How to Get More Customers and Increase Sales and Profit for your Alberta Business

The idea for this page started after I was contacted by Alberta Venture magazine to help write an article on B2B marketing.

To read my full Word of Mouth Marketing article, visit my Alberta Marketing blog.

To read the article as it appeared in Alberta Venture click here.

These steps are for B2B marketing. B2C will be different.

Stop buying how-to books and stop going to sales seminars

The number one way to increase your sales is through hard work, well informed decisions, and a little luck. Either you do it or you pay someone else to do it. There you have it; the result of this advice will be the end of those snake oil salesman/woman presentations and books without substance. If only that would happen.

What follows is a very brief summary as to how I increased the sales of a 15 year-old business by 20 percent in less than six months.

The only caveat is that the success at any attempt to implement a sales strategy will depend on both the steps themselves and on the execution of each step.

1. Get a detailed list of who your
   customers are.
2. If you have distributors and they have the list then start phoning retailers to make your own
3. Talk to your customers to find out who you are and who you should be
4. Analyze the competition, take advantage of their weaknesses.
5. Change you communications and adjust your branding to what your customers want you to be
6. For your distributors, do a quantitative analysis (crunch the numbers on how much value that actually provide to your business) followed by a qualitative analysis (ie. are they a pain in the butt or are they very helpful).
7. Develop a distribution plan of your own. Do a cost-to-benefit analysis of being your own distributor.
8. Set a strategy to develop new sales channels
9. Prepare a sales package for new retailers
10. Prepare a custom sales package for the new sales channels
11. Start phoning every retailer who you think might sell your product - start with the ones you know don't carry your product
12. Set a sales meeting schedule that builds efficient sales routes (see above map what was the actual retailer count I developed over the six months.
13. Put your product in to the new channels
14. In putting products in to the new channels you are doing personal selling. You might make the first appointment by phone but making the actual sale is about:
    1. What is in it for the retailer... $$$
    2. Your personality
    3. Their trust in you to maintain great service
    4. Your ability to follow through
    5. Now that the "easy" work is done the rest is research, refinement, and management

    In the end you may keep your distributors if you know you have a good relationship with them. But doing this will rock their boat.

     

    Some thoughts on marketing that might be helpful

    Most Albertans should be quite familiar with the two basic functions of any business, production and sales. Alberta is a province heavily based in the commodities market (oil, grain, and cattle) and is therefore very production and sales oriented. The difference in commodity markets such as the Chicago Board of Trade and consumer markets such as the streets of Lethbridge is that commodities are defined as goods that have no or very little differentiation. Natural Gas is Natural Gas and wheat is wheat but the same can not be said for a car stereo (the product) or even the service you receive from two different stores selling the same stereo. It is critical then, for a retail business must differentiate itself in order to begin the process of attracting customers.

    In fact, as defined above, the two basic functions of a business are both functions of a production: producing a good or service and producing loyal customers. The problem with new businesses, and even older businesses that lose focus, is that they forget to be market (consumer) oriented and assume the position of product oriented. Being product oriented will lead to a short business life. A production orientation is the focus on features and benefits of your product or service before a focus on the needs, wants, and desires of your current and potential customers.

    A market orientation is the position of the problem solver, to see an unmet need in the marketplace, to develop a product or service to meet that need, and to build a customer base. Some of the steps to be market oriented are: understanding your current and future customers what they want how to reach them how to appeal to them how much they are willing to pay for the product or service understanding the products and services already out there (the competition) and understanding how to put it all together as a profitable business It is the function of marketing to ensure that you have a successful business plan in place and that customer after customer you, as a business owner, are offering a win-win exchange between yourself and your customer.

    Follow each link (above) discover how you, as an Albertan businessperson can ensure the future success of your business. Everything on this site is open for comment so feel free to ask questions.