In our world, it’s a well-known fact that sales dip as we exit the fourth quarter. At least for most businesses, this holds true. According to consumer spending statistics, there’s always a significant drop in sales into the first quarter. The good news is that things tend to pick up as the year moves along.
For a sales rep, it takes a lot of balls to admit you could be doing just a bit better than you are right now – and even more confidence to try and shake things up. If your company is always keeping up with trends, then you know exactly what to do about this almost predictable sales dip. If not, then you’re definitely in the right place. Below are five key principles and business strategies that will help you both create and capitalize on opportunities to find success in the forlorn first quarter.
5 Tips for Boosting Your First Quarter Sales in 2021
1. Monitor Your KPIs Closely
Needless to say, it’s every business owner’s dream to achieve all of their set objectives. This dream is what pushes us here at Veloxy – to scale our company and reach out to as many people as possible. However, you need to know your numbers to make this possible. And of course, keep a close eye on your KPIs (key performance indicators).
Knowing your numbers means identifying at all times what your biggest growth points are. This helps you be more focused on right metrics and direct the company’s budget towards actualizing these objectives. If you want to define your organizations KPIs better, you can learn all about it here.
Similarly, you’ll need a business growth dashboard to track the KPIs and other important metrics. Datapine and Google Analytics are solid examples of KPI dashboards that offer interactive monitoring of major business metrics. For less analytical monitoring, checkout apps like Trello which allow you to manually input business numbers.
2. Do Some First Quarter Offline Marketing
When it rains, it pours all around. So if your customers are having a tough start to the year, better be damn sure you’re about to follow suit. Consequently, you’ll need to cut costs and diversify on your marketing strategies. One sure fire approach is to give free product to influencers. If they like it, they’ll endorse it – online and offline.
Likewise, you can reach out to radio stations and (you guessed it) give them products to give as prizes to listeners. Obviously, this will be in exchange for ads and publicity on your company. Malls, crowded places and events also offer a great way to directly market your organization. Just make some merchandise, display your wares, give out gift bags and meet all kinds of prospects. The main point is, don’t sit around and wait for customers – seek them out. Check out these and other offline business marketing techniques.
3. Grab The Bull By Its Money Sack
While you want to work according to the customer’s timetable, let’s be honest for a bit. Most people always need some kind of push or kick to get them off that passive and indecisive horse. Remaining passive is one of the top 5 reasons why sales reps fail to secure business. At the risk of sounding like a group of prepubescent boys, you simply won’t get it if you don’t ask for it!!!
I mean, if you’ve done things right, shouldn’t it be your right to be professionally assertive? Sure, there’s always the question of whether it’s time to close or not. But if you asked for little commitments along the way and sensed the reality of the opportunity, then taking the customer from second base all the way should be a piece of cake, no? Besides, if the customer gave you the cold shoulder on the smaller commitments, you can be damn sure they won’t put out come D day.
4. Always Exceed Customer Expectations
Now that you’ve assumed our pubescent boy, ‘go for broke’ attitude, you’re ready for the next tip. But unlike our rowdy group of boys, you actually will exceed your prospects expectations on all fronts.
It could be doing small consulting jobs free of charge or making deliveries earlier than stated. But whatever you do, you’ll find that surprising your customer positively always pays back. The surprise does not always have to be elaborate or costly. It’s the little things that will help you nab and retain loyal customers for life.
5. Follow Up With Everyone
You know the old saying too many cooks spoil the broth? Yeah, turns out the opposite is also true in the world of sales. When reps and agents get way too many prospects and proposals at their doorstep, they tend to lose interest quick. Before you know it, it’s on to the next one – the thrill of the chase and all that.
But when things get dry, that’s when you remember your good old customers. Instead of waiting until the first quarter, why not make it a general habit to follow up and keep your customers close. Make regular calls and let them know you’re open to any and all questions. But remember, there’s a fine line between following up and stalking. What separates the two is the following closer, “I can see you’re busy and would rather not play phone tag, how about we schedule our next conversation for..?” This little tip will help ensure you and your customers are always close. Check out our blog on how to close sales calls for even more tips.
Final Word on the First Quarter of 2021
Before we do our usual plug for Veloxy (What? You knew it was coming), there’s one more thing. Sort of a mini tip if you will. For god’s sake, sales reps have got to stop making decisions for prospects. Don’t assume they won’t pick up the phone or agree to a meeting or whatever you want. Let not your fear of loss and rejection keep you from being stern and assertive. Who knows, you just might be surprised at the number of yeses you’re getting.
To help you in your journey to understanding your customers, make sure you get Veloxy – the best plugin for Outlook and Salesforce. With Veloxy Engage (best email template builder in the world) companies can reap multiple marketing benefits that will keep them close to their customers. These include saving you time with ready templates, mail-merge, engagement analytics, email tracking and most importantly, CAN-SPAM compliant bulk emails.
Similarly, Veloxy’s AI Analytics, will help you keep track of all your customers’ needs, expectations and behavior patterns as they proceed. Sales leaders can then use this data to generate forecasts and predictions that will not only improve the overall experience of multiple services and business operations, but also help in creating highly accurate buyer personas.
Checkout 100s of 5 Stars Veloxy reviews in:
