How Hard Can It Be —
To Increase Sales And Profitability In My Business Now?

Every business owner wants to sell a product or service at a rate that will add profits to the bottom line at the end of the day. It can be daunting when your hard effort and ambition aren’t producing the growth you desire. The simplified answer is you just need to know where to look and what to look for.

First, look at your business model. Which business model are you using? Does it work for you? Does your business model fit your mission and your purpose? Or did you settle into a business model you knew without considering if it was the right model for your objective serving your target audience?

Second, look at whether you want to be in a practice, a business, a franchise or a mini—conglomerate? Each format has its own pluses/minuses. What’s the best fit for your product/service and you?

I’ve known lawyers who were very successful in a private practice. I’ve known other lawyers who soared only after they built a mini-conglomerate.

Some businesses are unique like an artist. Others are easy to clone – leading to franchise opportunities, like a donut or coffee shop. Don’t rule out opportunities until you explore each one.

Increasing sales alone is not always the answer to improving the bottom line. When you track tangible and hidden costs associated with increased sales, did you really net greater profits? Indeed, as Steven Covey suggests: you need to sharpen the saw.

There are numerous strategies to try when you are aiming for increased sales. They don’t always mesh well with a goal of increased profits. One or the other needs to play second fiddle – at least until you fine- tune your efforts to get optimum results.

Options

You have many options to increase sales and many options to increase profitability. Below, I’ve listed three of each. You do not need to be locked in to anyone. In fact, the more rigid you are, the harder it is to grow your business or your profits.

  1. Serve more customers – When you know your average sales revenue per customer and focus on bringing in a % of new customers, you can calculate your projected sales increase just by adding new customers.
  2. Increase the add-on sales for each customer – When you know your average sales revenue per customer and develop an add-on strategy to increase each sale by a % or a fixed amount, you can calculate another projected sales increase just by up selling each existing customer.
  3. Increase the lifetime value per customer – When you calculate the projected sales/customer, include the initial sale, the lifetime add-on sales (parts, reorder, additional services/products, upgrades), and referral sales. Build in incentives to cultivate those referrals. Try different ones, and track the net profits increase.
  4. Reduce overhead and fixed costs – To increase profit you can increase sales. You can also reduce costs. Consider each of the following: finding more economical suppliers, negotiating a better loan from the bank, moving to more a cost effective facility or location, eliminating some fixed costs, automating tasks and procedures, improving quality.
  5. Control variable costs
    • Variable costs can produce surprises that hinder your profit increase goal. Try redesigning your promotions based on a tighter marketing budget, downgrading the services you contract for, reducing staff, re-assigning tasks to staff lower on the pay scale. What is the cost and service impact? Is it an acceptable tradeoff or not?
    • Revamp your customer service program and charge for it at no cost to you.
    • You already have an established customer service staff and program. When you streamline it and automate it and then charge for personal service – it becomes a premium service (a new product!) your high-end customers will pay money for.

6. To increase sales and profitability now:

    • State your mission and purpose. Be sure every member of your staff and your extended support network can share them clearly and consistently in a way your prospects will relate to.
    • Revisit your business plan to be consistent with the business model you want to apply.
    • Create a marketing plan that is consistent within your business plan. AND be sure that you are motivated to roll it out. An ambitious marketing plan is worthless unless you, as the leader of your business really want to implement it. Establish a rollout schedule with staggered start dates for each piece. Otherwise you set yourself up for failure, guaranteed.
    • Be sure your sales message is clear, simple and easy for customers to understand. Identify the upscale branding perks in your business (like gorgeous office furniture, a big name PR firm, expensive marketing campaign). Assess the return on investment of each one in terms of sales generated and net profit resulting.

Conclusion

It doesn’t have to be hard at all to increase sales and profitability together. It does take effort and discipline. And it requires you to work on your business not just in it. The clearer your mission and purpose, the easier it will be to make effective decisions that will result in more profits now.