Written by: Ang Onorato, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Business owners are always stressed over how to increase their sales, gain more loyal & repeat customers, reduce costs and increase profitability.
Sounds like a magic pill for “do more marketing”, doesn’t it?
But spending more time and money on expensive marketing and advertising are not always the magic bullets you think. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the marketing channels available today such as: websites, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, social media, pay-per-click ads, virtual seminars, master classes, podcasts, blogs and so on.
Instead, try looking deeper inside your business by focusing on the following activities and you will see your revenues…and profitability (the real measure of business success) dramatically increase!
Start with the 20%
Think about the 80/20 Principle. As a busy business owner, you may not be aware that connecting the dots of this well-known principle states that only 20% of your daily activities are generating 80% of your total revenue. When you break it down, that 20% is made up of these 5 important areas:
Leads
Conversion
Transactions
Pricing
Profit
Let’s take a look at the profit growth calculator below. In this example, you can see the dramatic effect a 5% change in each of these areas can have on your overall revenue and profitability.
By simply bringing in 100 more leads (we’ll get to that in a minute), converting just 2.5% more of those leads, getting 1 additional transaction per customer and increasing your price by $10 (from $ 100 to $ 110), you will realize a revenue increase of $ 37,990!
Imagine how much revenue you can find with a 10%, 20%...or even a 50% increase in these 5 areas??
So how do you start to make a 5% shift across the board in your business?
Let’s explore that further.
The following are just a few key activities any business can do that will create a ripple effect of revenue and profitability across your enterprise – before even dropping another nickel on paid marketing.
1. Create a Strong Market Dominating Position
To differentiate your business, you must communicate to your target customer what makes you unique. Your messaging must clearly demonstrate how your product and services solve both their internal pains (as a buyer) and external needs (the problem the company needs to solve).
An effective market dominating position gives the buyer what they really want – not just what they need. It’s not about features and benefits or a special discount offer, how many years you have been in business …or even what morning TV Show you may have appeared on.
It’s about getting your buyer to know that you understand them and offer a solution that gets them…. RESULTS.
Use this approach to confidently and effectively create websites, emails, and social engagements that work to increase your leads, without spending hard-earned revenue on another consultant or agency.
“The customer expects you to have knowledge of their stuff, not just your stuff." — Jeffrey Gitomer (Author of NY Times Bestseller “Little Red Book of Selling”)
2. Follow The Conversion Equation
You don’t need an expensive website! Simply update the messaging on your website to communicate to your ideal clients how you are unique and offer a clear “market dominating position” that gets results – versus just touting your products or services or offering a discount - you will see explosive results.
Most guru’s will tell you to focus your efforts on your social media platforms over your website.
However, updating your website’s messaging is vital to addressing the conversation that’s taking place in EVERY prospect’s mind around two major points…. 1) is the problem they have and don’t want and 2) is the result they want but don’t have.
You want your messaging to solve both problems for them.
I teach my clients a content formula that takes these two points into account and creates a message so compelling it practically forces prospects to buy what you sell.
It’s called the Conversion Equation and it looks like this – Interrupt, Engage, Educate and Offer. The Conversion Equation is a simple step-by-step process we use to gain the client’s attention (interrupt), connect with them (engage), introduce the results we can help them achieve (educate) and ultimately, to extend an offering (offer) to make it all possible.
Tweaking your website messaging in this way will create more visibility (which generates leads), shows how you fix your clients’ problems (which drives more conversions). Then offer them a unique product bundle (resulting in more transactions) and increase the price by 5% (drives revenue) and you will see a definite increase in your bottom line.
3. Joint Ventures Drive More Leads
A joint venture (JV) involves two or more businesses who decide to form a partnership to promote both companies. Think of a wedding florist. They create a JV with other businesses in an “event chain”. In this example, the event chain includes the jeweler, photographer, DJ, invitation printer, and so on.
Referring, endorsing and bundling together is a massive win-win for each business. Try to position your business to be in the middle of an event chain so you can benefit from referrals and bundles on both ends of the chain.
Using our wedding florist example, let’s say the jeweler recommends a bakery for the cake; then the bakery refers the florist. The florist, in turn, then refers the DJ. The florist will benefit from referrals and partnerships with both the bakery and the DJ because they are right in the middle of both businesses in the event chain.
4. Prevent Customers from Slipping Away – Downsell Them Instead!
All the gurus talk about upselling, creating complicated sales funnels and using expensive advertising. Try downselling instead! Downselling is nothing more than offering a product as an alternative to your flagship offer, at a fraction of the cost.
You will turn a prospect into a client, admittedly at a lower financial benefit to you initially – but this gives you the opportunity to engage with the client which makes it likely you’ll do business with them again in the future. The customer will start to “know – like – trust” you because you are not using high pressure tactics or an annoying funnel.
And you didn’t let them leave without purchasing at least something of value.
There is so much potential already IN your business, you don’t need to spend more money ON it in order to increase revenues!
Ang Onorato, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Ang Onorato specializes in helping budding entrepreneurs launch their unique business ideas and goals into business realities. She is also a leader in business operations, growth strategies, human capital management, and mindset and success coaching. As Founder of JoyMark Success Coaching, Onorato combines over 25 years’ experience in corporate leadership with her clinical psychology background to help mission-driven leaders create impactful businesses that align with their souls as well as their bank accounts. Onorato’s work creates a growth in micro-economies on a local as well as a global level. Her service offerings are based on helping leaders and businesses utilize her patented “Reimagine to Reinvent™” framework. She has a passion for supporting “mid-season” women leaders transitioning out of the corporate world or back into the workforce and helping them launch or scale amazing businesses. Onorato offers individual and group coaching as well as strategic business and sales & marketing consulting to businesses. Her platforms have been seen on: NBC, ABC, Fox, and CBS. Her mission is to help people: “Find their Joy. Make Their Mark.”
