Content about Sales

SAN FRANCISCO — In our consulting practice, we field many questions, but the most common question has long been “How do I increase sales?”

When this question arises, we always encourage the person who is asking to modify it to “How do I increase profitable sales?”

How many of you have tried Groupon, delighted initially at the large number of respondents, but then evaluated the retention rate on those deeply discounted sales and vowed never to use it again? These promotional efforts can be used as a marketing introduction for a new service or new location, but resulting sustained sales are rare. They have the added disadvantage of training your customers to think that your service is not worth your normal price.

So what is the answer?

First, there is no silver bullet. Profitable sales require a multi-pronged, sustained effort. There is no passive path to increased profitable sales.

SAN FRANCISCO — In the continual quest for more sales and profit, invariably the subject of diversification arises. Diversification discussions usually include the topic of disaster restoration, so it might be appropriate to explore the reasoning behind a major effort to diversify and particularly to expand in the arena of disaster restoration services.

Diversification into any new business is a serious commitment, but restoration may require even more exploration than other related businesses. The large potential orders are alluring, the processing sounds easy, and the volume can help utilize excess capacity.

It is normal to have this driving incentive to increase sales volume, which is absolutely legitimate with a few caveats. I’ll attempt to list considerations to ponder before deciding to capitalize on this potentially lucrative source of business.

CHICAGO — ECONOMIC ACTIVITY CONTINUED TO IMPROVE in July and early August, according to the 12 Federal Reserve Districts in the latest Beige Book report from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Nine districts report modest economic growth, with two reporting slow growth and the 12th indicated mixed reports with some slowdown.

Retail activity, including car sales, had increased since the previous report, although the districts showed only slight increases. Several districts – Boston, New York, Richmond, Atlanta, Minneapolis and San Francisco – indicated that tourism was on the upswing.

The tourism increase was backed by a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. International visitors, according to the commerce report, have spent more than $82 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related products since the first of the year, an increase of 11% from this time last year.

SAN FRANCISCO — The more you know about your customers, the more you can engage them with your services. The more you know about your best and most profitable customers, the more you can attract prospects that will become best customers.

So how do you go about it? You may have worked on compiling demographic information such as age, location and income levels. But is that enough?

DEMOGRAPHIC AND PSYCHOGRAPHIC PROFILING

Let’s use a hypothetical example: you have determined that you want to target consumers who earn more than $150,000, live in a specific ZIP code, are 35-45 years old, own a home worth more than the median price in your market, and have a college degree.

I’m going to describe two prospects:

CHICAGO — This month’s issue goes to the core of what all drycleaning business owners should do. That is, to use advances in technology to reduce costs and to build customers and revenues.

You can use your current customer base to connect with, engage and find more customers. And the customer databases in your point-of-sale (POS) system are a great tool to use to increase sales, build loyalty and retain big spenders.

Many plant owners are starting to plan for retirement, or at least winding down on responsibilities. Because this brings up a host of challenges, it’s never too soon to start the process.

Part 1 of this story discussed initial considerations for making the transition, along with all-cash sales and buyouts. Another type of transition is the earnout.

THE EARNOUT

Oh no! Sales are way down this week! Sales were down last week, too! You should probably issue some coupons right away, since customers are getting tight with their money and aren’t spending it on drycleaning.

Have you felt this pang of anxiety over a few weeks or a month in which sales didn’t meet expectations? You have a deep-seated need to take action — any action — to stem the tide, communicate with customers, lower prices, increase discounting or something.