Ruzalina October 20, 2015 at 04:04 pm

• Trinion Blog,
• Sales management

AT recent times In connection with the crisis, as a business consultant, many clients ask me questions related to increasing sales. Businessmen almost never have questions related to the search and purchase of materials or finished goods, as well as the organization of production. It's no secret that today half of Russia is engaged in resale, and the other half wants to do it. And therefore, first of all, everyone is concerned about the question: how to increase sales.

In addition, when I lead projects related to the organization of an accounting system, the implementation of CRM and other software products, I also encounter these issues. In the process of working on a project, I constantly communicate with business owners, managers, heads of sales departments. I get a lot of information about how different companies sell, how they sell various groups goods, what methods of sales organization are used in one case or another, what ideas lead to success, and what decisions turn out to be unsuccessful.

When I faced the problem of increasing sales, I realized that these issues are poorly covered on the Internet. There are no normal sales materials. On the net you will find either fantasies on the topic: how to increase sales in 14 days, sales scripts and other similar information, or various books on marketing and pricing, but they are not relevant for small and medium-sized businesses (how the book on how to increase their Coca-Cola sales?)

In this article, I decided to talk about the tools that lead to increased sales. My advice is practical and requires organizational rather than financial costs, which is very important when revenues fall.

I will speak, first of all, about increasing the efficiency of working with an existing client base. Finding and attracting new customers, promoting the company on the Internet and offline will be the topic of a separate article.

Some of the solutions that will be discussed below will work in a complex way, i.e. will not only increase sales, but also attract new customers. However, this will not be the main focus of the article. Here and now I will talk about increasing sales volumes.

All the ideas and solutions that I will talk about have been tested in practice by my clients. However, I recommend that you carefully consider this or that advice and implement it taking into account the realities of your business. Some solutions are only for manufacturers, others are suitable for almost everyone.

Increase the value of the product.

If your company is engaged in the production of any product, then one of the decisions that positively affects sales is to increase the value of the product. In many cases, to increase sales, you can change appearance product, such as its packaging. And, as a result, the value of the goods in the eyes of buyers will change.

Solution Implementation Example

My client's company was engaged in the production of cheap clothes that were sold in the markets and in cheap shops. As a result of the analysis, it turned out that the main competitor of this company was China. The goods that the company produced were perceived by consumers as Chinese, and the price of the products was slightly higher.

It is clear that clothes made in Russia cannot compete with Chinese ones in price. Even the fact that the quality of the products was higher did not help in this situation, since the nondescript appearance of the goods, together with the relatively high price, reduced the interest of buyers.

We analyzed the product and its perception by customers. Consulted with dealers and sellers. And they came to a rather risky decision: they changed the packaging to a better and more modern one.

What we did:

• Changed the logo, fonts, design. Made it bright, stylish, attractive.
• We chose a different material. Instead of cheap plastic bags, high-quality cardboard packaging was used.
• The packaging contains as much information as possible about the product.

As a result, the goods in the perception of buyers "fell" out of their usual price category. Thanks to the packaging, it began to be perceived by customers as more expensive and of higher quality. At the same time, at first the price was not raised at all, and the real cost increased quite a bit.

Thus, in the perception of buyers, the goods “left” the niche filled with Chinese goods, and the real price increased slightly, since the cost of a cardboard package in terms of a unit of goods turned out to be very small. Of course, we had to tinker with the introduction of new packaging; in production, any changes are associated with certain difficulties. But this is a different story.

But thanks to the new packaging, the goods moved from one value category to another in the perception of buyers, which became a real "springboard" to increase sales.

Quality work on order.

For some reason, many companies still neglect to work with the buyer's order. Of course, certain actions are being taken. The manager accepts the order, processes it, issues an invoice, then the shipment is made, etc. At the same time, most of the small and medium-sized businesses, and I remind you that I work with these segments, do not work on order.

The sales departments of companies are somewhat reminiscent of stalls: what is available is what they sell. And if the requested product is not on the balance, the manager does not even offer to issue the desired item “on order”. Most often this happens because the system does not have the necessary tools, and the manager simply does not know how to place such an order.

It would seem that the solution lies on the surface. Do not refuse buyers! Offer not only analogues, but also the design of the desired product "on order". Those. your customer orders whatever he needs. And the manager accepts the order and notifies the buyer about the delivery time, taking into account the time of receipt of the missing items on the balances. All companies that have implemented this system have received a noticeable increase in sales.

In this case, I'm not talking about online stores that operate without a warehouse at all, i.e. only on order, regardless of whether they inform their customers about this fact or not. I'm talking about companies that have their own warehouse, but at the same time they can order goods from a supplier.

What is the problem with implementing such a scheme of work? It lies in the fact that companies do not know how to technically implement it. Now I will give an example of how such a scheme was implemented by my client, who is engaged in the wholesale of ceramic tiles.

All products are divided into two groups:

• The first is the goods in our own warehouse, i.e. those goods that you yourself ordered from your main supplier.
• The second one is “foreign” goods, i.e. those that can be quickly ordered from another supplier or competitor. This attribute “Alien” was filled in the product card to designate goods ordered from competitors. Also, the supplier (competitor) from whom this product is purchased was indicated in the product card.

This company, which trades in imported goods with a long delivery time (about two months or more passes from the moment of ordering to receipt at the warehouse), a special system was developed when, when receiving a buyer’s order, if there is no goods in the warehouse, but before the next delivery another month, the manager can find out if a competitor has this product and order it. The manager includes this product (Foreign product) in the customer's order with the designation Under the order (To supply), and when the customer's order is posted in the system, the order/orders to the supplier/suppliers are automatically created (data on suppliers are taken from the product card).

As a result, the client receives all the assortment he needs and continues to actively work with your company. He will not go to a competitor in search of the position he needs, because you have everything he needs.

This approach significantly increases the volume of sales, while in many cases the profit increases slightly, because you buy goods in small quantities, perhaps even from competitors, and therefore sell some items at almost no markup. What is the point?

You get customer loyalty. Your customer does not leave, fills out an application from you, buys other goods along with an unprofitable “foreign” position. And you will notice an increase in profits from such a scheme of work at the end of the month, quarter or any other reporting period. By increasing customer loyalty, sales and profits will increase markedly.

Sale of related (additional) services.

Many companies sell only goods without any additional services. But often it is the service that contributes to the fact that buyers make a choice in your favor.

For example, among my clients was a company specializing in the sale of cable products. At some point in time, they decided to introduce an additional service - cable laying. Those. in addition to the delivery available to all, they began to offer cutting the cable on the spot, as well as its installation at the customer. As a result, not only profit increased due to payment additional service, but also the volume of sales of goods.

What is the reason for this increase in sales? Some customers of such products consider it a big plus to be able to order everything in one place: both goods and services. They do not want to waste time looking for performers and cannot install (lay) the cable they need on their own. Those. in this case, customers argue as private buyers: “if I bought a sofa, then I need to assemble it right away, albeit for an additional fee.”

For some reason, many companies neglect this opportunity to increase customer loyalty, the attractiveness of products for new customers, as well as profit margins. In fact, selling services is a great way to increase sales. Don't forget about him.

Make the terms of cooperation softer.

Many companies work with their clients on very strict terms. Especially often those who have been working on the market for a long time, often since the 90s, work with imported goods, with products that have no analogues on the market, and so on.

