Increasing Sales Should Never Become Hard To Do!

More Effective Marketing

My wife and I like to spend some time in the outdoors.  When the kids were young and home we went camping quite a lot.  We would leave home on a Friday night all packed up for the outing.  We would return on a Sunday afternoon.  We would practice a typical American outdoor weekend at a campsite.  During that time we searched for our favorite 'spot'.  We found many campgrounds to try out.  Eventually we found our favorite one.  It became our 'spot' to go camping.

We live on the east side of Mount Hood in the Northwest.  The campground we adopted was located on the northwest side of Mount Hood.  It was a special and beautiful place.  The setting was awesome.  Our favorite campground had about thirty small campsites.  It was located next to a full sized river that had rushing waters all year around.  We even learned how to fish in that river.  We have had a few fish fry's on the campfire.

One of the things I noticed about this little treasured site by the river is that it was often times ignored by the people who live nearby.  This campground was located very near a huge metropolitan area, Portland, Oregon.  In fact, it was located in the back yard of their huge city.  It was well hidden in the pines and behind   the huge freeway that led people out of the city for the weekends.  I noticed how empty this wonderful treasure was usually spaced.  It was never full capacity in all of the time we camped there.  In fact, out of the thirty or so campsites, the most we ever saw used was about ten.  It not only was a wonderful spot in nature, it also was often times ignored by the millions who lived nearby.  It was too easy to use.

Every time we drove two hours to get to this favorite spot, we noticed thousands upon thou sends heading out to go find their own favorite spots well past where this site was located.  Everyone drove right past the exit of this wonderful campground attempting to go out into the state further to find their own heavenly spot.  It is only human.  We will work harder to achieve less in our desire to believe it requires harder effort to succeed.  Going five to twenty miles was away to find such a wonderful spot too easy for the locals to comprehend.  As a result, they went further out to examine other spots that would do the trick.  Every single time we pulled up to this campground we felt like impostors sneaking in behind the locals to enjoy what they passed up.  It was too easy for them to see.  That was good for us.  The seclusion was part of the added benefit of the beauty we enjoyed.

Humans are very much like this story.  We have a tendency to make our work harder than it really should be to produce well.  We have this embedded illusion that good outcomes should be hard to achieve.  As a result, we often times drive too far to get what we deserve.  Many times, it is easier and more convenient to gather up success in the back yards of our efforts.  Sometimes increasing sales is easier than we might want to expect.  As a result of this truth, increasing sales should never become hard to do.  Make that truth your new rule.

With that in mind, do not get all caught up in the belief that in order to increase sales a huge matrix must be produced to manage your way through complicated efforts that require too much energy therms to produce.  This kind of thinking can irritate customers and frustrate the numbers that produce the success.  Increasing sales is easy stuff to do.  Do not make it complicated.  Do not believe for once that a monster plan must be worked out before increased sales occur.  That is simply not true.  If you fail to get this truth understood you will become like the many thousands from the city who drove right past a wonder of nature as they searched harder and longer for a site to congregate together in a second rate compromise.  Corporate America and small business America is famous for these kinds of moves.  Try to avoid the urge to support making it more complicated.  Increasing sales is simple stuff.  Just learn the art of doing the simple stuff more often.

Increasing sales should never become hard to do!

Page two.

New Sales Increases, Lower Cost Attempt

Since we are going to focus on easy production for increased sales, let's ask a couple of questions of ourselves.  Who is the best customer to attract?  Who is the easiest customer to attract?  These two questions must first be understood in order for us to do this work easily.

First of all, the easiest and best customers to attract are the ones we already have.  Many business models fail to honor this truth in their marketing plans.  We sometimes try too hard to go get new customers while at the same time, we forget to work on securing the current ones that have already determined that they want to support what we represent.  The ones who are already convinced are the best customers to attract.  They are the easiest ones to market and the ones with the best potential to grow our volume.  Do not miss this simple truth.  If your business model does not market this group in its proper efforts your model will suffer long term growth.  Get good at marketing current consumers.  Learn how to keep them secured in your fort.

One of the things I notice about many business growth efforts is that the focus is usually directed at attracting new customers.  Do not assume that your current customers cannot help your business model grow your new sales increase desires.  Those current customers may need very little effort to help them increase their trade more often with your business model.  Develop a solid plan to make that happen.  Honor and respect who they are.  Honor and show serious respect about how grateful you are for their current support.  Make it become part of your business culture.  These 'convinced' supporters of your business model will easily help to network new customers into your business environment.  Help them make that kind of low cost effort work better.  It can pay huge dividends in the long run.

There have been countless studies performed about how low the cost is to secure current customers.  Those countless studies also support how effective this group of current customers can become your best allies in driving new business.  So many times we get all caught up looking for a better campground much farther away.  Some of the best ones are located right next door in our own backyards.  Make sure to respect this truth.  Do not always believe that new marketing plans must become grandiose, complicated and expensive to be effective.  That simply is not true.  You do not always need to drive across the whole state to find quality enjoyment in your camping experience.  This is exactly the same kind of truth you can find in marketing for new sales growth in your business model.

Stick close to the current supporters you have already earned.  They have more funds willing to be spent in their remaining pocket books.  They also know people who do not shop where you operate.  They have a certain level of influence with those non-shoppers.  What's more, that kind of influence will likely be a lot stronger than the one you may have to 'buy' to convince the others to come try your business model out.  This kind of marketing does not need to be hard to do.

I am suggesting that you not only offer some kind of customer appreciation stuff in the marketing design of your business model, but with today's wonderful technologies, create some deeper and more personal marketing policies of touch.  Get closer to your current supporters.  Do some of the really special stuff you would expect a great business model to do.  Find a clean and effective way to market your current customers.  There are literally thousands of things you can do that would not drive up the cost of your marketing efforts.  The potential return from these efforts is very attractive.  Sales growth will and should be a more simple thing to do when you include your current customers in the mix.  It sounds to good to be true. Unfortunately, many business models skip it because they do not consider it an effective way to produce new sales.  Oh well, that just leaves your model with all of the effective fun.

Get good at making increased sales a simple thing to do.  It should never become hard to do.  That is not the best way to go camping.

until next time...