continue to dictate orders over the phone in the traditional way. And the rest will be able to submit an application online, at a convenient time, calmly and thoughtfully. At the same time, processing applications from your managers will take a minimum of time, which will allow you to devote more effort and time to new clients.

Moreover, the ability to work online increases the loyalty of your customers. They will see your balances and the entire list of your goods. They will be able to order more and view the full list of products. While when ordering by phone, much depends on the manager, on his knowledge of the assortment, on whether he will be able to offer the goods the client needs. And when ordering online, the client himself sees everything that you can offer him, sees prices, the cost of the order. Don’t deprive your clients of such a convenient tool, check it in practice: introducing online ordering very often increases the average bill.

Always be available.

Your availability at any time is an important factor in increasing sales. I had clients whose phone was periodically unavailable, who did not always respond promptly by email, in some cases even the website was turned off for a while.
Your availability is a guarantee that you will not miss a single order. May you not have missed calls on your phone or unanswered letters from customers in your mailbox.

Another important point: sort your mail wisely! For example, my client had only one mailbox, which received all mail without exception. The post office was in charge of the secretary. And she simply did not understand anything about the range of goods; applications could lie in the box for several days without a response.

After I studied the situation, we transferred access to the mail to the head of the sales department and turned off spam filters. On the one hand, the amount of spam in mail has increased slightly. On the other hand, the sales department can always recognize a letter from a customer or potential partner and promptly respond to it. And disabling the spam filter ensures that no important email ends up in the Spam folder.

Another client, whom I already cited as an example, had about 7 phone numbers listed on the website. It looked something like this:

Wholesale sales department:
Tel.: +7 (495) xxx-xx-xx
Tel.: +7 (495) xxx-xx-01/02/03/04/05
mob. +7 (495) xxx-xx-xx (open on Saturdays)

All these numbers are working numbers of managers who constantly serve wholesale clients, that is, at some point in time all the numbers can be occupied. And which of us will dial all 7 numbers without getting through to two, maximum three numbers?

Always be available and be sure to correctly set up your email, phone and other options for customers to access you! Don't miss anything important.

Remove insider.

Today, many companies exist at the expense of another, larger company for which an insider works. Those. There is an employee in the sales department who regularly “leaks” orders and clients from another company. This usually happens unnoticed; an insider can be very difficult to catch, and even more difficult to blame.

For example, his reaction to a client’s call could be: “At the moment, unfortunately, we don’t have the product you need, but you can contact this company, they are our partners, and they definitely have everything.”

Another option is that the insider names a deliberately high price, or simply reports that this product is not in stock, despite the fact that it is in stock. At the same time, the manager remains with the customer’s contact information: his mobile phone, which was displayed on the screen, other information received during this call or earlier.

All this information is transferred to a competitor, who calls the client and offers him exactly what he needs, and is always ready to offer terms of cooperation that are more attractive than your company. Naturally, the client makes a purchase from where they called him and offered him the necessary goods at a favorable price. As a result, you invested in promotion, worked with the client, spent time and effort, while your competitor receives the profit.

How to identify an insider?

• The simplest method is to ask friends you trust to call them themselves from a number unfamiliar to your employees and make a test order. You will have to call every manager. And determine after which of your calls your competitors called you back.
• If you have phone calls recorded, listen to recordings of conversations between different employees. But as a rule, when telephone conversations are recorded, the insider acts very carefully.
• Guard your database. Carefully distribute customer data among your managers and limit their access to information that they do not need in their work.

It is possible that there is no insider in your company, and your sales problems lie in a completely different area. On the one hand, you should not organize massive and regular checks with the persistence of a paranoid person. This will only encourage previously loyal employees to quit and, perhaps, become insiders. But you shouldn’t lose your vigilance either.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, I would like to say what you should never do: you should not have sales of goods. What is beneficial in the retail sector is seen as a weakness in the B2B sector.

The retail client needs to consume now, so any promotions and sales attract his favorable attention. And the wholesale buyer is counting on the long term. And stability is more important to this client than immediate benefit. Having learned that you are selling out goods or giving inadequate discounts, the client comes to the conclusion that your company is “drowning” and will soon leave the market, accordingly, long-term cooperation with it will not work.