For example, I had a client who traded in imported professional cosmetics for beauty salons. Despite the fact that one can of funds can cost from 17 euros and more, at the same time, in order for the dealer to receive a 5% discount, it was necessary to complete the volume of purchases of 2,500 euros, and in order to receive a 20% discount - 7,500 euros. In addition, dealers took on the obligation to buy and distribute magazines that no one wanted. There were other requirements, often uncomfortable and unfriendly to customers.

What has been done to increase sales in this company?

The company has reduced the threshold for receiving discounts. They did not make a one-time total discount or promotion, they made softer conditions, which ensured not only sales growth, but also customer loyalty.

Those. to increase sales, you can simply soften the terms of cooperation. This is very important for your clients. The market is constantly evolving, competition is growing in all areas. Even if you trade in something exclusive and special, sooner or later some analogues appear on the market.

For example, the client discussed above sells products for beauty professionals. The end users of his products were and still are private craftsmen and beauty salons. On the one hand, professionals get used to the quality and features of a particular brand. On the other hand, if the price becomes too high or an analogue appears that will be more profitable to buy, they may reconsider their preferences.

Usually, clients who do not want to soften the terms of cooperation give the following arguments:

• We sell the best goods, we are the best and they will work with us on any terms.
• If the conditions are softened, we can lose margin, as a result, profit will decrease.

But! It is better to lose 10 kopecks on a discount, but earn 2 rubles, than not to lose these 10 kopecks, but not earn anything either.

Synergy.

Synergy is the summing effect of the interaction of two or more factors, characterized by the fact that their action significantly exceeds the effect of each individual component in the form of their simple sum. Wikipedia

What is synergy from a business point of view and what do I mean when I talk about synergy?

Many companies that work simultaneously with several directions, for example, sell goods and services that are not related to each other in any way or are weakly connected, completely divide these directions up to the creation of different sites and different legal entities for each direction. Also, sales departments do not interact with each other, which is a noticeable minus. What can be done in this case? Combine different directions under one brand.

Again, I will give an example of a company whose activities are related to beauty salons. This example is very convenient and visual, and therefore I often use it. This company has directly beauty salons, there is a training department, there is a wholesale department for hair care products. And they all work independently of each other.

Yes, they work under the same brand, but in fact they are not united: they have different non-linked sites, the culture or business process of transferring information about the company as a whole and its divisions is not developed. It is almost impossible to find out for a salon client that there is training in the company, just as it will be possible for a wholesale buyer to find out about the salon and its services, perhaps by chance.

What have I done for this company?

The first and most simple - all three divisions were combined into one site. Those. a person who visits the site sees all three areas of the company's activities. This increases solidity, the level of trust, and also informs people about certain additional features of the company.

If, for example, a master visits the site in search of a product, then in addition to the assortment, he will find out that you can always get training in working with these products, as well as evaluate their effectiveness by visiting a beauty salon. Similarly, the combination of directions has a positive effect in other cases.

Moreover, such an association increases the level of trust in the company as a whole, as people see that the company is large, solid, engaged in several areas, etc. Also, experts from different areas began to recommend each other. Thus, a synergistic effect has manifested itself, i.e. the joint work of different areas has led to an increase in efficiency in each of them.

Start selling through the site.

Until now, many wholesalers and manufacturers of goods do not use their sites for direct sales. As a result, some potential customers are lost.

Even if you beautifully presented all your products on the site, but there is no price next to the product, the person who found you through search engines or clicked on an advertising link is highly likely to leave without a purchase or a call. There is such a rule: a product without a price is not a product. As long as a person does not see the cost figure, he can think whatever he wants. And not everyone agrees to call or send requests, especially since nearby (in the search engine on adjacent lines), most likely, there are competitor sites with prices and convenient order buttons.

Now I'm not talking about sales to the end consumer, there is an obvious need for an online store, I'm talking about sales in the B2B sector, where representatives of the commercial sector are looking for materials and goods for own business, and therefore they mostly browse the websites of manufacturers, dealers, regional representatives, etc.

What do these sites say? "Call us at work time”, “Submit a request for a price list”. But after all, a visitor may be on the site during off-hours or on a weekend. Far from everyone and not always leave an application with a request. In general, many people, in the absence of a price, subconsciously begin to suspect that they can be deceived here, and therefore try not to leave any contact information. Or they suspect that the price is not shown on the site because it is too high. In any case, potential buyers leave the site without a purchase and an application. So show me your prices!

The question often arises: if we, distributors, start selling goods to customers of our own dealers through the site, will this not interfere with business?

No, it will not. First, you, as distributors, can set a single price. The main thing is that it should not be lower than that of your dealers. And secondly, you can add a page with a list of your dealers so that the client can decide whether to buy from you and wait for delivery from another city or choose a supplier in his region.

This solution will even help increase sales. For example, if a buyer from Murmansk visits your site, he will not order goods from you in Moscow anyway, this goods will have to wait too long and delivery will be expensive. Moreover, if he finds contacts of a dealer in his region on your site, then the sale will take place, even from the dealer, who, in turn, will order more goods from you.

If you inform your partners in a timely manner that you are posting prices on the site, and also inform them in a timely manner of any changes in the pricing policy, this will not harm their business in any way. And if you invite your partners to post their data on your site, they will gratefully provide all the necessary information.

Do not forget that your customers and partners are, most often, small regional companies that are poorly represented on the Internet. And your site, most likely, occupies a leading position in search results, since you are a distributor. So, such interaction will benefit both you and your partners.

Lay out the prices for the site, develop your project, according to the brand name, it should be among the first in the search results. Make sales through the site. And lay out the contacts of your partners. As a result, the number of sales will increase significantly, buyers will find your site and order goods either from you or from your dealers.

Another common fear is that dealers won't want you to show prices, as buyers on your site may want to become a dealer after looking at prices.

What can be said here? These concerns are dealers' problems. For you, such interest from new potential partners is only a plus. Any business needs to grow and develop. And the potential threat that you can change the dealer in a particular region will stimulate your dealers to work better, develop more actively, sell more. The dealer will not go to another supplier, even if you have a buyer, and he has a competitor in his own region. And your business needs to grow.

Volume discounts.

Many companies assign discounts to a particular order, announce various promotions, but very rarely use volume discounts. Or they set a very high, one might say, unattainable threshold for obtaining such a discount.

Most likely, you yourself know such a marketing law: with each unit of product purchased, the desire to buy from a client decreases.

Accordingly, the more he has already bought, the less he has the desire to buy more. And the volume discount helps to overcome this psychological factor.

And here again objections arise: due to discounts, part of the profit from the sale of goods is lost.

I remind you that in a falling market, losing a small portion of the profit from the sale of a unit of goods is not the biggest loss. It is much worse if this product ceases to be sold at all or its sales volumes decrease.

A volume discount encourages the customer to order more. As a result, you will fully compensate for the loss of profit due to price reduction by increasing sales volume and get a loyal customer, which, from the point of view of business development, is much more important than momentary profit.

A smart move is to hire a "star".

Today, sales managers are in high demand. The number of vacancies in this specialty is huge. At the same time, very often businessmen offer their future managers a very low salary and more than a modest percentage of sales. Who will they be able to hire on such terms? How successful will this specialist work?

In a declining market where salesmanship is highly valued, companies are looking to save on salespeople.

Here is such a paradox. And the reason for this paradox is banal greed. But do you understand that momentary greed does not bring anyone to good?

