By Teresa M. Lundy
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for both new and experienced business owners to retain customers, grow their business, find capital, and provide products and services to customers.
With every roadblock to success, there is an opportunity to use new and proven solutions to achieve your business goals.
Here are some solutions to the problems faced by businesses at this time:
Introduce new product and service offerings
It is easier to sell to existing clientele than to find new clients. One method of growing revenue is to offer current customers new products or services to buy to increase the revenue per customer.
Hire additional sales staff
As businesses expand or seek to increase sales, adding headcount to the sales department is often overlooked. But making an investment in qualified sales staff can be one of the best ways to quickly secure new accounts and find new opportunities.
Raise prices
Certain businesses, such as restaurants, professional services firms, and providers of luxury goods and services should consider increasing their prices to make up for revenue lost during the pandemic and quickly grow the bottom line. According to CNBC, companies such as Lamborghini have reported record profits as consumers seek to spend money to make up for the period of time stuck in the house during the pandemic.
Restaurants are expected to face significant demand this summer and can address that opportunity by introducing specialty cocktails and adjusting menu prices accordingly.
Develop a marketing campaign
For companies that have the resources, one of the most efficient ways to increase sales revenue is through a comprehensive marketing campaign. Before a campaign is undertaken, you have to carefully research your customer base and prepare to communicate your unique selling proposition to clients.
If you get stuck, utilize free resources such as Google and other educational tools to learn how to do it yourself without the help of a professional firm. Marketing is a critical part of operating any business, and the care put into a marketing plan is often reflected by sales and increased brand awareness.
Increase outreach to potential clients or customers
I recently saw a Twitter post by designer Sasha Birukoff, in which he has a simple message: “To get clients all you need is: 1) An offer and 2) A way to reach the client.”
This message is the essence of the importance of outreach. In my experience, clients do not often just show up and ask to do business. Rather, you must reach out to them, communicate your offer and answer questions they may have.
People often refer to selling as a contact sport. Simply, the more people you contact with a good sales proposition for a product or service, the more you will sell.
Contact 100 people, and a specific result will follow. If you contact 1,000 people, the results will be much more significant.
Outreach can be as simple as an email, letter, or phone call. It is also important to recognize that it doesn’t cost much money to reach out to potential customers one at a time until you have the budget to do mass outreach.
Utilize social media and other free sources to find clients
Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are responsible for the launch of an untold number of businesses. This ranges from product-based businesses to service firms, to almost any consumer facing business or professional service firm you can start without millions of dollars to invest.
It is free to learn how to work tools such as Facebook. There are a tremendous amount of YouTube videos available at no cost and online tutorials about how to create engaging content, build a marketing list and sell to your target audience.
Entrepreneurs should not underestimate the value of outreach on social media, if it is appropriate for their type of business. If you are not sure whether social media can help your business, it would be good to do some research to see the success of competitors to your company while using social media.
I am hopeful these tips about increasing your sales revenue to rebuild your business post COVID-19 are helpful and put you on the path to success.
Keep pushing forward — there is a virtually unlimited amount of opportunity available if you focus on achieving your goals.
Teresa M. Lundy is the principal and founder of TML Communications, a strategic public relations, crisis communications and community engagement firm serving corporations, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Follow Teresa on Twitter @TeresaMLundy
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