One way to encourage sales during these awkward times is by revisiting your past. Your past can offer you a wealth of clients and opportunity, and arguably one of your best chances to encourage faster and larger sales with less time and upfront cost.
Go through your client list. Take a look at who has recently utilized your services and who you haven’t checked in on recently. Although your ultimate goal is to stimulate sales, determine your best approach by gauging your client’s current frame of mind.
In these times, I see our clients as having one of three possible mindsets. Being mindful of these will go a long way toward maximizing your time and encouraging your sales.
The first group has an encouraged mindset. This group sees these times as opportunities for advancement. They know that recessions can lead to growth, and this group is buying.
Next up are those who are taking a more passive approach. This group is not making any drastic moves. Their objective is to get a better understanding of today’s climate first. This group is cautious, hopeful, and prime for building relationships and encouraging future sales.
The last group to consider has a discouraged mindset. This group has little confidence and less enthusiasm. They are “making their pennies scream,” and in no way are ready to make a purchase.
If past customers are of the encouraged mindset, your approach should be to encourage them further, embrace their vision and positive attitude, and sell, sell, sell. Fan their aggressiveness and help them see how your services can help them achieve their goals.
If past customers are of the passive mindset, check-in with them, see how they are doing, get any perspectives or insight they are willing to share, and help them understand how you can and will support them once they have settled into their new reality. This group of clients might not be ready to buy today, but by helping them see how you fit into their future, you will be able to keep building those relationships and position yourself for when they start buying tomorrow.
If previous customers are part of the discouraged group, run. I’m just kidding, partly. For those of this mindset, I would suggest either seeing what you can do for them that does not require you to spend much of your time and energy or move on. While this seems like the perfect time to show this group that you are in their corner even when their chips are down, I would be leery of spending too much time with them because this group could become costly. They might be out of business tomorrow, and their mindset could become contagious.
Now that you have at least one way to encourage sales out of your own backyard, it’s time to see where your clients’ heads are, see how they are doing, what their needs might be, and how you and your expertise can solve their problems and add value to their lives.
Here’s to maximizing your ROI!
