In the era of instant gratification, where anything you could possibly want is accessible at the touch of a button, it only makes sense we want the same for our careers and businesses. We want our product or services to be an instant hit. However, in practice this is rarely the case. Building a successful business doesn’t happen overnight. It can take years of trial and error to find out what works, and what doesn’t, and sometimes figuring out what doesn’t work is just as important as finding out what does. So, while it might take us a while to get everything dialed in just right, there are things we can do to set our business up for success and get the ball rolling in the right direction.
Train like a boss
Staff training is a great way to get to know your employees and ensures they are up to speed with your product knowledge, standard practices and procedures. Training is especially important to ensure your customers receive accurate and consistent information from your staff no matter who they are speaking to. This will help build trust and respect with your customers, in turn, resulting in more sales!
Create a sales culture
Set daily, weekly and monthly sales goals for your staff. This lays out a clear path to success for them. Additionally, staff training shouldn’t stop after their initial new hire training. Make training and product knowledge a part of their daily routine. Quiz them on your retail products. Listen to their product and service pitches, coach them on areas that need work and praise them when they are doing well. Giving employees feedback on how they are doing allows them a chance to improve where they need to and shine at what they do best.
Network to make the dream work
Tell everyone about your business, whether it is your chiropractor, dentist or neighbor. Word of mouth is a powerful and free sales tool you should always utilize. Give away your services for free (when it makes sense). This will allow your services to speak for themselves. Use social media to tell people about your business. Attend networking events, team up with other local business and develop some cross promotions everyone can benefit from. Everyone you meet should feel how passionate you are about your business.
Start small and work towards implementing some of these ideas in your business. Maybe you can’t develop a full training protocol right now, but you can host a 15-minute retail sales meeting each week or every other week for that matter. If attending a networking event seems daunting, make it a point to at least hand out five of your business cards each week to new people to spread the word about your business. Set goals, stick to them and you will be on your way to success!