Find out Why Your Sales Have Fallen Through the Floor
|It can be a horrifying moment when you realise that your company’s sales have fallen through the floor in recent months. However, before you start panicking it is time to sit back and consider what the possible for this downturn could be.
Could your business be suffering because of one of the following factors? It is time to find out, so that you can do something about it. The following are some of the most common reasons why this may have happened.
A New Rival on the Scene
Is there a new rival company on the scene that you perhaps don’t even know about yet? If you are sure that the product or service you offer is still in demand then someone else must be meeting that demand if you aren’t. Maybe someone is under-cutting your prices or aggressively targeting your customers. The sooner you find out what is going on the better your chance of doing something about it. By using a field marketing company such as Tactical Solutions you can find out what is going on in the market right now. This might be the start of a long, tough battle to get back your market share but at least you will know what you are up against in order to get started.
Your Sales Process Needs Updated
Do you have a sales process that used to work but that doesn’t seem to do so anymore? This is a fairly common problem and there are many possible reasons for it happening. For example, it could be that you need to adapt to changing customer needs or new uses for technology. It is most likely that your sales will drop off slowly if this is the case but there is also the possibility that you suffer a sudden collapse from one day to the next. Your sales process is something that you should revise periodically anyway, but this kind of problem means that you will want to do so with a far greater deal of urgency. Try out the process from end to end to see what the problem might be.
More Staff Training Required
If you have new staff then perhaps they aren’t yet fully comfortable with all aspects of the sales process. Alternatively, it could be that your existing employees have let their standards slip over time. A sudden and unexpected drop in sales suggests a major problem, so there is also the chance that a key member of the sales staff is performing very poorly for some reason that you aren’t yet aware of. This is something that can often be resolved very quickly once you know what the issue is. Sometimes the best way of doing this is to get a field sales survey done. Mystery shopping offers a very effective way of finding out that your sales staff are up to you. If they are straying away from the process they should be following then you can pick it up by getting mystery shoppers to test out the real process of buying from you. This should help to see where the problems are occurring.
You Are No Longer As Visible Online
Could it be that you have lost visibility online? If you get a good percentage of your sales from the internet but don’t pay much attention to your search engine rankings then you could slide down them without even noticing. If you get much of your business online then you will want to check out your search engine optimisation strategy in more detail. This is something which you should always be updating and evolving. Changes to the Google algorithms, for example, can see sites knocked off the top of the first results page very easily. A thorough review of your online tactics, ensuring you are following the seo best practices, is probably the best way of seeing exactly where you stand and how to improve the situation.
Other Issues
Of course, it is possible that other factors are to blame for your drop in sales. For example, if you sell luxury items and there is a downturn in the economy then your sales will probably suffer. Equally, time changes and people might now be more attracted to newer, trendier products that those that you offer. There are many reasons why a business could start to sell less and it is important that you take the time to consider them to find out which one is at play just now. Once you have done this you can then set about getting your business back on track again as quickly as possible.