It should be understood that in most successful companies, a significant part of sales is based on one or two specialists who know everything about the goods, know how to find a common language with any client, and know how to sell at the “star” level. But these specialists are much more expensive than an ordinary sales manager.

Do not be stingy, hire such a “star” in your sales department. Believe me, the quality and sales volumes will pay back all your expenses for the purchase of a "star". You should not bet on a large number of cheap and weak sellers. It is better to spend the same funds on one really cool manager.

Yes, the "star" will have to pay a lot more. Yes, you will have to check its level in practice. Yes, there is always a risk of running into a scammer. But all these costs and difficulties will fully pay off when a real “star” appears in your sales department.

If you study companies that have a strong sales force, in almost every case you will find one or two top-notch "star" people in that department. These "stars" can always suggest a good solution to colleagues, they pull the rest along, help and train as they work. As a result, the entire sales department works much more efficiently.

As Elon Musk said, "Number never makes up for talent, and two people who don't know something are no better than the same one."

Therefore, you should not buy a lot of cheap employees, look for talent!

Acceptance of money through cards, online wallets, etc.

Oddly enough, but such an obvious plus as the expansion of the list of payment methods is overlooked by most businessmen. I would like to remind all businessmen: we live in the 21st century, and cash payments along with bank or postal transfers are far from the most popular payment methods.

Today, Internet wallets, credit and debit cards are actively used in all areas, and in some cases even mobile phone bills act as a source of funds. And the more payment methods available to your customers, the more likely it is that a purchase will go through.

Often, when refusing to connect payment via the Internet, the argument sounds: “Why should I lose money (3-4%) when withdrawing funds?”

It's simple: in cases where a person, for one reason or another, cannot pay your bill within the period of time specified by you, does not consider it possible for himself to spend time and effort searching for a form of payment convenient for you, or does not want to pay for the goods in cash, the sale will not take place generally. And then you will lose not 3-4%, but all possible profit from the sale.

For example, when placing an order through the website or over the phone, some customers tend to pay immediately just to be sure that the goods are reserved and will be delivered on time. And if you cannot offer him a suitable payment method, the customer may go to your competitors.

One more example. Small companies often do not have terminals for paying with bank cards or card accounts for direct card-to-card transfers. They work as they did many years ago: they issue invoices that can be paid at the bank, or they offer to pay for goods in cash.

I personally observed the work of one of these companies in the process. And what I noticed: some of the buyers came to them with credit cards. They were all sent to an ATM located nearby. But not everyone returned. The reason turned out to be that when cashing out, these customers lost 2% of the amount. Their discount did not exceed 5%. And payment in cash assumed the absence of documents. As a result, the discount no longer looked so attractive, and buyers left to look for a better solution.

Accept as many types of payment as possible! Your customers need to be comfortable. Remember: it is better to lose 2 rubles on cashing out 100 rubles than not to get any profit at all. Yes, you will not lose anything, but you will not earn anything either.

Increase in conversion.

In this case, conversion is the conversion of your visitors in the office, store or website into buyers, i.e. to the people who placed the order and made the payment. And if you have a question about increasing sales, then you also need to increase conversions.

Have you ever wondered why so many people show interest in your company, read the information on your site, ask questions in the office or in the store and leave without a purchase?

But besides objective reasons such behavior there are also your mistakes and shortcomings. For example, the lack of prices on the site. I already talked about this above. There are other mistakes that negatively affect the conversion of a visitor into a buyer.

I had a client who collected a record number of such errors on his site:

• He had as many as 7 phone numbers on his website. And none of them were multichannel. Therefore, all of them could be busy at one time or another. As a result, some potential customers left simply because they could not get through.
• Some of the goods did not have a final price. Those. the price for the commodity item was indicated, but it was constantly changing, and the site said: “due to fluctuations in the euro, this price may not be relevant, call and clarify the cost of the goods.” From my point of view, there is nothing worse than telling the client that we are selling you incomprehensibly what is incomprehensible for what money, and let's call us back. To increase sales, it is very important to sell at the price that was first announced to the client. Otherwise, the level of trust in you will fall catastrophically, and sales will follow it.
• Long application processing time. In some cases, it could take up to 2 weeks from a call to an answer to the client - when and how much he will receive the ordered goods! Naturally, during this time, some customers were also lost.

What did I do to increase conversions for this client?

First of all, I entered electronic document management. Now, when an application was received from the site, it immediately entered the general database, a responsible manager was appointed for it, who was obliged to work with this application in a short time.

I also improved the quality of interaction between employees. There were many moments here, a lot had to be changed, in fact, the entire structure of the company underwent changes to one degree or another. I also put things in order on the site, helped to fix errors and make it easier for buyers to access information.

As a result of the transformations, the number of applications from the site, and, more importantly, the number of purchases made, increased significantly with the same number of visitors to the web resource.

I recommend that you analyze and identify the points where you may experience a client breakdown: a “falling off phone”, poorly speaking managers, an inconvenient or uninformative site, high prices or harsh terms of cooperation. Carefully work out these points, think over a loyalty program - and then the conversion will certainly increase.

Use all channels of interaction with customers.

Quite often, companies use only a part of the possible channels to interact with customers and to find new customers. For example, some work only through the site, others operate ads in Yandex.Direct and nothing more, others work at exhibitions, and others use SMS mailings. In fact, they, like a drunken man in an old and widely known joke, are looking not where they lost, but where it is light, i.e. use only those methods that once showed good results.

Use all channels available to you. Inform your customers that you have this or that promotion going on, prices have been reduced, new products have appeared, and everything that you consider important. Apply for this all methods at once. Let it be news on the site, email and SMS-mailing, leaflets and letters on paper, ads on the Internet, meetings, seminars, calls to clients, etc. Do not neglect any of the possible channels of information. Thus, you will be able to reach the maximum audience.

Take orders online.

When I talk about the need to take orders online, I mean the B2B business segment. Until now, many companies ignore the possibility of receiving orders via the Internet. At best, some forms in Excel and email are used. And most often all orders are taken over the phone.

The arguments of those who refuse to work online are quite similar: “they won’t understand, they won’t want to study, we’ll just waste time”, etc.

In fact, today Russia ranks 6th in terms of the availability and prevalence of broadband Internet in the world. Most of your customers are now very good internet. And the ability to use online order forms is also very well developed. So don't underestimate your customers. Those of them who do not like the option of an online application will say so themselves and will always be able to traditionally continue to dictate orders by phone. And the rest will be able to leave an application online, at a convenient time, calmly and thoughtfully. At the same time, the processing of applications from your managers will take a minimum of time, which will allow you to devote more time and effort to new customers.

Moreover, the ability to work online increases the loyalty of your customers. They will see your balances and the entire list of your products. Will be able to order more, view full list goods. While when ordering by phone, a lot depends on the manager, on his knowledge of the assortment, on whether he will be able to offer the goods the client needs. And when ordering online, the client himself sees everything that you can offer him, sees the prices, the cost of the order. Do not deprive your customers of such a convenient tool, check it out in practice: the introduction of an online order very often increases the average bill.

Be always available.

Your availability at any time is important factor increase in sales. I had clients who periodically had an unavailable phone, who did not always respond promptly by email, in some cases even the site was turned off for a while.
Your availability is a guarantee that you will not miss a single order. Let you not have missed calls on the phone and unanswered letters from customers in the mailbox.

