For many businesses, January is slowwwww. Customers are working through their holiday credit card debt, businesses seem to still be in a slumber and many are without their 2013 budgets.
While we always say the best way to be busy in January is to sell in December, December is gone as best I can tell. So, what can you do right now to perk up January revenue? There’s no reason to wait until February!
Let’s jump-start 2013 with these four easy, simple ways to make January great:
1. Use Your Team So You Can Sell: Move as much of your administrative work as possible to your assistant. The very best use of your time right now? Marketing and selling—bring in new prospects and customers. The more non-marketing/selling tasks you move off your plate, the faster you bring in a new customer.
2. Check In With Your Former Customers: I’m always amazed by how many business owners neglect people who have done business with them in the past. These are people who have already gone through the decision-making process of you. What do they require next? Pick up the phone and call to reestablish your relationship and find out.
3. Barter: Does your business require a service or product that you “think” is out of your budget right now? Try a barter exchange. Offer your service for free to the person who has the service you require. This is an approach you want to use very infrequently. You don’t want to fill your plate with free work, but it can be a great approach in limited instances.
4. Follow-up: This is the one that gets me. Over and over…and over and over…our clients say that they need to “start following up.” Ouch! When you have a prospect with some interest in doing business with you, why would you not follow up? I do understand it’s the norm…just not the acceptable norm. Eighty percent of sales people don’t make the second call. Put yourself in the 20 percent that do. There are customers waiting for you. Remind me to tell you about the Citrix sales person I said “no” to several times and didn’t return many of his calls and emails. He persisted (and he wasn’t annoying; he was trying to help me make a better decision that I just didn’t have the time to look at thoroughly), and because he did, he got a customer using a new product, and we saved $20 a month. The power of follow-up.
Now go make some money.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha Hanlon & Chris Williams
P.S. Check out this other way Another way to a better January to improve your January money. Most of you should be doing this.