smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

As our most recent poll shows, a fifth of you dread the sales process. SmallBusiness.co.uk asked how confident you feel when making sales and there was a mixed response. Only a quarter of you feel very confident when selling, while just under a quarter say you don’t feel very confident at all.

Not everyone has a sales background, and the image of the bright white-toothed salesperson knocking on your door sends most people in the UK running in the opposite direction.

Yet making sales isn’t just about going out door to door. If you get all the right elements of branding, marketing and a strong sales team in place, it can increase sales and profits greatly.

For example, Tony Massey of HH Print Management realised that none of the company’s competitors had promoted themselves as a brand, instead using heavy business jargon that was out of date and inappropriate. A consultancy was hired to re-brand the entire business and make them stand out from the crowd. As a result, the company saw it’s turnover rise by more than 300 per cent.

A strategy like this is just as applicable to a small business as it is to a larger one. To help you strive for the same, I put together some tips to help you to overcome your fears and a guide to getting people to buy more each time they visit you.

These steps can be as simple as grouping complementary products together or getting your name recognised in the community. The article can be found in the advice clinic section of this newsletter.

Another problem is stagnation. If you hit a ceiling in terms of your rate of sales and number of customers, it may be time to target pastures new. This week, SmallBusiness.co.uk spoke to the owner-managers of three businesses of different sizes to find out how they managed to redefine their market and generate more sales.

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