Another important point: properly sort the mail! For example, my client had only one mailbox, which received all mail without exception. The secretary was in charge of the post office. And she simply did not understand anything in the assortment of goods, applications could lie in a box for several days without an answer.

After I studied the situation, we transferred access to the mail to the head of the sales department and turned off spam filters. On the one hand, the amount of spam in mail has slightly increased. On the other hand, the sales department can always recognize a letter from a customer or a potential partner and promptly respond to it. And turning off the spam filter ensures that no important email ends up in the Spam folder.

Another client, whom I have already cited as an example, had 7 phone numbers listed on the site. It looked something like this:

Wholesale department:
Tel.: +7 (495) xxx-xx-xx
Tel.: +7 (495) xxx-xx-01/02/03/04/05
mob. +7 (495) xxx-xx-xx (works on Saturdays)

All these numbers are working numbers of managers who constantly serve wholesale customers, that is, at some point in time all numbers may be busy. And who among us will dial all 7 numbers without calling two, maximum three numbers?

Always be available and be sure to properly set up your mail, phone and other options for buyers to access you! Don't miss anything important.

Remove the insider.

Today, many companies exist at the expense of another, more big company where the insider works. Those. in the sales department there is an employee who regularly "merges" orders and customers of another company. This usually happens imperceptibly, it can be very difficult to catch an insider, it is even more difficult to blame.

For example, his reaction to a call from a client might be: “We have a this moment, unfortunately, there is no product you need, but you can contact this company, they are our partners, and they definitely have everything.

Another option, the insider names a deliberately high price, or simply reports that this product is not in stock, despite the fact that it is available. At the same time, the manager retains the contact details of the customer: his mobile phone, which is displayed on the screen, other information received during this call or earlier.

All this information is transferred to a competitor who calls the client and offers him exactly what he needs, while always ready to offer cooperation conditions more attractive than your company. Naturally, the client makes a purchase from where they called him and offered the necessary goods at a bargain price. As a result, you invested in promotion, worked with a client, spent time and energy, and a competitor receives a profit.

How to calculate an insider?

• The easiest method is to ask your trusted friends to call from a number that your employees do not know and place a test order. Call every manager. And determine after which of your calls your competitors called you back.
• If you are recording phone calls, listen to recordings of conversations of various employees. But as a rule, when recording telephone conversations, the insider acts very carefully.
• Guard your database. Carefully distribute customer data among your managers and limit their access to information that they do not need in their work.

It is possible that there is no insider in your company, and your problems with sales lie in a completely different area. On the one hand, it is not necessary to arrange mass and regular checks with the persistence of a paranoid. So you will only push previously loyal employees to quit and, maybe, to insider trading. But vigilance should not be lost.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, I would like to say what should not be done in any case: you should not arrange sales of goods. What works in the retail sector is seen as a weakness in the B2B sector.

The retail client needs to consume now, because any promotions and sales attract his favorable attention. A wholesale buyer expects a long-term perspective. And stability is more important for this client than momentary profit. Upon learning that you are selling goods or giving inadequate discounts, the client comes to the conclusion that your company is “sinking” and will soon leave the market, respectively, long-term cooperation with it will not work.

It turns out the opposite situation: you want to sell more at the expense of discounts and attract new customers, but as a result, on the contrary, you scare away your regular customers, who bring you the main income. The announcement of a total price cut is seen as a white flag.

In this article, I have listed, of course, not all ways to increase sales. Here I have chosen the most common and simplest, which do not require special expenses. These methods are more organizational than financial. Therefore, they can be implemented under conditions financial crisis and falling sales.

Wholesale sales are sales of goods intended for resale. That is, there are practically no one-time sales and “pushing in” is unacceptable. And most importantly, we need to think not about our sale, not about how much we will ship to the client, but about how much he can sell.

In fact, in order to increase wholesale sales, we must become an expert on the business of our clients, ideally, when the company has its own retail outlets and you can understand how the contact with the end buyer takes place, what are his interests, what are the ways to organize sales.

Laws of wholesale sales department:

1. The focus is on the client's business, not our business. From the moment you start working with wholesale, you need to forget about your sales and think only about customer sales. How to increase them, what product is the most popular, how to increase the profitability of the business. The client will sell, you will sell too.

2. Competent work with dealers and distributors, without interfering with regular customers. It is important to prioritize retail or working with representatives. Sometimes it makes sense to abandon your own retail or significant discounts to support dealers. And sometimes you need to focus on your own sales, if there are certain resources for this.

3. Pricing policy and discount system should be configured for long-term interaction, and not for one-time transactions.

4. Regular monitoring of competitors' offers through customers who either use competitors' products or have previously used them.

5. Constant search for new customers. The main goal of a retail outlet is to make a profit by increasing sales, so they are often ready to consider new offers. And there is a chance of losing a client, as a competitor will offer better conditions. But it also means that it is more likely to take a customer away from a competitor relatively easily. Therefore, never stop looking for new customers, even if the business turnover is sufficient.

6. Thorough analysis of customer failures. A small client left. Well, no big deal. More time to work with large buyers. Actually very scary. Since the reasons that prompted small customers to leave can play a cruel joke with large ones. The business is arranged in such a way that small customers are more flexible in order to survive, respond faster to changes external environment. As a result, the factors that influenced the small client will soon affect the large ones. Therefore, in order to increase wholesale sales, it is necessary to quickly respond to any loss and not calm down until the reasons for the breakup of relations are absolutely clear.

7. Penetration into the client's business. The better you know the client's business, the less chance of losing it, the closer you are to the end customers, the more effective sales

8. Assessment of the client's potential and setting goals for managers not on the basis of past experience, but on the basis of the share of our sales in deliveries. The manager sells to the customer for 100 thousand rubles, and this turnover is growing, it seems to be good. But the potential of this client is 10 million rubles. You are simply being used as a backup supplier. And he doesn't know about it. Even worse, if the manager himself does not know about it.

9. Competent work with federal and regional networks. Many suppliers are looking for an answer to the question of how to increase wholesale, tend to enter the network. Read the article about and if you decide to do this.

Recruiting for a wholesale department is fundamentally different from recruiting for a regular sales department. Their functions are significantly different, and knowledge of wholesale techniques plays a role.

Selection of managers in the wholesale department:

1. Recruitment of personnel working in the retail of similar products. The person knows the range and business of the end buyer well. Knows hot commodity and knows how to sell to end customers. With proper training in the basics of wholesale sales, he can be very successful in this direction, as he knows the mindset of the client.

2. Selection from a competing company. The most obvious option, but not always the most effective. Yes, a manager comes with market knowledge, yes, a manager comes with his client base. But is he ready for the fact that your product is significantly different from competitors, is he ready for the fact that he will change his face? And most importantly, if the manager changed a competitor to you, does he merge customers with his acquaintances in the previous company? Will he return to the previous company if the management changes their mind and calls him back? Will he go to the third competitor, taking your base to the previous base? I am not saying that it is not worth hiring such people, sometimes it is very effective, but the personal relationship of the manager to your company is very important.

3. Selection of a manager from related wholesale industries. A good option. He has client base, he can, without prejudice to your company, send customers to his old company for similar needs, he knows the laws of wholesale sales and the principle of operation of the end buyer.

Whichever option you choose, remember one thing - you need it in wholesale and retail and in any other companies. Control, analysis of monthly sales figures by customers, analysis of the number of attracted and reasons for lost customers are the main tools for managing the wholesale sales department.

Good luck in increasing the sales of the wholesale department!

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As you know, three conditions are necessary for anyone who wants to conduct trade in good order: money, an account and order.

Increasing sales: 101 tips for the seller

The most important of them is cash and various other valuables, without which it is difficult to trade ... The second condition for trading is to be able to correctly keep books and quickly calculate ...

The third and last necessary condition is the conduct of one's affairs in due order and as it should be, so that all information about both debts and claims can be obtained without delay.

L. Pacioli

Starting your trading activity, every company, whether successful or not, dreams of how to do it in order to sell more.

After all, an increase in sales is a 100% increase in the company's profits. And this only brings benefits, as more money appears, the company expands, the salary of employees increases, starting from an ordinary seller, ending with the director of the company.

Everyone knows the saying that money is never superfluous. It is not easy to make them bigger, but by taking certain steps towards increasing sales, even a novice entrepreneur will succeed.

Indeed, most often failures overtake not because a person does nothing, but because he does not know what to do. The problem is always relevant. So what should be done to significantly increase sales? What methods and tools should be used?

Are there specific tools to increase sales?

In such a business as increasing income from trade, technology is not so much. There are so-called tools used to increase sales, which, if properly implemented, increase work efficiency:

Although there are not so many methods, but with constant application they are guaranteed to increase sales growth. It is worth taking a closer look at them, and learning how to correctly apply them.

Methods for increasing retail sales

Everyone wants more. And the increase in retail sales is based on methods that have already proven themselves positively:

• Cross selling. When buying one thing, the client is offered to provide the appropriate service. For example, having bought an aquarium, the buyer orders the service of its installation and maintenance. And all in one place. The store only needs to have agreements with such companies, attract customers and receive a percentage of this.
• Upselling. An offer for an additional purchase to the main product. For example, when buying a phone, it is immediately offered to buy a SIM card for it, or the purchased bouquet is packed for an additional cost. It is only necessary to adhere to the rule that the cost of an additional service should not be higher than the main purchase. In such cases, an increase in sales can bring 30 percent profit.
• Determination of the purchase threshold. There is no specific model here, only the store owner's imagination. The general gist is this:

1. By making a purchase, the value is above a certain amount, the buyer receives free shipping, coupon for drawing or gift.
2. Buying two items, the third is free.
3. Making a purchase of three products, the buyer receives them for the price of two.

The list can be continued for a long time. Each store is trying to come up with something different, looking for new ways to increase sales:

• Payment of change of goods. This technique is not so widespread, but quite interesting. The buyer, paying for the goods, receives change not with money from the cash register, but with goods from the store, for example, matches or sweets.
• Yellow and red price tags. This method has long been recognized. In many supermarkets, products that are past their expiration date and no one buys them are sold at discounted prices, which is what the price tags of different colors indicate.
• Limited time for price or discount. This formula for increasing sales strongly motivates buyers, forcing them to make a purchase at this particular time.
• The ability to return the product if you do not like it. Moreover, there is a law that still obliges you to take the product back if it is returned within 14 days after the purchase was made.
• Price hints. Information is placed on the price tags that both another and a third are bought with this product. The client, seeing this, will definitely acquire something in addition to what he wanted to buy.

These methods will allow you to increase retail sales in any point of sale several times. They also guarantee that the buyer will return to this store for the next purchase, as he was offered so many different things there that it makes no sense to look elsewhere.

Methods to increase wholesale sales

In addition to retail, there is also wholesale. It is the sale of large consignments of goods that gives a significant increase in wholesale sales. Every leader strives for this. To achieve the best results, it is required, as in retail, apply various methods and tricks:

• Emphasis on staff professionalism. Indeed, often, it is from the seller or manager that a lot depends. And in order for professionalism to be developed, employees should be regularly trained and given the opportunity to practice the acquired skills in practice.
• Only high-quality goods at the most affordable prices. The optimal ratio of price and quality attracts wholesalers more than other indicators. By selling such goods constantly, a positive reputation is increased and consolidated, and this gives a significant increase in sales efficiency.
• Creating your transport department. This gives additional advantages in the uninterrupted supply of orders. Of course, significant financial investments will be required, but after a certain time they will pay off and will bring additional income.
• Building a good marketing department. Its specialists must explore the market for the products sold, look for new opportunities, fully optimizing all processes.

All these methods are exactly what you need to increase sales. By following them, an entrepreneur can be sure of the success of his business.

10 tips for negotiating price with a client during a sale?

Determining the price of a product is the right way to sell. But you still need to present it to the client and convince it of its fairness. Not just the ability to bargain, but a constructive dialogue can lead to a result. What keys can be used to successfully negotiate a price?

Imagine company N., which is engaged in the wholesale supply of X components for Y enterprises. This company has been on the market for several years, there is a base of regular customers, profits, things are slowly going uphill ... Well, everything, in general, is more or less normal.
Now imagine the sales department of this company. A large bright room, tables, computers, telephones, printers ... Managers, of course, in business, already greasy suits, sit - spit at the ceiling, poison jokes ... Between passing a new level in a "standard" office toy, they process incoming applications from partners. Once a former sales department, it has turned from an actively pushing the market machine into a perverted semblance of customer service. Yes, of course, they have new customers, but from where???! In this regard, the company's reputation and marketing policy help out, that is, our, so to speak, "merchants" work on the incoming stream and "do not blow your mustache." Moreover, they receive quite good money for all this.

What led the department to such a “collapse” decrease in the efficiency of its functions?

And what can be done to optimize its performance?

The reason is simple. Managers in the process of “stuffing” the client base constantly increased the number of processed incoming requests. Accordingly, the time for searching became less and less. And one day the number of clients reached the maximum that the manager can handle. He works with them for a day, another, a month, six months and then BAM!!! “Wow: I’m just sitting in the office, and the work is going on, the salary is growing ...”. What happens next - but nothing: the merchant, step by step, begins to degrade ... He becomes lazy: making a couple of calls - now it's a whole problem for him, but holding a meeting - WHAT, WHAT MEETING: “the soldier is sleeping - the service is on” !! ! Such managers are dangerous because their IBI (imitation of violent activity) is very high, it already works at a professional level. As soon as the boss enters the hall, everyone immediately grabs their phones, starts counting, writing, and even asking the head of the council: “Ivan Ivanovich, I just spoke with a client here, he asks for a two-week deferment, to give or not? »
Heads of departments, intoxicated by the joy of reports arriving on time, do not even realize that every day they do not receive a huge amount of money, that competitors have long been ahead and are dividing the market in their own way.

What is the best way to deal with such a situation?

You will no longer be able to make them work as before, never and under no circumstances - this is 100%, if you want 1000%. Therefore, do not even waste your strength and nerves. Because they will sabotage in such a way, albeit “technically”, that it will not seem enough!
And be aware! They already have such friendly relations with clients that, if desired, they will take their entire accumulated base to competitors.
However (But fortunately), everything is not as bad as it seems at first glance! And the decision will not be long in coming!
With such a balance of power, it is necessary to build a new commercial service in parallel, while the old one will gradually develop into a customer service department - customer service.
You have a new organizational structure of the sales department, which clearly separates new customers from those who make systematic purchases. Some sell, others serve, the most logical sales model!
It is important to consider that the staff for customer service requires less qualified. Minimum program: knowledge of the product, market specifics, plus a computer. And this means that wages in this department will be much lower, so soon, your obese "comers" will be replaced by young girls with a pleasant appearance.

