Whether business is booming, or you’re feeling the pinch, it’s vital to make the most of your customers and opportunities.
Irrespective of their relative success, 99 out of 100 businesses can’t afford the luxury of waste.
They need to avoid a leaky bucket scenario where critical opportunities and VIP customers fall by the wayside.
Without doing so, growth, or even survival, will be critically compromised.
As a business, you should always be asking yourself trying questions.
Namely, can you guarantee that, for opportunities you’ve lost, you couldn’t have done any more?
If the answer is no, there’s work to be done.
Maximising New Opportunities
The top of the funnel is the natural place to start when looking to maximise growth.
So what can companies do to get the most out of their investments?
Here are 10 simple steps you can take today:
Focus Resources On Successful Audiences
Rather than trying each and every demographic under the sun, tougher times call for focussed selling.
You need to make sure you’re talking to the right people!
As a business, you should know where your conversion rates are highest. And with which audiences your offering resonates with.
Whether backed up by data, or anecdotal analysis, focussing your resources on your most successful audiences is a sure fire way to get more bang for your buck.
Allocate Leads Appropriately
Different enquiry types often require different skillsets.
Allocating the right lead to the right person will ensure you’re better positioned to satisfy the customer’s needs.
Likewise, the customer will be dealing with your subject matter expert, elevating their experience and increasing their chances of committing to the sale.
Quick Conversions
When new opportunities come flooding in, are you primed and ready to respond?
If not, you can’t maximise your opportunities.
New enquiry leads are 10 times less likely to respond after 5 minutes. And conversion rates are 98% higher when following up within this same period.
It pays to respond quickly. And to respond well.
Automatic alerts with tracked, target response times will ensure your team are reaching potential customers as soon as possible.
Stick To Best Practice Process
Much like focussing on successful markets, sticking to your optimal way of working will ensure both minimal waste and maximised performance.
Each company is unique, requiring their own way of working to play to their strengths.
Ensuring your team are adopting best practice process 100% of the time will only increase the likelihood of opportunities converting into customers.
Verification Steps
For complex sales, it can often pay dividends to cast a second pair of eyes across proceedings.
Doing so ensures all steps are adhered to and no information is missing.
Adding in verification steps, requiring manager approval, is an easy way of guaranteeing the right actions have been taken at critical stages in the sales process.
Define Parameters
Sometimes you will need to move away from structures and frameworks to win new opportunities.
There’s certainly room for flexibility, but unchecked, this can create a series of headaches down the line.
Should alterations such as discounts need to be made, defined parameters must be adhered to.
By sticking to what is agreed, conflicts can be avoided and decisions verified without compromising customer experience.
Impactful Communications
Every customer touchpoint can make or break a relationship.
Creating standardised email templates for critical client communications guarantees you hit key brand messages 100% of the time.
Automation adds a whole other level by making it easier for your team to stay connected in just a couple of clicks.
Nurture Where Necessary
A no for now doesn’t necessarily mean a no forever.
It might not be the right time for a prospect to convert, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be next week or next month.
Using workflows allows sales staff to press pause on an opportunity, whilst regular contact and trigger based personalised communications help you to stay front of mind for when the time is right.
Testimonials
Last of all, nothing convinces a prospective customer of your abilities like hearing from someone who has been in their position before.
Leveraging social proof reassures that you can deliver on your promises and fulfil customer goals.
You’ve shown you can talk the talk. This is the proof you can walk the walk.
Survey For The “Why”
To make the most of your customer and opportunities, you need to learn from the ones that got away.
Automating feedback emails to lost prospects is a great way to learn the real reason why people didn’t go ahead.
These learnings can then be fed back into your processes to see where you can improve next time around.
Likewise, reallocating these leads down the line can generate reactivation opportunities for a different team member or manager.
• 5 Ways Effective Enquiry Management Increases Sales
• How A Faster Enquiry Response Time Generates Double The Conversions
• 5 Ways To Streamline Your Operational Processes
Boosting Sales With Existing Customers
Whilst the top of the funnel is the obvious first point of call, it’s not the only area you should be looking at.
Many companies focus exclusively on securing new business as the way to drive future growth.
But that’s not to say growth can’t be achieved within your existing customer base.
Making the most of current customers brings greater profit margins. This means, in tougher times, your ROI increases.
Here are 4 more tips for boosting sales with existing customers:
Customer Insight
Delve into the data and ask yourself the difficult questions!
Without customer insight, how can you hope to understand why your clients act the way they do?
Do you know how you’re losing people?
Do you know why you’re losing people?
When you can answer these questions, systems can be put in place to mitigate any recurring issues.
The first step to boosting sales with existing customers is stemming the tide of losing them.
Recurring Revenue
Cross selling and up selling opportunities are not to be sniffed at.
Sure, you may have already won the business but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t be doing more for some of your clients.
Perhaps they’ve gone through a growth period, or brought on new customers of their own.
It’s up to you to extend your offering to them in line with their growth patterns.
VIP Management
Relationships are what sustain businesses. More than anything else, it is your customer management that can define your long term success.
Your top customers must be looked after.
You certainly can’t afford to take your foot off the pedal the second the contract has been signed.
Prosperity hinges on nurturing these premier customers.
Partner Not A Provider
People buy from people. And most importantly, they buy from people that care.
Going above and beyond proves your dedication to your customer’s success.
That their goal is your goal.
Companies should seek to be more than a mere service provider.
They should instead be a service partner, committed to using their offering to facilitate each and every customer’s achievement of targets.
Ready to explore how Anthill can help you make the most of your customers and opportunities? Schedule a demo today.
Related Articles
- July 12th, 2022