Your business MUST move forward; that is how it should be. You shouldn’t be dealing with unstable sales, stagnant business or a business that’s moving backward instead of forward.
If you’re dealing with any of these things in your business then there is something that you’re doing wrong. No, it is not your village people this time.
The thing about these wrong things that are killing your business is that you might not even realize that you are doing it but that doesn’t stop it from ruining your business anyways.
You should be concentrating on moving your business forward by increasing your sales, attracting new customers, but no matter how much you try to, your business cannot move forward if you continue to do these six things;
Let’s get into it!
You’re relying on one source (word of mouth, social media) to make your sales –
The only way you can increase your sales is to attract more customers. The only way to attract more customers is by spreading the word about your business. Are you really waiting for somebody to stumble upon your business page on Instagram before you sell? Or you’re waiting for Iya Basira to help you tell her friends about the perfume that she brought from you so that they can come and buy too? Ah! You had better wake up!
Your business may grow this way, but not so much. To get more customers, you must invest in not just social media and word of mouth but advertising and promotions, even email marketing.
This is not just a guaranteed way to increase your sales, it is also pro-active because you’re not waiting for your customers to find you, you are going to MEET them wherever they are even before they realize they need your product or service!
Don’t rely on one source to let people know about your products, get the word out through every means possible so you can make more sales than ever.
You’re not constantly upgrading your sales offer –
So you’re selling perfume, right? That’s all you’re selling and that is really okay. But at some point you have to expand, you know? I don’t mean you should start selling something different O!
What I mean is, inside that perfume business – you can start selling pocket perfumes, oil perfumes, bottled sprays, designer perfumes, incense for cars and rooms, diffusers and a whole lot more. In fact, you can even start to sell your products in packages with maybe 2 to 5 percent discount for a bundle.
Can you see what I’m talking about? Your customers already know that you sell perfumes but you must offer them something different from time to time to spark their interest in your business again and again.
Don’t just offer one thing and leave it like that, NO. Give your customers something new and refreshing as often as you can and watch your business grow faster.
auntyronke
You have not gone digital / you’re not investing in technology –
This should probably be the first on this list!
Everything has gone digital these days and there is not one single business that is passionate about their growth that hasn’t invested in their online presence. Even newspapers have online versions so why don’t you?
auntyronke
I am NOT talking about only having a social profile like Facebook or Instagram O! It goes way beyond that. Like I always say, if you are serious about your business then you MUST have a space online that you can control. I mean a website or better still an eShop (if you’re a small business with a product to sell) where people can reach you asides from social media.
If you base your business off social media, what will happen when Instagram closes up today? You might say it’s not possible but remember that there was a time when MySpace, Yahoo and even 2go were the “in-things”, where are they now? EXACTLY!
Invest in technology where necessary, asides from a good online presence; you’ll need a good digital system with the tools that you’ll need to effectively run your business. Remember that time is money and these tools help you run your business efficiently to save time. Use payment processors to collect payments Stripe, Paystack), POS (instead of collecting cash all the time.)
Don’t use the excuse of “I’m old school” to spoil your business. These digital tools are here for you to leverage to make your business better so use them!
Your content is boring. Plain and boring –
Yes, I said it. So because you sell perfumes, does that mean that everything on your page will be Perfume! Perfume!! Perfume!!! No nau, that’s boring and will discourage customers from buying.
MONOTONY KILLS INTEREST.
Post pictures and make it interesting. If it’s perfumes you sell, you can post pictures with you holding the perfumes, the perfumes arranged with other accessories like bags or shoes, change up the background as well (some of you use one background for how many months!) Post reviews of customers, not just Whatsapp chat but of your customers holding their purchase
Remember that people respond more to pictures than words so make them beautiful and attractive.
Don’t have just boring content. Make your online space so attractive that people want to patronize you because of the interesting content you have.
You’re allowing your stock run out before you restock –
Why? You want your “market to finish” before you stock up again? Do you know how much customers you will lose?
Always have a restock waiting so that your customers don’t wait for you to stock up before they can patronize you. If you wait until your products run out, what if there is a delay at your supplier’s end? That is how your business will fall short simply because you did not stock up on time.
I understand claiming “low stock” can be a sales strategy to get people to buy, however, businesses who do this does not necessarily mean they don’t actually have the stock… but this is another conversation for another day.
You don’t have to stock up on all your products but you MUST have a restock at hand for products that are in popular demand and loved by your customers – that is basically your bestseller product.
So tell me, which one of these are you guilty of? My comments section is wide open!
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