12 January 2014
For every business, the goal is to sell more and sell often. Employing an army of salespeople and having boots on the ground isn’t always an effective solution. There is a simple reason for that - you just can’t meet all your customers on your own.
In an era when a downtown boutique could turn into a multinational e-commerce juggernaut by just installing an open source shopping cart, it’s unwise not to explore avenues to improve your bottom line.
Each and every customer is unique. Their purchasing cycles vary and so does their buying process. A sound customer persona strategy will help streamline the sales pipeline. But, eventually the onus is on you to smooth things over for your customers to buy something from you without asking them to get out of their comfort zone.
Bob always likes to visit a store, play around with the product before paying up. John on the other hand likes to order stuff from the comfort of his couch. Jenny trusts the judgment of Jason, her vendor and always places orders through him. So, a one size fits all sales strategy is a deterrent to expanding your customer base.
Hard work does have a substitute, it’s called smart work. The more a business starts to think out of the box, the more profitable it eventually becomes. Multi channel sales is smart work. There are a handful of reasons in favor of taking the multiple channel route, but, the three prominent ones are:
Low Burn Rate - Multi channel selling often offers your business the shortest route to profitability. Either you get to leverage technology or to ride on somebody else’s coat tails to make a sale. For instance, it costs significantly less to sell through online outlets, multi brand retail stores, mailing lists etc. when compared to employing dozens of people full time.
Mindshare - Why let the opportunity to put your brand in front of your potential customers pass? It makes the decision easy for customers if your brand is seen on the store shelves, mail order catalogs and then at your exclusive outlet. The brand recall value improves and if a customer isn’t buying your offering now, he’ll eventually.
Spike in Sales - You’ll see a visible increase in the volume of sales and revenue. A channel partner or a super stockist might take a cut, but, it’s always going to be lower than doing it on your own. Besides, by way of bundling for cross selling and upselling, you can mooch some brand value from the other offerings in the bundle. It totally works in favor of your brand of chips if is offered alongside Coke for $2.99!
It takes a lot of research and homework to figure out the channels that’ll work for your business. Good old market research and competition analysis are two quick ways to ascertain the channels that are the right fit and profitable.
So, you have found five different channels to push your offerings through. What next? In such a scenario, resisting the urge to bite more than you can chew is strongly advised. Instead of jumping on all the opportunities, start by embracing one new channel at a time. This helps in improved focus and allocation of resources to make the most of out of the new found marketing channel.
It also helps to align your expansion plans with a bit of logic in the background. After tapping the super stockists and distributors channel, it’s easier to reach out to supermarkets, brick and mortar stores and the like. The transition will be smooth and you stand to benefit from the network effect.
Expanding your sales pipeline is a stressful job and taking it slow makes lives of everyone involved way lot easier. In addition, the challenges and learnings from the expansion to one channel can be put to use when expanding to another. This approach keeps costs low, streamlines your resources and helps you stay productive.
The way sales channels work is different. From keeping track of inventory to marketing, payment terms and after sales service the approach in one channel is bound to be different from the other. Juggling with so many hats is going to be a tight rope walk.
Delegate the task of handling channel partners to people who know the domain well. Having a game plan for individual channels that you expand to is a smart idea. Learn the nuances of selling through one channel and try experimenting it in other channels as well.
As noted above, some strategies might work and some might not. Staying agile and changing course when a strategy is not working as expected is key to saving time and money. Also, adapting to channel specific requirements like dimensions of the packaging, white labelling your product or service will help you retain competitive advantage.
Alright, adapting and learning to boost sales in a channel is one way to fatten up your bottomline. However, in the quest to increase sales and revenue you should not let the brand image get diluted. Pay great attention to the revenue a particular channel brings in, the changes that you’ll have to make and the value that it will add to your business before signing the dotted line of a partnership deed.
As noted earlier, white labelling is a great opportunity to rake in money. But, it doesn’t work for all businesses. It all depends on whether you are into volume or margin business.
It’s true that you might get a few thousand dollars more if you agree to a steep price cut for the entire lot of your goods. But, when the product sits on store shelves right next to the competition at a flat 50% off, you could end up getting the tag of being a cheap alternative. It’ll get a lot tougher to convince customers to pay the sticker price in the future.
Another important aspect that needs attention is the consistency in messaging. The marketing push needed for channels is not eqaul. You might have to double down on direct sales, while you might need only half as much effort when it comes to in store branding.
Either way, keep the core of the marketing message intact. If you are business that believes in delivering stellar customer support and building relationships, ensure that the same is transmitted across all marketing channels.
Scaling up a business might look easy and tempting on paper. In reality, it takes a whole lot of preparation and hard work to make room for the new spike in sales. Scaling a business is a time consuming and ongoing process that requires forethought and extensive planning.
Shore up your infrastructure to handle the surge. Build or rent warehouses, beef up your logistics, hire new people - in essence, don’t let the growth pangs from hindering your efficiency.
It goes without saying that building scale costs money. The monthly burn rate is going to shoot up and keeping your bank balance healthy will save you a heartburn. It’s good to plan for a massive scale with a five year plan in mind. But, when it comes to spending, taking one essential step at a time is the way to go. You don’t need 100 employees on the bench for a project that might come your way six months down the line!
From order fulfilment to customer support, there is going to be a sea change in the way your business operates when you have a multi channel strategy in the works. Prepare yourself and your team for a new routine.
Educate your staff well ahead of time about the benefits of embracing new sales channels and how it will impact their daily routine. Train them to do things differently or efficiently as per the demands of the new channel. The goal is to prepare them well in advance for the extra workload and keep their spirits high.
If you aren’t already, utilize this opportunity to get organized. Put systems and processes in place and streamline your operations. Invest in technology to automate redundant tasks and help your employees stay focused. Make sure all business operations are integrated end to end. There is hardly any point for the accounting team to stick to pen and paper when every other is rocking a tablet, right?
Smoothen the sales management pipeline with the help of a CRM. When there are so many partners and customers to interact with on a daily basis, keeping track of all the leads and conversations becomes critical as you begin to grow.
Don’t let leads and opportunities to upsell down the cracks in the sales pipeline. A CRM ensures that both you and your customers aren’t left with a frowny face!
