All entrepreneurs face various problems but if you gave them the option to solve only one, it would be sales. Everyone would like more sales and would choose to solve this issue than any other they face or will face.
If they had a magic button that could solve a single problem it would be sales. Not problems with staff, with competition, with costs, with their products or services. “Get more sales and everything else is solved, it is manageable”.
The problem, however, lies in the fact that reduced sales are never the cause of a problem or, if you prefer, of an ailing business, but the symptom. Sales are not just falling out of the blue, but are the result, the tangible, measurable result, of other problems that are either overlooked or not even recognized. These problems may involve a company’s staff, management team, pricing, market saturation, intense competition, customer service, and many others or a combination of many of the problems mentioned above. And I give a few examples:
Sales and pricing
Is the problem of reduced sales a result of the pricing of your products or services? Do you have high prices and drive out customers or even, do you have low prices and you just don’t make ends meet? Pricing, the correct pricing of your products is a process that includes the cost analysis of your business, the study of the competition, the purchasing power of your customers and the needs of the market.
Sales and personnel
Are the reduced sales a result of poor customer service? Maybe your staff doesn’t know or are not trained to make the sale? The right choice of people, training, and support of your staff can be the move you need to make to increase your sales.
Sales and Marketing
Do you have very good products, trained staff but low sales? You may not be promoting your business properly, in the wrong way, or you are not promoting it at all. Maybe your ads are wrong and give the wrong signals to the market, maybe they are not enough or they are not targeted correctly. It is the job of Marketing to promote your company and what it offers correctly, to the right customers and at the least possible cost in relation to its performance.
Sales and competition
Did your competition just corner you and beat you to bankruptcy? Maybe your competitors have better prices, better service, and better products? Do you study your competitors at all or do you just operate with the classic ‘cost-plus’ model? The proper study of your competitors is a continuous process that must be done systematically, with a program, and any results must be quickly adapted to your own strategy and reaction.
Sales and management
Maybe the people you set responsible to run your business are not the right ones? They may need further training, support, better information, or maybe you need even more drastic measures such as the dismissal of unsuitable managers. And if you belong to the group of small and medium-sized enterprises where the only manager (you) is both an owner and a sales manager, and an accounting department and everything else you can imagine, are you the problem? Maybe you, as a manager need training, support, advice, and help.
Reduced sales are never the cause of your problems but simply the symptom of one, some, or many of your other problems that you do not even know that they exist. And addressing these problems can be multi-layered and need to be addressed as a whole and not in isolation. The reduced sales are in most cases the result of many other smaller and seemingly “innocent” issues that in the whole operation of the business multiplies each other with the results you (and your bank account) see.
Do you just want ‘more sales’ or the overall improvement of your business, which will bring increased sales?
