Almost everyone is constantly looking for ways to increase their sales. There’s certainly no shortage of people willing to sell their sales ideas. There is SPIN selling, partnership selling, winning through intimidation, Guerilla Marketing tactics, non-intimidation sales, attraction strategies, solicitation strategies, Instant Income strategies and hundreds of others, too numerous to make a thorough listing here.

When you look at all these strategies, how do you tell what is right for you and your business?

Whether you are in a retail business, a product sales business or a service based enterprise, there are only 3 fundamental ways to increase your sales. By keeping these in mind, you are better able to clarify which strategies will help you, and which ones will only confuse you. They are:

1. Bring more customers through your doors.
2. Increase your dollar volume and profit, per transaction.
3. Have customers come back more often.

Bring In More Customers

The first way to increase your sales is to bring more people the opportunity to buy from you. Get in front of more people. This is where your lead generation strategies come in to play. The question to ask yourself is, “What do I need to do to attract more people to buy my stuff?”

This varies fairly widely based on the type of business you are operating. A retailer of inexpensive women’s accessories may use strategies of: Where to locate – which mall to be in, where to get positioned in that mall; what types of sales to have, where to advertise those sales; and how to maximize the traffic that is available by integrating with mall initiatives.

A home spa retailer by contrast, may use trade shows and home fairs as main strategies to gain new customers. An engineering firm may work almost exclusively through word of mouth, while another similar firm might work through joint ventures with other businesses.

For a small business, "bring in more customers" strategies eventually lead to word of mouth. If you are good at what you do, word of mouth strategies will be the strongest ones for you long term. If you’re not good at what you do, the market will make you pay, either by forcing you to be the low price alternative, or forcing you out of business all together.

Find ways to remind your customers that your business grows by referral. Good referral strategies allow you to grow most cost effectively. Refer to our earlier article on Referral Business…

Sell More And Increase Your Profit On Each Sale

The second way to increase your sales is to sell more and get higher profit from each customer who comes through your doors. Making sure that you’re growing profits is one of the most important ongoing tasks that you have in your business, and one that is often ignored. Profit is the oxygen of your business. Without it your business dies!

Suggestion selling works to sell more. A simple and effective example is, “Would you like fries with that?” McDonald’s determined that asking that question of every customer increased fries sales by 30%. Take a look at how to bundle your products or services, to increase the transaction value per customer.

Having a bundle tactic is similar if it’s a camera shop or your interior design business. A camera shop could have an add-on tactic to sell a bundled data card and extra battery pack with the sale of each new camera; an Interior Design business could offer bundled packages like kitchen, bath remodels; paint, color and accessory makeovers, etc. This strategy can have an interesting affect on your overall sales level.

A similar strategy is to always offer a deluxe model as a higher cost option. The key to making this work is in making sure the deluxe model is the better value in performance, function or reliability.

A different way to position this is to have a specific good, better, best selection. Studies and testing have shown that this increases sales at both the high and low end, especially when sales people are coached to demonstrate that the highest value is in the “best” option. The bonus is that you still get the low price shoppers buying the "good" option as well.

Exclusive buying clubs with membership fees are another source of profit for frequent purchase businesses. Your potential customer pays a one-time fee to become a member in return for reduced prices and other benefits not available to the general public. The fee can be assessed yearly or it can be a larger lifetime fee. Costco and other “wholesale” buying operations make this a core business strategy.

Creativity in bundling, packaging and positioning add opportunities that will have a positive affect on your bottom line profits. Don’t overlook the simplicity of suggestion selling extra value bundles, to boost your sales.

Have Customers Come Back More Often

Gaining more repeat business is the third category to increase your sales. If you have ways that make it easy and rewarding for your customers to buy more often from you, your customer loyalty will increase with your sales. This is where customer loyalty cards came from. Buy 10 cups of coffee or car washes and get the next one for free. Fly the friendly skies on our airline and/or stay at our hotels and you get points to stay for free in the future.

Your customers will come back more often if you make it easier to do repeat business with you. If you know their situation, it just makes sense to go back to you.

For example, I don’t want to shop around for a new dentist every time I need my teeth cleaned. I stick with the dentist I have, unless they give me a reason to leave, or I move. However, dentists know that unless they call their patients, they are not inundated with repeat business. People avoid the Dentist! So they build active repeat business through follow-up calls and other strategies to keep their patients coming back.

An online example is one-click ordering from Amazon or iTunes. Multiple repeat buys of books and music are easier since you're not filling in a form again.

What might you do in your business? Thinking through strategies in each of these three categories, you will find it easier to come up with new ways to increase your sales, which sales strategies will fit and grow your profits too.