As a business owner, you know that you need sales for your business to survive. You also know that if you’re too pushy, you’ll likely lose both the sale and the customer to boot. However, not all salespeople are pushy. Some are very successful in spite of having a laid-back manner. If you’d like to employ more low-key sales techniques, here are some things you can try. They’ll increase your bottom line and your customer retention, too.
Create Special Offers
Most people are on a tight budget. They constantly have to look for discounts on items they regularly purchase. They follow sales and deals. You can help your customers out by offering them regular discounts on items.
There are other similar steps you can take, too. Bundling related items is great for selling more products to customers. You see this all the time at the supermarket. A canned good that normally sells by itself for $1.25 gets put into a buy-five-for-$5.00 bundle. Instead of buying just one can, customers will usually buy all five cans. It’s an easy way to encourage an upsell without being pushy.
Ask for Referrals
A referral makes a cold call into a warm call. It also increases your chance of making the sale because when you call the referral, you’ve been introduced, even if the introduction is in name only. That breaks the ice.
One easy way to get referrals from your existing customers is to offer them an incentive, like a gift certificate or cash. For example, many loan companies give their customers a cash bonus if they refer people to their business. The incentive is big enough that it encourages the business’s customers to make the referral.
Piggyback Marketing
Piggyback marketing is one of the simplest things you can do to make more sales without turning on the pressure. Here’s how it works. You seek out a business in your area that’s related to your business but not competition. For example, you may make pet food and partner with a company that makes pet toys. You each feature one another in your advertising. This allows you to make more sales without being pushy because it is your piggyback marketing partner and not you who is promoting your business.
Successful salespeople aren’t always pushy salespeople. Instead, these savvy professionals employ marketing techniques, like asking for referrals, participating in piggyback marketing or offering discounts and deals. These techniques benefit the customer significantly, while still being low key. That’s why they’re so effective and why the salesperson who employs them is so successful.
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