The situation turns out to be the opposite: you want to sell more through discounts and attract new customers, but as a result, on the contrary, you scare away your regular customers, who bring you the main income. The announcement of a total price cut is seen as throwing out a white flag.

In this article, I have, of course, not listed all the ways to increase sales. Here I have chosen the most common and simplest ones, which do not require special expenses. These methods are more organizational than financial. Therefore, they can be implemented in conditions of a financial crisis and falling sales.

Why do entrepreneurs engage in retail trade? With rare exceptions, such activities pursue one goal - obtaining maximum profit. At the same time, you don’t need to carry out complex calculations to understand: the income of any retail outlet most directly depends on the volume of sales of goods.

It is quite difficult to develop a universal recipe for increasing sales in a retail store: in each specific case, the specifics of the business, the characteristics of the local market and the habits of the audience should be considered. However, there are four ways to get a positive result in any situation:

1. Increase the total number of visitors to the outlet. Obviously, the number of buyers will increase proportionally;
2. Increase store conversion. This coefficient allows you to understand how many guests are simply looking at products, and how many are making real purchases;
3. Increase the average check amount. If each customer starts spending more money in the store, the entrepreneur’s profit will increase;
4. Increase the number of repeat sales. If a person has become a regular customer, then advertising is no longer needed to attract him.

Why are sales declining?

Quite often you can hear from beginning entrepreneurs: “We want to increase sales, but we can’t do anything.” Sometimes failures are caused by external factors that the business owner cannot influence - the state of the economy, the legislative framework, the mentality of people, the political situation, the level of technology development. But often sales decline for reasons arising from erroneous actions or inaction of the businessman himself:

1. Uncomfortable atmosphere. Buyers may simply not like the atmosphere in the hall - weak flickering lighting, unpleasant odors, cramped aisles;
2. Modest assortment. If a person enters the store for the first time and does not find the right product here, then he is unlikely to return again;
3. Wrong assortment. Perhaps the presented product is not in demand in the area. In a neighborhood populated by pensioners, you can’t sell red caviar;
4. Excessive assortment. If there are more than eight brands for each product item, the client may simply get confused;
5. Incorrect layout. No one likes a store where you have to spend hours wandering between shelves looking for the little things you need;
6. Overcharge. With active competition in trade, even a price increase of 2–5% compared to other points must be justified by something;
7. Bad looking product. There's no point in thinking about how to increase sales in a clothing retail store if all the products are wrinkled or piled up;
8. Poor location of a popular product. If a person, entering the hall, immediately sees everything he needs, then he will not notice other products and will not buy anything else;
9. Incorrect advertising or lack thereof. Don’t think that a store will attract customers just by existing. Any business needs to be promoted;
10. Poor quality of service. The modern consumer respects himself too much to tolerate the arrogant or indifferent attitude of salespeople.

Increasing the client base

It is not without reason that entrepreneurs are looking for a place with maximum traffic to locate a store. The mathematics is simple: if twenty out of a thousand visitors become clients, then two thousand people will already bring forty transactions. There are many ways to attract people to a retail outlet, but all of them, one way or another, come down to advertising. How to increase your sales:

• Determine the portrait of the target consumer;
• Make the store visible to passersby;
• Conduct an advertising campaign;
• Present your business on the Internet.

Determining the target audience

It is difficult to determine if you do not know who exactly the product is intended for. Isolating an interested group of potential clients from the general mass of citizens allows an entrepreneur to:

• Select a product of the required quality and set the right price for it;
• Increase the effectiveness of marketing activities;
• Identify ways to increase customer loyalty;
• Save money on attracting new consumers;
• Develop an offer that meets customer expectations.

Audience segmentation is carried out according to characteristics characteristic of the average image of an ideal client. When sampling, the key ones are:

• Gender and age group;
• Interests, hobbies, hobbies;
• The ways in which the product solves customer problems;
• The emotions that the product evokes in the consumer;
• Reasons why a person chooses this store over another.