2. Adjust the motivation system of your salespeople.

A well-built motivation system is a very serious tool for increasing the efficiency of the sales department, and it doesn’t matter what kind of sales we are talking about b2b or b2c.
In one of the companies, there was such a case. Managers of the commercial department, in addition to bonuses from the first sale, received a small percentage of current payments, i.е. from those clients whom they brought a long time ago and now they are served by the client department. So, after a couple of years, this small percentage was enough to not receive a salary. About the fact that employees get money so easily, the manager found out by accident. Once he heard a conversation between an “experienced” businessman and a newcomer in a smoking room, who said: “You will work for two years, and then you will live on interest, from the current ones. The main thing is to be quiet: do not be late, submit reports on time, smile, there are “incoming” ones, we will share ... ".
Imagine how much money was wasted, horror.
If the "dogs" are full, what a hunt! (May sellers forgive me for such a comparison).
The motivation system is a powerful managerial lever! The main thing is to use it wisely.
Revising ratios and percentages is just as important as changing sales plans. Many companies work "the old fashioned way": the standard scheme is salary +%. But that doesn't work anymore, forget it!
If you want to keep sellers in good shape, if you want high intensity in their work, then take into account other indicators when calculating salary, and other indicators: the number of calls (cold, repeated), the number of meetings, the number of contracts, conversions, average bill, average time "from a call to a contract", fulfillment of instructions within the framework of the project (to improve the quality of service, to study consumer demand, etc.).
Of course, the main principle of any motivation system is its transparency and ease of perception. But fortunately, today's opportunities allow us to make this calculation automatic and take into account dozens of employee performance indicators. For example, the easiest way is an Excel spreadsheet. The manager, filling out a daily report, can immediately see his results in the context of one day or week, how much he has completed, from the sales plan, what needs to be tightened up, where the norms have already been exceeded.

Check the relevance of your motivation system!

3. Set sales plans

Maybe someone will consider this method absurd, but believe me, there are many commercial organizations where there is no sales planning, and if there is, then only formally.
No sales plan = bankruptcy plan.
The planning process is nothing more than creating a virtual model of what is to happen. If you do not have a sales plan, then it will be very difficult for you to evaluate the effectiveness of work and measure the result, and without measurement, there is no management, in principle.

Let's take a look at the main stages of drawing up a sales plan:
1) Planning starts with an annual sales plan. Yes, exactly from the annual!
Without complicating things, you take the figures for the past year (100 million rubles), add to them the percentage of growth for the industry (10% = 110 million rubles) and add the percentage of growth that you would like to receive (10% = 121 million rubles) .
2) Next, you break down the plan into sales channels, according to your specifics, example:

• Current dealers (40% = 48 million rubles)
• Newly attracted dealers (20% = 24 million rubles)
• Tenders and public procurement (10% = 12 million rubles)
• One-time corporate orders (10 = 12 million rubles)
• Own distribution network (20% = 24 million rubles)
• Etc. (1 million rubles)

3) The next step: we break down these amounts by sales departments and for each manager personally. Current dealers - for customer service, new ones - for the commercial department, then - the department of corporate orders, directors of chain stores, etc.
4) Then you divide these figures into quarters and months, taking into account seasonality, the experience of the previous year, the range of goods, and so on.
Using this not tricky method, you can set sales plans for all departments for the whole year.
It is important to note one trick!

Ideally, a sales plan is drawn up, as it were, from two sides: from your employees, and directly from you. When they are agreed, something in between is born, and the manager perceives these figures as a document developed by himself, and therefore thinks more about how to implement it, and not how to explain why it cannot be performed.
Everyone has their own idea of ​​the future and everyone will think that his plan is "more correct". You, as a leader, will say that the market allows you to grow and you should use it! And managers, in turn, will fight back saying that their life is hard, the market is not rubber, there are a lot of competitors, and that Russia is not Europe.
Get ready for it!

4. Provide "total" knowledge of the product.

In fact, not all sales managers know the product they are selling well, no matter how strange it may sound. Every day, at meetings, a huge number of transactions are disrupted due to the incompetence of managers in matters of the specifics of the product. This is especially true for technological products. I think that many are familiar with the situation when, during negotiations, a client asks a question that you did not expect to hear: “Please tell me the exact data on the heat transfer resistance coefficient of your concrete, since we will use it in the northern regions, for us it is extremely important… ". At this moment, your eye twitches and your leg cramps - what did he say? YOU take out the phone, with the words: “Now I will clarify”, - call the elder, and, not knowing how to formulate the question, hand over the phone to the client ...
Any buyer wants to work with professionals! Such a desire is justified at the level of human psychology - they trust professionals, and if there is trust, then there is a purchase.
First of all, the client should see the seller as an expert, an expert in his field, capable of solving any problem and knowing the answers to all possible questions.

Ignorance, or superficial possession of information about the product, puts the manager in a stupid position. The client forms an opinion about the company, communicating with a specific person, you will never be able to explain to the client that “it was a beginner, forgive him, now we will send a pro, wait”. No one will wait for you! But you can definitely eliminate such situations in a simple way:

First of all, collect all possible customer questions related to product characteristics;
Secondly, of course, write down the answers;
Thirdly, conduct an attestation for knowledge of the product (those who did not pass are not allowed to negotiate);
Fourth, supplement the list with new issues that managers face during negotiations;
And finally, fifthly, in case of the slightest change in any characteristics or properties of the product, when adding a new product to the line - add new questions.

Thus, you will constantly form an updated "knowledge base" on technical specifications and product properties.
Conduct training in the form of "question-answer" - this is the simplest and most effective model for memorizing such material.
Naturally, it is impossible to foresee everything. Therefore, to reduce the risk of disruption of transactions, equip managers with tables, lists, photographs, any materials that will allow the manager to get out of an awkward situation when selling your product.

Example:
Selling nails. Have your manager carry these nails to the meeting, one of each. I don’t know the table with the characteristics of the metal from which they are made: torsional stress, bending, tension, what else is there. And in the car, let him have a hammer, a board, and all the same notorious nails, but only Chinese competitors. He does not believe that you have the best nails, let him try (pull it out of his hand).

But what to do if, nevertheless, a situation arises when you do not know what to answer ?!

First of all, don't worry! Until you start to worry, you retain the status of an expert.
Secondly, clarify the question by repeating what the opponent said (writing down). So you show that you are listening carefully and gently indicate that you are not ready for such a question.
Thirdly, say that you haven’t been asked such a question for a long time, always with a smile, and looking straight into his eyes until he turns his eyes away. (“Honestly, I don’t remember the last time I was asked about this…”)
Fourth, turn your ignorance 180 degrees in your favor: appeal to the client's competence in this matter. Somehow: "... you rarely meet a true professional in our industry ...".
Fifth, ask permission to clarify the information. It is better to do it in this form: "... let me check this data with the brand manager, perhaps something has changed, it will take no more than a minute ...".
These recommendations will be enough for the "gaps" in the knowledge of the product to gradually disappear, and the emerging ones could not negatively affect the outcome of the meeting.

