Yaneek Page | How to increase sales in 2021

QUESTION: Twenty-twenty has not been a good year for my business mainly because of the pandemic and fallout from tourism and other industries we used to earn from. I need your advice about how to increase sales for 2021. I have been following you for sometime, and I know that you work with companies around the world, and I wondered if there are any companies that have successfully used sales strategy to improve net income and if you could share some lessons or tactics from those experiences?

I currently have three sales reps in my employ, reduced from eight this time last year. I am considering rehiring two of the sales reps in January 2021 but with a new contract for 50 per cent decrease in base pay and 60 per cent increase in commission. Less comfort and more incentive to make targets. I am really looking forward to your response.

– Matthew

BUSINESSWISE: I’m so glad you have posed this question because it may likely help many entrepreneurs and small business owners understand how some companies earned incredible results in a period of global economic recession, and hopefully, you may apply relevant lessons to hasten your own financial recovery.

The short answer to your question is yes! I’ve worked with many companies around the world that successfully used sales strategy to improve their net income in this pandemic. I’ve also had the good fortune of working alongside some local companies that have grown their bottom line despite the negative impact of COVID-19 on their operations.

Unfortunately, you didn’t give me any details or information about your industry, so I can’t offer any specifics based on that. However, I am happy to share below the key lessons from several thriving companies and hope this general information may be helpful in your 2021 sales forecasting and planning.

One important qualifier is that most companies were already on a growth trajectory before the pandemic. They had sound financials, high demand products and services, motivated team members, robust customer relationships and strong market positions before the crisis, all of which would have played a substantial role in the positive results they have seen. Notwithstanding, here are the key takeaways.

Sales war room

Most companies quickly engaged in either a sales retreat or virtual ‘war room’. The latter being most aggressive. In business, the concept of a war room is a space where companies gather key talent and the most critical decision-makers to work on a major issue or challenging project with all the vital information, tools, and resources needed to tactically achieve a particular outcome within a strict time frame and without distractions or interruptions.

By their very nature, war rooms signal serious business. For COVID-19 market conditions, pandemic projections and possible trajectories were carefully considered, also existing or potential impact on market segments, products or services, customer segments or sales regions.

Strategies and decisions were informed by the latest data and sound analysis rather than superficial or baseless ‘guestimates’. From there, some businesses either redid their forecasts and recast their budgets, or held firm and shifted key tactics and performance or result areas.

Another takeaway was taking good care of their key people. Imagine the Rolls Royce of internal customer care. Literally taking the time to ensure that team members were safe, could maintain good physical and mental health, felt valued and appreciated, and had all they needed to navigate the pandemic in focused pursuit of key deliverables. As simple as it may sound – taking good care of your key team members is hard and worthwhile work.

It takes vision, leadership, commitment, planning, and appropriate resources for execution. Team members who are appreciated and cared for, in turn, take care of the customers and the business.

Scrum approach to pivot

Frequent sales team meetings, including twice-daily huddles and problem shooting around target attainment, is another success strategy for achieving stellar financial results in the crisis.

Where products or services were modified or newly created in response to market needs or volatility, the ‘scrum approach’ was employed. It is regarded in some quarters as an agile project-management framework that is now used outside the tech industry, where it blossomed, to any industry or business that needs to get important tasks done quickly and efficiently.

The final best practices I’ll mention are marketing and communications and responsiveness to customers. Instead of using pricing strategy, such as price reductions or discounts to increase sales, the companies I’ve worked with focused instead on deeper engagement, targeted marketing with strict return on investment – ROI – and constant communication with a strong digital focus.

Constant engagement with customers even when they were not buying made all the difference from the start of the pandemic until now as some businesses recover.

The businesses ensured that there was never a period of silence or disengagement from customers, and this appears to be one of the most critical success factors, especially enabling them to gain actionable market intelligence such as exactly what the customer needed, additional services, when, where, how they could pay, and so on.

Companies embarked on strategies of genuine customer care rather than strict selling or upselling to meet targets. The practical impact was that it took more effort to realise sales, more flexibility in how products and services were distributed or delivered, which, in some cases, cost more, but either resulted in more sales or consistent sales.

This faithfulness to a sincere customer-centric approach has been the difference between profit or loss for several companies. Unfortunately, many companies, including some locally, focus more on selling to the customer even if they can’t afford it, don’t need, aren’t satisfied with, or will end up experiencing buyer’s remorse and resentment post-purchase. It is a myopic approach to sales that eventually backfires.

Although 2020 was a difficult year for you, I hope you found some helpful nuggets in the experiences shared. I would also recommend that you reflect on your business model and whether your value propositions are aligned with market/industry changes and realities.

The worst mistake that you could make is to try to sell a product that the market doesn’t need right now or that your customers no longer value. The pandemic hasn’t just changed industries, it has changed people. Understanding what those changes are and realigning your business accordingly to meet the new needs is likely going to be your sweet spot once you have a highly motivated, efficient, and customer-centric team.

One love!

- Yaneek Page is the programme lead for Market Entry USA, a certified trainer in entrepreneurship, and creator and executive producer of The Innovators and Let’s Make Peace TV series. yaneek.page@gmail.com