I have been interviewing companies to learn more about their goals and strategies for the next twelve months. Growing sales has consistently been at the top of the list. Many organizations have suffered a decline during the last few years due to the economic slump and want to quickly get back to the previous sales numbers. Companies that have had stable or growing sales feel as though an economic rebound also gives them an opportunity to grow sales next year.
Strategies
The planned strategies to grow sales vary significantly due to the unique profile of each organization. A few specific examples are listed below.
New Product Development
Distribution companies can quickly generate incremental sales by finding new products to provide to their existing customer base. Relationships have already been formed with the customer and the distribution company often offers economies of scale by delivering a larger array of products on common shipments. New products also provide the opportunity to follow up with prospects about something new and different.
Manufacturing companies are always looking for ways to reduce product costs and deliver something that is better than before. New products often grow out of efforts to reduce product costs or improve product quality.
Customer Service
Customers want to do business with companies that are easy to work with. That translates to friendly, authoritative, and accurate customer service. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution purchases and enhancements are included in the 2010 strategy. The goal is to provide tools to customer service agents to help them respond to customer inquiries faster and to collect additional information about buying preferences.
Other Strategies
There many other strategies mentioned in the discussions I have had so far. Some of the others that were mentioned include:
- eCommerce - Sell more product online. Enhance brand name awareness with an online store.
- Direct Marketing - Collect customer emails and communicate with them often (with their permission of course).
- Community Building - Create an online community of customers and provide them the opportunity to communicate with each other, sharing their common interests.
- Business Intelligence - Improved methods of drilling down into specific aspects of the organizational finances to identify opportunities for cost reductions or sales growth.
- Web Identity - Improving the brand name recognition of products and services by improving web site content and implementing search engine optimization strategies.
Summary
A strong theme during the interviews was the need to hear the "voice of the Customer". Strategy development should follow the needs of the Customer. Often it is difficult to get an accurate assessment of what the customer really wants. The successful companies have done a pretty good job of understanding their customers.
Non Stop Portals helps companies identify and implement solutions for business problems. We have a network of partners to assist in developing improved financial, sales, human resource, and administrative processes.
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