5. Form a "sales book" of the department.

What is a "book of sales"?
In any business, there is a difficulty in adapting newcomers to a new place. Now I'm not talking about the "acclimatization" of a beginner in a new team, but about his training in your technologies and principles of work. Of course have job descriptions, standards, regulations that fall on the head of an intern employee: “Study!!! I'll check it out!!!"
What do you think, is there such a knowledge base that will allow you to build a new link into the sales process in a few days (3-4 days)? Which will allow, within a few days, to test a beginner. Do you have time for probationary periods"? Can you wait until a newcomer "has an internship" after which there is a chance to hear: "Nah, this job is not for me"?
So here it is! Such " litmus test' is the 'sales book'.
Nothing stands still - everything evolves! Our business is developing, our customers are developing, the offered goods are being modernized, the approaches to work are changing. What was yesterday a unique selling proposition is today considered the norm in the industry. How to manage to adjust all these standards and regulations, how to respond to external changes with lightning speed?
Keep your business in shape you will allow the "sales book"!
Every day, our managers, fulfilling their professional duties, gain invaluable experience: they find new solutions for effective sales, initiate changes in the sales system, open up new opportunities for concluding deals ... Where can we accumulate this knowledge and finds? That's right - in the "book of sales."

The main advantage of the "sales book" is that you get a tool for organizing a self-developing sales department.
About principles:
There is no form or strict plan to create this document. This is its essence. Main principle- the document is "live". It is constantly changing, supplemented, both directly by the head and employees of the sales department. This form of exchange of experience has a positive effect on the formation team spirit in company. All experience and knowledge is stored in one place: all techniques, all answers to questions, the best objection handling and effective speech modules - everything “that is acquired by overwork”.
About structure:
The Book of Sales is based on two sections:
1. Organization of the sales process
2. Principles and techniques of sales
In the first part, you indicate all the schemes of interaction with the client: who is the client for you, what does he look like, how to work with him, the client's path, what documents to fill out, where to place them, pricing principles, USP, customer loyalty incentive programs, etc. . In general, everything related to the sales process is contained in the first block.
The second block is devoted to the principles and technologies of sales used in your company. For example, cold calls. It describes in detail what they are and how to do them.
Example:
Section 3.14. "cold calls"
Description: "cold calls" - a tool to attract new customers to our company. "Cold" because the potential client is not waiting for our call, and did not consider the possibility of cooperation with us. Blah blah blah…
Scheme:
1. Greeting - presentation
Script: Hello, my name is….
2. Explain the purpose of the call
Script: With whom can I discuss...
3. …
4. …
In short, yes.

The main thing is that you describe in detail all the algorithms and specific scripts, preferably with an explanation: why we say it this way, what technique we use. To pass the awareness of the seller of what he is doing.
Writing a "sales book" is a very creative process. I have come across "sales books" that contain both the organizational structure of the department, and the description of business processes, and standard forms of reports. Such a construction of a “sales book” is, in fact, very convenient. I'm sure that, after some time, commercial organizations completely abandon the standards, regulations, instructions and other bureaucratic "pornography". Personally, in my business, I have already abolished many documents. The simpler, the better and more effective. After all, it's no secret to anyone that "everything ingenious is simple"! Is not it!?

6. Provide customer feedback.

How do you know what YOU are doing wrong? How to improve the work of the company so as to satisfy not only your needs, but also take into account the wishes of customers? How do I know: what makes my company better than others?
Ask your clients about this.
Many clients, in addition to cooperation with your company, have one or more suppliers, that is, they work with your competitors.
Clients, like no one else, know the state of affairs in the market. Who and what offers, in what terms and how they deliver, what will be new and when, and a lot of other information is circulating in the client environment.
"Feedback" is not only a way to find out how competitors behave, what they are doing and what they plan, but also a way to get ahead of them, that is, to use the information received in the development of USP.
Naturally, you should not ask: “Well, what are our competitors doing there? ". The “feedback” questionnaire should contain a question of the following nature: “What changes in the work of our company will allow us to count on an increase in the volume of purchases from your side? ", -something like this. It is possible in other words, but keeping the meaning - why do you work not only with us?
"Feedback" will help to learn about the affairs within the company: about minor problems that are not so significant, but create certain inconveniences in work.
For example:
If your warehouse opens an hour earlier, it will be convenient for 5 of your customers. Agree: it is worth paying extra for a storekeeper for an hour of work, if this is important for so many clients.

So, make a questionnaire for "feedback". Build questions in such a way that the answer is detailed ( open questions). Use assessment questions. The number of questions is not critical and depends on the number of customer contact points with your company.
Example:
1. What should be changed in the work of our company?
2. What additional products or services would you like to purchase from us?
3. Evaluate the professional training of the customer service on a 5-point scale.
4. Rate our work.
5. ….

If, when answering a question with an assessment, the client says: “Yes, everything is fine - a solid 4”, - specify: why not five.
Also an important point in the organization of "feedback" is systems approach. That is, it is not enough to call the client once a year, with the question: “How are you?”.

The effect of this tool will be noticeable only in two cases:
1. You will audit customer loyalty on an ongoing basis.
2. Based on the information received, decisions will be made and specific actions will be taken.
Appoint a person responsible for "feedback", allocate a day to collect information and draw up a report. Do not call too often, one call per month is enough. Conduct a flash survey (for example, questions related to employee suitability and work experience), and once a quarter do a detailed survey with suggestions and recommendations. Also take into account the seasonality of your business, if you sell diesel fuel for combines to farms, then in January, call with the question: “What will increase the volume of purchases? ' is a bit silly.
Implement "feedback" and use the information for its intended purpose.

7. Attract customers with cold calls

In b2b sales there is such a thing as "cold calls". This is nothing more than the main tool for active sales to attract customers. Many companies neglect this method of increasing profits, and for good reason. The skepticism is easily explained:
firstly, someone tried to introduce "cold calls" into their sales model, and having not received the desired effect, abandoned them forever;
secondly, the marketing policy of some companies allows them to attract a certain number of customers exclusively through advertising, and in principle this is enough for them. But most likely, I would like more!
In the first case, everything is clear: not knowing how to fly an aircraft, you should not sit at the helm. Illiterate "cold calls" can do more harm to the company than give any positive result.
In the second case, the situation is more complicated: things seem to be going well, the number of customers is growing, what else is needed for business development, but ... Imagine: the managers of the nearest competitor make 100 cold calls per day ... And what do you think: in whose favor will the market share be in another year?

So, in order to attract customers with the help of cold calls, you need to start making them! You ask how? In eight steps:
1. Divide the region in which you work into sectors: if you work for the whole of Russia - divide Russia, if you work for the whole world - cut the globe.
2. For each sector, assign a responsible manager (he may have several more managers subordinate to him, then they divide their sector into several more).
3. Each manager needs to collect all the contacts of potential clients in his sector, and all the necessary information about them.
4. Gather all contacts of your competitors in this sector and information on them.
5. Make a SWOT analysis of the market based on the information received, and develop offer for each sector.
6. Write a cold call script.
7. Assign a plan for the number of "cold calls" per month and per day.
8. Implement a daily report (Excel format is fine) on the results of calls.
In principle, this will be enough for your "cold calls" to work and begin to give positive results.
It should be noted that a systematic approach is essential when using this tool. The first calls will not be as successful as we would like, but everything comes with experience.