Exterior design

By designing the exterior of a retail outlet, an entrepreneur solves two problems: firstly, he helps passers-by understand what exactly is being sold here, and secondly, he makes the establishment stand out from the rest. How to increase sales in your store:

• The outlet cannot be nameless. The name must be sonorous, otherwise how will customers remember it and tell their friends about the store?
• The sign must look perfect. If it is faded or outdated, a new one should be made. The scoreboard must be equipped with backlighting;
• A sign is a tool for attracting the attention of passers-by who do not look up at the signs. It should stand close to the porch;
• If the budget allows, it is worth installing an installation at the entrance - an inflatable figure, a product model. One coffee shop hung colorful birdhouses on a nearby tree;
• It is not necessary to design a bright and colorful showcase. The main condition is that it should stand out against the background of the facades of nearby retail outlets.

Regular advertising

If the store does not sell a unique product for which people will travel across the city, then you should not buy expensive TV commercials and strips in glossy magazines. It is better to focus on the main zone of influence of the point, which is determined by walking distance and is a circle with a radius of 1.0–1.3 km. How to increase retail sales using traditional advertising:

• Flyers should be placed in the mailboxes of surrounding homes. To prevent advertising from being thrown away, you need to offer its bearer some kind of bonus;
• Leaflets with short text indicating some benefit for the client can be distributed at intersections or near shopping centers;
• For radio advertising, they create a short and energetic message that motivates the listener to visit the store;
• There are two types of advertisements posted on billboards: the first simply reminds people about the store, and the second informs about some kind of promotion;
• The shortest text is used for banners. The message should be read in seconds, while a person is standing at a traffic light or passing by.

Internet advertising

Of course, regular advertising works well. However, if an entrepreneur wants more, then he must present his business where the target audience is. For a store whose clients are not only people of retirement age, this environment is the virtual space. How to increase sales online:

1. The website of a store selling piece goods must contain price lists. With a wide assortment, it is enough to write about promotions and new products, indicate opening hours;
2. Information about the outlet must be indicated on electronic maps and entered into various databases such as 2GIS;
3. You can periodically remind people about the store using email newsletters and Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, Telegram applications;
4. Leading a group on a social network is difficult: here you can encounter negativity. But if you learn how to manage your reputation, this tool will be useful;
5. For a store selling a specific product (wedding dresses, furniture, household appliances), it is worth attracting consumers through contextual advertising.

Increased conversion

Of course, successful advertising can attract a huge audience to a retail outlet. People will start to come into the store in a continuous stream, but if they don’t find anything interesting here or feel unwelcome guests, they will simply leave. Therefore, you need to work to ensure that every visitor feels the desire to make a purchase. There are several ways to increase sales:

• Create comfortable conditions for visitors;
• Train staff in sales techniques;
• Create an assortment that is interesting to the audience;
• Set your store apart from competitors.

Store interior

The visitor will spend more time in the sales area and purchase more goods if he feels comfortable and confident here. But at the same time, nothing should distract him from the main task - shopping. So how can you increase sales by creating the appropriate environment? You need to do the following:

1. The room should be maintained at a temperature that is pleasant for visitors. This is especially true in winter: warmly dressed people quickly become hot;
2. Stale and musty odors in the store are unacceptable. At the same time, the aromas of coffee, fresh baked goods or vanilla lead to an increase in sales by 20%;
3. Too energetic music makes people fill their baskets faster and leave, while slow music slows them down. You need to look for a middle ground;
4. You should not use cold light lamps in the store, which distort the gamma. In addition, all lighting devices must be in working order;
5. A thoughtful layout will force the guest to walk through the entire store and see more products. To do this, popular products are often laid out at the back of the room;
6. Access to the goods should be limited by fences, counters, and pallets. In cramped aisles, people often interfere with each other's exploration of products.

Personnel training

It is clear that an entrepreneur’s profit directly depends on how quickly and successfully his sellers close deals. However, some businessmen do not understand that an employee will not be able to sell more if he does not know how to do it correctly. Therefore, the issue of personnel training must be taken seriously:

• The appearance and behavior of the employee must correspond to the image of the establishment and the product offered. Men are perceived poorly in lingerie stores;
• The seller should under no circumstances impose himself. Each visiting guest should be given time to familiarize themselves with the assortment;
• The main goal of communicating with a client is to identify his needs, learn about the problem, and then offer an appropriate product;
• Despite the negative attitude of most sellers, scripts should still be implemented. This way, the employee will not forget to tell you about the promotion or offer a new product;
• The employee must perfectly know the presented assortment in order to answer any customer questions regarding the products without hesitation;
• How to increase sales in a retail store of building materials or spare parts? The seller must be able to talk about how to use the product.

