Looking to grow your Cumbrian business? In-Cumbria’s Business Doctor Peter Fleming brings you the top sales tips.

You may want to increase sales, however there is much more value in spending time generating sales of products and services with the highest gross margin rather than just chasing any sale to anyone.

The American sales push after Thanks Giving, Black Friday has just passed this weekend - it’s crept into the UK over the last few years - should we take note and what can we learn?

Chasing increased sales by reducing prices may be appealing to your customers. . . but what’s the cost to you the business owner?

We all want to achieve an increased turnover, however not to the detriment of the bottom line. Therefore what’s the most profitable way of achieving further sales?

A. One risk to your business from discounting heavily or having a sales campaign such as “Black Friday” is that you potentially pull forward sales at a lower margin than you would have achieved if you kept your pricing stable.

B. Secondly, you may have increased costs, what with extra staff or overtime hours, to deal with the enquiries, distribution or delivery of the service offer, hence adding a higher cost of sale which is generating a lower margin in the first place.

C. Finally a higher volume of sales can also affect cash flow, as you’ll have higher stock levels to fund if selling products, and/or capacity issues with dealing with all the service follow ups, then followed by a few months of lower sales due to bringing these sales forward.

In fact not everyone buys on price, in many cases key decisions on a purchase are made on; understanding of the customer’s needs, accessibility of the product or service, a professional service level or on recommendation.

So unless you have deep pockets and the finances to deal on price, focus instead on those areas whereby you make a difference to your competition. Don’t undermine all the effort you may have put into staff training, service delivery improvements and marketing and raising brand awareness by just reducing prices. 

2 key areas worth spending some time analysing within your business are; 

  • Understand what products or services you offer generate the highest gross margin
  • Understand what type of customers, by size and by sectors buy these products and services

Then focus your marketing and sales efforts improving communication, building relationships and therefore sales to these targets customers with the objective of selling more of those products and services that generate the most profit.

What would you rather have?

A £5,000,000 turnover business making £200,000 or a £500,000 business making £250,000?

We can all be busy fools, so remember - Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity and Cash is Reality. 

At Business Doctors Cumbria we offer a free business health check which will help you to understand the steps you need to take to achieve a more valuable and profitable business. Ultimately helping you the business owner to deliver your aspirations.

To contact direct peterfleming@businessdoctors.co.uk

For further information http://www.businessdoctors.co.uk/health-check