8. Structure the negotiation process.

Your manager returned from negotiations, and to the question: “Well, who are they working with now? ”, - replies guiltily: “I don’t know, I forgot to clarify.” How, in this case, you can build a profitable commercial offer - yes, no way. And calling back with a question: “I forgot to ask here ...” is at least stupid.
In general, “I forgot to ask”, “I forgot to clarify” is a widespread phenomenon among active sales managers. This is due not only to the qualifications of employees, and the lack of proper experience, but also to the notorious "human factor". Serious workload, irregular schedule, high intensity, sales plan - all this affects the quality of negotiations. Especially if the meeting with the client falls in the evening, when the head is no longer “cooking” and you really want to go home, turn off the phone and go to bed.
I will tell you about the easiest way to increase the effectiveness of negotiations!
In order for negotiations to be easier, faster, and more effective, use a simple but extremely effective tool -
"questionnaire". What it is?
This is an A4 sheet with a list of questions to ask at the meeting.
How to compose it?
To begin with, it is necessary to write out, in the form of questions, the strategically important information that is necessary for compiling an effective commercial proposal:
What suppliers are you currently working with?
- what items does it buy, and in what volumes?
- priority dates?

In general, all information that, one way or another, will influence the formation of the proposal, should be indicated in the "questionnaire":
1. Then these questions must be arranged in the order “from simple to complex”. That is, it is not worth asking at the beginning of negotiations what level of capitalization of their investments when signing the contract, the client expects.
2. Start with simple questions, and better, in general, abstract, not related to the topic of negotiations. Complex questions that require argumentation should be placed in the middle, and towards the end of the list. End negotiations also with simple questions that require a positive answer.
3. Make space between questions to record the client's responses.
4. Try to make sure that your "questionnaire" has at least 10 questions. If their number is less, then there is a risk of missing important details, and besides, such a document will not look serious. The fact is that it is necessary to use this tool openly. That is, during negotiations, you put a "questionnaire" on the table in a beautiful, branded folder, and, without hesitation, use it for its intended purpose, while writing down the client's answers.
This tool will allow your managers to structure the negotiation process. Meetings will be held in the "channel" they set. Why they will easily control the course of negotiations, and their duration. Such a "questionnaire" shows the client that your employee is not an ordinary manager, but a well-trained professional, and he is here to solve the client's questions. The document lying on the table disciplines the opponent. The seller, on the other hand, feels confident at any “cost” of negotiations.

9. Check what your sellers are doing.

Look closely at your sales team. Are all managers now at their workplaces. Probably not. Someone is at a meeting, someone is on a business trip, someone is at lunch, and someone left, on behalf of the accounting department ... or went to the stationery store for paper ... but you never know how many other things in the office that can be lost on an hour or even an hour and a half.
It is possible that some types of work indirectly affect the results of sellers: preparing a contract, mailing correspondence, preliminary calculations, booking a hotel or tickets. But if all this takes at least 20% of the seller's time from the main work, then you will lose at least the same amount in profit.
You pay the manager a salary - this is the amount that is the payment for everyday mandatory operations. You also pay a percentage of sales - this is the premium part for its immediate results. But in practice, you pay for his trips to the store, and long calculations of the cost of the first batch, and the execution of accompanying documents, and much more you pay for, without even knowing how much money passes by.
But the most interesting thing is that the question: “Where have you been? ”, - they will answer you, with complete confidence in their eyes and voice: “So the paper is over, the delivery is long to wait, but urgently needed - so I ran away quickly ...” (1 hour). The congruence of what is happening will confuse anyone, but ...

In any case and under any circumstances - the SELLER MUST SELL!

If this is not the case, you are losing money. Even if the manager is the only one who can go for the ill-fated paper, let him go Chief Accountant Otherwise, he won't find a job in the future. By the way, from an accountant, especially the main one, you can hear the opposite: “This is not the task of accounting”, - remember, this is your accounting department, and YOU pay them, so what they will do is up to you to decide, this is so - by the way.
How to solve this problem?
First, you need to find out: how much "working time" the sellers spend "left". This is done with the help of working hours. Every day, managers must fill out a form in which they record everything, absolutely everything, the operations that they do during the day (the more detailed, the better). Opposite each operation, they put the start and end time of work on it. This must be done within a week, at least. Most likely, you will not wait for applause from your employees when you tell them about the innovation, this is normal. Explain that this is being done for their own good, and you just need to understand: are they overloaded, that the measure is forced and only for one week, in the end: “I am the leader, and I decide whether this is necessary or not.” Yes, and more, the data must be submitted daily. In the early days, literally stand over them, checking the filling.
This simple tool will allow you to seriously discipline managers - many unnecessary things will go away by themselves.
Secondly, according to the data obtained, it is necessary to divide the time spent directly on sales (cold calls, meetings, preparation for negotiations, repeated calls, presentations, etc.), and on operations that are not typical of positions. If you get more than 10% of the "left earnings" you need to take action. Which?
Everything that is not related to sales, and which was discussed a lot above, does not require special qualifications and deep knowledge. Accordingly, such work can be performed additional employee, with lower wages (usually a small salary).
For example, when making calculations, one manager spends 25% of his working time “left”. On average, one seller sells for 100,000 rubles per month, spending 75% of the allotted working time on this. So you don't get
approximately 33,000 rubles per month. This 25% can be outsourced to a personal assistant. Hire a secretary manager, or an administrator, or whatever you call him, for a minimum salary (15,000 rubles, for example, for a part-time student is not bad money), and this secretary can work for two, or even three managers: preparing documents, answering on the email making simple calculations, agreeing on the time and place of the meeting, booking tickets, hotels, etc. She will do anything that robs the manager of precious capital - the time you pay for.
An assistant, for 15,000 rubles, will pay for itself in the first month, and your salespeople will like this form of work, when you can prepare papers for signing a contract without waiting for the end of the meeting.
By the way, more about the benefits of timekeeping of working hours. Pay attention to the amount of time spent on reporting, it should be no more than 15 minutes a day (if the reports are daily).

It is with the fixation of current business processes that the restructuring of the company begins in order to radically change the situation and increase sales at times. How it's done?

You need to highlight the main stages that a transaction goes through on its way from application to payment. This path cannot be too long. Each stage should represent a truly significant stage on the path to the sale. No “thinking”, “under agreement”, “in work”. Try to make the business process look something like this.

1. Contact (cold call, application from the site, etc.)
2. Proposal (meeting, presentation)
3. Invoicing
4. Payment
5. Upsell

As soon as the business process is verified and fixed, it is necessary to provide its phased support in CRM. This will automatically give you the ability to build sales funnels. With this tool, you can visualize how things are with sales in the company.

Funnels must be built in accordance with business processes. We recommend controlling sales by at least 7 types of funnels.

Funnel for new customers

The lead conversion business process needs to be tracked separately. This is what will make up the bulk of the company's current sales in the future.

Funnel for current customers

A company cannot survive on new customers alone. The primary sale is much more expensive than the secondary one. Therefore, follow the corresponding funnel for the sales process for the current base. Never leave it unattended.

Funnel by channels

Build your funnel for each channel. This way you will see which ones really work and which ones are a "black hole" in the marketing budget.

Product Funnel

Track product funnels. This way you will know what sells worse or better and you can adjust, for example, your purchasing strategy.

Funnel by target audience

You should segment all customers in the database according to their consumer behavior and monitor the dynamics of sales in each segment. This will make it easier for you to target your selling proposition.

Employee Funnel

Build personal funnels for each employee. This way you can identify problematic stages and adjust the work on an individual basis.