It is not surprising that employees at headquarters do not want to try. To motivate them, you need to tie their salary to sales volume. For this use:

• Bonus for fulfilling the plan;
• Individual rewards for achievements;
• Progressive accrual of bonuses in the form of a percentage of sales.

Store assortment

When compiling a store’s assortment, an entrepreneur most often proceeds from a personal understanding of the situation. As a result, shelves often end up with products that are of no interest to the target group at all and only take up space. Therefore, when developing a product matrix, you need to take into account the age, social status and income level of potential customers. Here are some examples of how to increase sales in a grocery retail store:

1. The point must have a product for advertising, showing its price category for citizens. They set a minimum markup on it and promote it as the main one;
2. If there are educational institutions nearby, the emphasis is on products that children love. These are chocolates, chips, carbonated drinks, sweets;
3. Counting on higher educational institutions, you need to include in the assortment beer and low-alcohol drinks, as well as pies, shawarma, pastries, pasties;
4. Workers in offices and institutions will enjoy ready-to-eat products - packaged coffee and tea, cold cuts, confectionery, noodles and cereals;
5. A store located in an elite area should sell healthy food and good semi-finished products that do not require time to prepare;
6. Pensioners, on the contrary, will be interested in budget products - inexpensive milk, eggs, soup sets, regular bread, chicken legs.

Unique selling proposition

The product presented in the store may be much better and of higher quality than that of competitors, but this will not help the entrepreneur make a profit if the consumer does not understand his benefit. Therefore, the point needs a unique selling proposition - some interesting feature for the audience that will distinguish the store from the general background. How to increase product sales and attract customers:

• You need to understand what characteristics set the store apart from its competitors. This could be a special product, a special service, the availability of delivery or returns;
• Often, what can be offered as a USP is not even a product, but the ability of a retail outlet to solve customer problems;
• The average viewing time for an advertisement is ten seconds. This means that the USP should be simple and understandable so that the client has time to understand it;
• A good sentence focuses on something specific and evokes emotion. You also cannot promise something that the store cannot deliver.

Increase in average check amount

When thinking about how to increase sales in a business, it is not enough to simply increase the number of visitors to the store. The number of customers may increase a hundred times, but if each of them buys some little thing, then the efforts invested in attracting them simply will not be worth it. Therefore, it is so important to work to ensure that each person purchases as many goods as possible and leaves more money in the cash register. How to do it:

• Conduct merchandising activities;
• Offer more expensive products;
• Sell ​​cheaper products;
• Sell ​​related products.

Merchandising

Merchandising is the art of laying out a product so that a visitor who was not initially going to buy it becomes interested and thinks about the need to buy. This stimulation of purchasing activity is achieved in many ways:

1. Advertising should be placed not only outside, but also inside the store. Stickers, posters, signs and stands will indicate new products and help the client navigate;
2. Placing impulse items in the checkout area increases sales by 10%. Here you can put chocolates, cigarettes, sweets for children;
3. Products should be laid out taking into account their compatibility. For example, in a hardware store, brushes and solvents can be displayed next to paints;
4. People often look at the shelves to their right as they walk around the room counterclockwise. Here you should place the goods that give the greatest profit;
5. Products of the same category are located in one place. Even if there is water or juice in the refrigerator, they are duplicated on the shelves in the main department;
6. The most successful shelves are at levels from the chest to the eyes of a person. In some cases, sales for a product located here can be doubled;
7. Large packages and cheap goods are displayed on the lower shelves. People usually look for them purposefully, and therefore find them regardless of location;
8. Products on the top shelves sell poorly. It is better to lay out piece goods on them, which have little effect on the contrary point;
9. The shelves must be filled to capacity with goods. Empties on them are unacceptable: in place of the dropped item, you need to duplicate the neighboring product;
10. Price tags should be clearly readable and facing the buyer. They also cannot cover up the packaging: people often search for a product based on its appearance.

Selling more expensive goods

When making a purchase, each person sets a certain upper price limit for himself: more expensive offers, as a rule, remain outside his area of ​​attention. However, practice shows that the seller can successfully try to convince him if he offers fairly compelling arguments about the benefits of purchasing a product located above the designated price category. A similar sales promotion technique is called Up-Selling. Its meaning is to sell:

• Additional units of the same product;
• Products in larger packaging;
• Extended warranty or service period;
• Additional functions or services;
• More expensive analogues of the product.

