by Paul Lemberg
In our modern business climate, most of us welcome all the help we can get in increasing sales through traditional methods, but you can also put some extra money in your pocket through alternative revenue sources. One of the secrets to increasing profit is to try something you aren’t already doing that has low overhead in terms of both cost and resources. Following are 18 ways you can bring in additional business and strengthen your bottom line. However, it should be noted that these are not long-term business strategies. These are short-term to medium-term tactics designed to put cash in your bank account within the next 30 to 90 days.
1. Hire a salesperson. Or, if you already have salespeople, hire another one. You may not be able to pay them a salary, so make it a position that is based completely on commission, and make the commission generous. And of course, pay their expenses. This will work best if you have a sales process in place and some kind of systemized knowledge that will bring them up to speed quickly.
2. Get some sales training. The Sandler Selling System is great for simple sales. Mike Bosworth’s Customer Centric Selling is great for complex sales. Of course there are many others, and any good sales training program will get your sales off whatever dime you are stuck on.
3. Start a referral program. This doesn’t mean simply ask for referrals, but do it routinely. Do it systematically. Have a method to ask, and have a method to reward people who do refer.
4. Add products to your back end. The costliest part of business is getting new customers. Why not maximize your investment and sell those customers additional products and services?
5. Bundle specific services into a productized form. Give them a name. Make the price fixed. Typically, the productizing and fixed price enables you to sell at higher prices than you had previously set.
6. Raise your prices. Most people undervalue what they do and charge way too little for it. And many others discount from their list prices at the drop of a hat. Stop discounting, but if you must, always get something in exchange. Think tradeoffs. And raise your rates for both services and products.
7. Establish joint ventures. Find people who have something you need, like products or customers, and trade with them. Pool your resources. Pool your time. Create something larger than either of you alone. Turn it into a win-win situation.
8. Form strategic alliances. How does this differ from the joint ventures mentioned above? Strategic alliance partners are only involved in one aspect of your business – in other words, they may source leads or products. A joint venture partner is a deeper involvement. You’ll work more closely on a wider range of aspects.
9. Charge referral fees. You probably make these referrals anyway. Now get paid for them.
10. Join affiliate programs. This is simply the systemized approach to referral fees, and on the Internet, this is THE way to do business. In many cases, all you need to do is place a small add or link on your website. Your viewers will do the rest.
11. Sell a subscription to your service. Maybe a countertop maintenance program? Lock in the revenue and accelerate the payments. Then give your customers special bonuses or super service for being subscribers or members.
12. Create bundles out of all your existing products. Put things together and offer special pricing. This may lower your per-unit revenue, but it will increase average transaction size as well as total revenue.
13. Set up a Rolodex routine. This means going through your Rolodex or contact list, name-by-name, and calling everyone who looks promising. For something. For selling, for networking, for referrals or even just for a “how are you doing.”
14. Conduct a survey. Ask your client base questions. This process will yield great information about your market, and it will always bring you unexpected business.
15. Offer your services or products at a silent or charity auction. While this won’t bring in money immediately, it will almost always expand your client base.
16. Offer to let key influencers give away some of your time or product samples. Real estate agents, designers, cabinet shops, flooring centers, etc.
17. Focus your market. Many people try to cover too much ground. By becoming a noted expert in a tightly defined market niche, you can increase the power of all your marketing efforts, bringing in more business for each marketing dollar you spend.
18. Shift into an adjacent market. Sometimes your market niche is exhausted, and sometimes your customers are simply maxed out on spending. A shift into an adjacent market niche can bring you all kinds of new business.
About the Author
Paul Lemberg’s clients call him “the unreasonable consultant” because he helps them see the unnecessary limits they place upon themselves and encourages, cajoles and, at times, beats them over the head to take bold, sometimes uncomfortable and often unreasonable, actions to reach their critical business goals. He is CEO of Axcelus Consulting, a systematic business acceleration program helping entrepreneurs and executives rapidly create faster-growing, profitable and sustainable businesses. He also wrote a book: Be Unreasonable (McGraw-Hill, 2007). Lembergis available for keynote and executive retreats and can be reached via www.paullemberg.com. His blog can be found at www.be-unreasonable.com.
Copyright© 2014, Paul Lemberg. All right reserved. For information, contact FrogPond at email [email protected].
