Ideas to Boost Product Sales
The truth is there are many more than 10 ways to boost product sales. When the JUG Team assesses a client’s business situation, looking across sales data, analytics, the business landscape, and communications, we often generate 100’s of ideas for improvement. The next challenge becomes prioritizing where to work together to make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time. We look for Quick Wins first. We’ll come back to that in a future post.
Stop Oversimplifying the Funnel
Most organizations oversimplify the discussion around the sales or marketing funnel. It’s usually depicted as a single funnel and the tug-of-war discussion that ensues is dominated by whichever department has more influence. Old school thinking is that marketing generates qualified leads for sales who in turn converts them to customers. So, there are two funnels, a marketing funnel and a sales funnel, right? Actually, it is a bit more complicated. There are three funnels and the most productive way to think about these funnels is from the perspective of the intended audience and their intent. Instead of the tired tug-of-war between sales and marketing imagine everyone pulling together to benefit customers and the company.
Customer Journey from Suspect to Advocate
A loyal advocate who raves about your brand must first become a customer. Before they can do that they must know that you exist. The first funnel is the Exposure funnel where the aim is to create awareness of your products with a targeted audience. Activities for this funnel make it easy for your future customer to become aware of your product. The second funnel, Conversion, is all about turning prospects into paying customers who use your product. For manufacturers selling B2B and through channels the customer may be multifaceted with different people involved or influencing the buying journey. The third funnel is the Retention funnel where you transform customers into loyal advocates who rave about your company and its products. If you are skilled and lucky they’ll become repeat buyers and tell others how great their experience is when dealing with your company and using your products.
10 Funnel Tuning Activities to Boost Product Sales
There are numerous opportunities to boost product sales by tuning the performance in any one of the three funnels. Problems and opportunities exist in all three funnels simultaneously. We’ve identified 10 ways for you to take action. We’ve also included questions to spur further thinking.
Boost Sales with Exposure Funnel Actions
Turning Suspects into Prospects. The exposure funnel is concerned with creating awareness for your products and brand in the mind of your future customer. Make it easy for people to become aware of your products. Maintain a broad opening on this funnel to widen exposure. Then create more reasons for people to enter the funnel and engage. Eventually, you gather enough intelligence about your suspect either manually or through automation to qualify them as a prospect.
- Arm sales reps with effective collateral.
Do you have a collateral map? - Implement an SEO strategy.
What does a good SEO strategy look like? - Improve your advertising.
What channel is best to reach prospects?
Boost Sales with Conversion Activities
Converting Prospects to Customers. Prospects don’t pay the bills, customers do. The Conversion funnel is about moving prospects through a buying journey so they become paying customers using your product. You want paying customers to use the product and then provide you with feedback whether it is good or bad. All feedback can be useful to inform the health of the product and organization.
- Identify what prevents prospects from becoming customers.
Have you mapped the customer journey? - Appeal to emotion in customer communications.
How does emotion play into your customer’s decision making? - Add FAQs to give prospects more confidence in buying.
Do you have a roadmap of content to be developed?
Boost Sales by Empowering Advocates
Empowering Customers to become Advocates. Retention funnel activities aim to turn happy customers into loyal advocates willing to share testimonials, serve as customer references, and even participate in case studies. The most ardent advocates will participate in webinars and live events alongside representatives from your company. Advocates often tell others about your company and products even when you don’t ask.
- Collect photos and video of your product in use, to share with prospects.
Do you have a strategy for staying in touch with customers? - Conduct customer surveys.
Do you use Net Promoter Score with your customers? - Ask for testimonials.
What stories are your best customers dying to tell?
Take Your Sales and Marketing Further
Hopefully, by now your mind is racing toward new possibilities.
- Download the Boost Product Sales Worksheet and go further on your own or with your team. Contact the JUG Team when you’re ready to move these ideas to action and boost your product sales.
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