Selling cheaper goods

The opposite situation is also possible: the visitor wants an expensive product, for which he does not have enough money. In most cases, he simply turns around and leaves if the seller does not offer him a cheaper analogue at that moment.

This may seem like it's not profitable for the store. But what is better: to sell at least something, or not to sell anything at all? If the shopping experience is positive, then the person will probably return to the outlet more than once and become a regular customer. Finally, Down-Selling is a good opportunity to add an accessory to your purchase that is sold at a huge markup.

However, you should be careful when offering a cheaper product after the client has studied the range and realizes that the prices are too high for him. If you rush with the presentation of a simplified analogue, the visitor may think that the seller:

• Doubts his solvency;
• Tries to sell him a cheap, low-quality counterfeit or faulty product;
• Offers a different model because the one initially considered is bad.

Cross selling

Cross-Selling is a technology for increasing the average bill by adding related accessories or options to the order. For example, they offer cases or settings for smartphones, a set of tires for cars, gloves or a handbag for a dress. How you can increase sales:

• It is permissible to offer a related product if the client has already chosen the main one and made a purchasing decision. Doubters may be put off by this;
• Two or three options should be shown. One leaves the buyer no choice, but four or five can confuse him;
• In order to more accurately select a related product, it is necessary to ask the client clarifying questions and find out his needs;
• An additional product cannot be more expensive than the main one. For example, how to increase clothing sales? A tie or belt should be offered with a suit, and not vice versa.

Increasing repeat sales

Why is repeat sales important for an entrepreneur? The fact is that selling something to a client who is already familiar with the store is much cheaper than selling something to a new one: in this case, you don’t need to spend money on advertising. In addition, citizens with a positive shopping experience at a given point feel more confident and have a better idea of ​​what exactly they need. There are several ways to increase sales of services and goods by stimulating repeat business:

• Organize work with the customer base;
• Offer discounts regularly;
• Carry out various promotions;
• Implement a loyalty program.

Working with the client base

Unfortunately, most clients have short memories. If they haven't bought anything from a store for several months, they will probably start exploring all the offers available on the market all over again. However, there is no guarantee that they will not go to competitors. Therefore, consumers should be regularly reminded of the benefits and advantages of working with this particular point. How to increase trade sales:

1. You need to come up with an unobtrusive way to receive client contacts. A person can indicate this data to participate in a promotion, issue a guarantee or discount;
2. Based on the collected database, it is necessary to conduct mailings at least once every couple of months, informing about new products, promotions or discounts;
3. If a person buys an expensive item or equipment, you need to call him after a while and find out whether you managed to connect the equipment, whether there are any comments on its operation;
4. You definitely need to look through the database to see which customers haven’t been to the store for a long time. You should contact such people to remind them of yourself and inform them about the promotion;
5. If a store has a group on social networks, it should be used to conduct a dialogue with customers and answer their questions.

Discount system

Most stores operating in the same niche sell approximately the same range of products. Therefore, when choosing a place to buy a specific product, the main criterion for a person is the price. But you need to reduce the price correctly: the result of such an action should be an increase in turnover, compensating for the lost profit. In practice, the following methods of sales promotion are used:

1. Regular discounts are established on any category of goods for up to two weeks. Then they stimulate sales of related products;
2. An interesting idea is to provide a special price to a certain category of customers: for example, students, drivers, pet owners;
3. Here's another option: reducing the price in the evening. For example, after 21:00 all culinary products become cheaper by 20%;
4. A discount “for a friend” can be provided in clothing, footwear, and equipment stores. It is clear that both buyers should receive the product at a reduced price;
5. It is necessary to conduct seasonal sales to get rid of stuck goods. For example, in winter you should give away autumn shoes at a discount;
6. Discounts will help sell a product that is outdated or going out of fashion. In the same supermarkets, goods with expiring dates are sold cheaper;
7. To increase wholesale sales, as a rule, special prices are set, which decrease as the order volume increases.

Price and product promotions

Despite its importance, money in any case remains an abstract concept. It is much more pleasant for the client to receive something free of charge, a gift. But here, too, the entrepreneur must think about his own benefit: he should not give out prizes without a good reason. How to increase sales in trade:

1. For a purchase for a specified amount, you can give a souvenir or a product sample. This amount should be 25–30% more than the average check;
2. In supermarkets, to stimulate customers, maybe a daily or weekly lottery with a fairly valuable prize;
3. You can organize a marketing campaign. For example, the bearer of 20 stickers or checks for a total amount of 5,000 rubles receives a set of knives as a gift;
4. To increase turnover, promotions using the “2+1” or “3+1” schemes work well. If the client takes the specified quantity of goods, then he receives one more piece for free;
5. Products can be combined with each other or with services. For example, when buying trousers, you get a belt as a gift. Or to a washing machine - free connection;
6. When thinking about how to increase product sales, you should conduct a tasting. Customers usually buy not only the product being presented, but also something additional;
7. Household appliances and furniture stores often practice installment plans for products. True, the price increases by the amount of bank interest.

Video on the topic

Loyalty program

According to the well-known rule, 20% of customers bring 80% of the profit to a retail outlet. These consumers need to be retained, encouraged and encouraged by any means to visit the store more often. As a rule, for this purpose they use a price incentive system expressed in the form of discounts and bonuses:

1. A discount card significantly influences customer loyalty. The amount of the discount can be constant or depend on the amount of purchases for the previous period;
2. When making a purchase, a well-known bonus of 1-2% is credited to the buyer’s membership card, which can be used to pay for future orders;
3. Bonuses and discounts can be given to customers on a specific date - for example, a birthday or some holiday;
4. Merchant gift certificates can also be used as a payment method. Clients often give them to friends and acquaintances;
5. Some stores and banks practice cashback when paying with cards - returning a certain percentage of the purchase amount to the buyer’s account.

Non-standard methods

There are many recommendations on how to increase sales in manufacturing or retail. Typically, most trading enterprises follow them, which somewhat reduces the effect of using these techniques. It is quite difficult to stand out against this background: to do this, a businessman has to show creative thinking and look for non-standard ways to stimulate sales. Here are some tricks that work:

• The customer should be provided with service that exceeds their expectations. For example, with a stated delivery time of a week, deliver the order in three days;
• You can increase the convenience of the buyer’s stay in the hall. Some install chairs for visitors, place water coolers, open children's areas;
• Buyers like it if the product can be tried in use. Equipment stores, for example, leave tablets and TVs turned on in their windows;
• The price can be limited by time. If the offer only lasts for a short period of time, it will motivate people to make a purchase. A famous example is Black Friday;
• The possibility of a return is in any case stipulated by law, but with the right emphasis it turns into a bonus;
• A clothing store was giving away free socks in exchange for a questionnaire. The trick here is that getting contacts any other way would cost twice as much;
• To attract the attention of your audience, you can organize a themed sale. One gas station filled up gasoline free of charge for women who arrived in swimsuits;
• Charity makes a great impression on the conscious audience. You can announce that from each purchase a certain amount will go to help children.

04May

Hello! In this article we will talk about ways to increase retail sales.

Today you will learn:

• What features are typical for retail trade;
• What are the ways to increase sales in a retail store?
• : step-by-step instruction.

Retail Features

Retail sales – sale of goods individually to the end consumer for his personal use. This short definition perfectly characterizes retail.

Retail enterprises sell goods to the most ordinary consumers, individuals who use them for their own needs. To understand what product the end-consumer market needs at the moment, it is necessary to conduct a complete survey.

However, it is worth noting that retail covers almost all areas of business: from consulting services and the food industry to mechanical engineering and construction.

Retail trade requires less capital investment compared to wholesale. This makes entering the market accessible to almost everyone. However, not everyone should rush to retail because of its affordability.

First, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of this type of trade to understand whether it is right for your company:

1. If you produce or purchase goods in large quantities, and you do not have several hundred square meters or a developed distribution system in several geographic regions, then retail is not for you. The end-consumer market will not be able to accommodate a very large volume of products. There are exceptions: for example, branded goods. They are bought up on the first day they hit the market. Remember the line on Red Square for brand new Apple smartphones. However, this is the exception, not the rule. If your product is not yet very popular, then your offer must match the demand.
2. If you are not ready to spend your money on, then retail is not for you. Emotions play an important role in the retail market; they influence purchasing decisions. Vivid advertising campaign. In addition, retail is characterized by a large number of consumers who buy goods in small quantities. This means that to ensure sufficient sales volume, the company needs to notify a large number of consumers about the product. This can be done with the help of marketing communications. We will definitely talk about them later.
3. If you are not sure of the “firmness” of your final price, then retail is not for you. Demand in the end-consumer market is quite elastic. There are exception goods - these are essential products, for example, bread, matches or salt.
4. There is a need for constant marketing research. Otherwise, you will miss the moment when your company’s sales volumes began to decline and will not have time to eliminate the negative factors in time, which we will talk about now.

Why are sales declining?

There are many factors that can have a negative impact on sales levels. Moreover, sometimes these may be circumstances that we cannot influence in any way. These include economic, political, technological, sociocultural, legal and environmental factors of the external environment.

To determine the strength of influence of these factors on your business, you need to conduct a PESTEL analysis. If the influence of these parameters on the market is too great, then it is better not to take risks and refuse to enter. This will save you from financial losses.

But there are negative factors for which the company itself is to blame. We can influence these parameters, so it will be useful to consider each of them in more detail.

Poor location of the retail outlet.

This is the most common mistake of new entrepreneurs. Before or stall, do a little research. Find out in what places your company is, in what cases your product is purchased. If you can answer these two questions, you can save big on marketing.

Example. We want an economy format. Our target audience is students and working women aged 18 to 35 years. It is not practical to open a salon near a university, since we will only reach female students. Choosing a residential area to open is also unprofitable, since we will only cover one geographical region. But opening a retail outlet near a shopping center near the university and not far from a residential area would be a good decision. It will be visited by both of your segments.

Decor.

We opened and decorated the storefront. But clients don't come to us. What is the reason? Walk up to your point of sale and look at it through the eyes of the consumer. Perhaps it looks unattractive or does not represent your product, and consumers simply do not understand why they should come to you.

When registering a retail outlet, follow the following rules:

• The showcase should reflect your product and be associated with it;
• Give examples of prices. This attracts consumers, especially if these prices are low. But don't be deceived, they must correspond to reality;
• Duplicate information about your promotions on the display window;
• Use current themes for design.

Range.

There can be many options here, let's look at each:

• Insufficient range of products. Your customers don't return to you after their first visit. This is one of the signs of this problem. Compare your assortment with the assortment of your closest competitors, ask consumers what your outlet is missing. This will allow you to eliminate the problem and attract visitors;
• Too wide range. In this case, the consumer simply cannot choose one product and leaves without purchasing. One of the marketing agencies conducted an interesting study. First, the client was asked to choose one of three jars of jam of different flavors. The consumer made his choice. The same client was then asked to choose from 24 different jars of jam. In the second case, the consumer either chose the flavor he chose the first time or left without purchasing. The researchers concluded that an assortment containing more than eight items has a negative impact on sales volumes;
• The assortment does not match the location of the outlet. For example, our nail salon is located next door to the bridal salon. A good solution to increase sales would be to include wedding manicure in the range.

Low quality of service.

The modern consumer is very demanding. He wants to enjoy the purchasing process. Boorish behavior of the staff will not save even the highest quality product. , conduct trainings, . A good retail salesperson is 90% successful.

Ways to increase sales in a retail store

In fact, there are only two ways to increase sales - increasing the consumption of products by existing consumers or.

Attraction of new clients

This method can be implemented by luring customers away from competitors or by entering new segments.

In both cases, you will have to resort to marketing tricks. Tools for implementing each of these methods are given in the table. Some methods are universal.

Poaching customers from competitors	Entering new segments
Accompany your potential client on the way to the store. This method is especially effective if you are in a shopping center. In this case, the consumer who went to your competitor will be interested in your product, because he needs the product, not a specific company. But be careful, excessive advertising can scare away the client and cause irritation
Use discounts, bonuses and gifts. Passing by your outlet, the consumer will see a tempting offer. Even if he passes by at first, then, not seeing any benefit from his “favorite,” he will most likely return to you. But this technique will only lead to a short-term increase in sales.
Show that your product is better. This can only be done by improving product quality and improving service.	Cross-events. Agree on joint promotion with an enterprise. This could be an event (for example, a product tasting in a supermarket), or a gift for a purchase from a partner (remember the joint promotion of the Perekrestok supermarket and the Sunlight jewelry salon). The main thing is that your target audience and your partner’s target audience coincide

Increasing sales volume through existing customers

It also has two implementation options: increasing consumption and increasing sales conversion.

Increased sales conversion.

Sales Conversion – the ratio of the number of store visitors to the number of customers.

From the definition we can conclude that conversion is mainly influenced by the parameters of the outlet itself. Therefore, we will work with them.

• We improve the quality of service. A good salesman will be able to sell any product. The bad one won't sell even the best one. There is such a thing as intra-company marketing, which is determined by the company’s attitude towards its staff. The better the working conditions, the more sales you will get. Also, don't forget about training and motivation;
• Merchandising. has a direct impact on sales of your products. There is an arm's length rule in marketing. According to this rule, in 80% of cases the client takes a product that he can reach without much effort. If your product is above or below this zone, sales will be low;
• Promotions, sales, bonuses. This method will allow you to increase conversion, but only for the duration of the promotional events.

Increased consumption.

In this case, all our actions will be aimed at increasing the average check.

You can do this in the following ways:

• Price increase. By increasing the price of products, you will increase the average purchase amount, but may reduce conversion. This way you won't get any increase in sales. To prevent this from happening, remember a simple rule: any price change must be justified. The client must understand that you increased the price for a reason, but because you changed the packaging to a more convenient one (in fact, the price and packaging may not be related to each other).
• Additional services or products. Once your consumer has chosen a core product, offer to complement it with a service or other product. For example, you sold a necklace, offer the buyer gift wrapping. This addition will not be a significant expense for the client, but in total it will bring you a good additional sales volume in monetary terms.
• Loyalty program. A loyalty card will not increase the average check, but it will lead to an increase in the number of consumer purchases in your store. There are several types of discount cards: bonus, savings, privileged. Each of them has its own tasks, but they are united by a common goal - increasing sales volume.

How does the loyalty program work? For example, we own a grocery store and we have a loyalty card, which is provided free of charge when purchasing over 1000 rubles. There is another grocery store opposite us, but it does not have its own loyalty program. Customers who have a card from our store will come to us to receive a discount, bonuses or gifts (depending on the type of card). Thus, we “bind” consumers to the card, forcing them to buy only from us, increasing sales volumes.

Step-by-step instructions for increasing sales

Each business is unique, but there is a certain sequence of steps that will increase sales for both a furniture store and a consulting company.

Step 1 . We determine the specifics of our outlet.

There are a huge number of different forms of retail stores.

They may differ in the following parameters:

• Form of service: self-service, online trading, trading by catalogs, through vending machines and self-service stalls, traditional service, by pre-order;
• By form of organization: single retail outlet, chain, small retail trade, mobile trade;
• By type of goods: food and non-food.

The shape of the store determines the range of problems that can affect the decline in sales. For example, in a retail clothing store, the main reason for a decrease in sales may be the low qualifications of contact personnel, but such a reason is unlikely.

Step 2. Looking for weaknesses.

The main weaknesses of retail stores are:

• Small volumes of one-time purchase by one client;
• The price is too high. Large margins are good. But don’t go too far, otherwise you will lose clients;
• Too wide target audience. You want to sell everything to everyone, but it is very difficult to do this. A much more effective solution would be to focus efforts on one segment.

Separately, I would like to highlight the problems of online trading:

• Inconvenient location of active buttons. These include the “buy”, “pay”, “place an order” button and others. If the client has to look for such a button for a long time, he will simply leave without purchasing;
• The site is not adapted for mobile devices. According to statistics, about 40% of sales are made from mobile devices, so displaying a website from a phone should be as convenient, understandable and informative as from a computer;
• Overly complex and lengthy ordering and registration forms. The client will not have enough nerve cells to fill out your form and place an order. Don't test his patience;
• Insufficient information about the product, low quality photos. The consumer must know what he is buying.

Step 3. Select methods to solve the problem.

Let’s scroll above and see which method and tool for increasing sales can increase sales in your store.

For example, if your customers make small purchases, then you should use the method of increasing consumption. Offer additional products at checkout, enter a cumulative bonus card.