2021 is officially 50% complete. How did your company perform through the first 6 months? Are you thrilled because your company’s on fire? Maybe your “meh” because you grew a little but not what you expected? Hopefully, you’re not lagging WAY behind where you wanted to be.
From 20+ years of helping supercharge the performance of small businesses, here are 5 of the top Reasons You Haven’t Reached Your Profit Goals in 2021.
#1 You not giving your prospects a decision hurdle.
When there is no timeline (a hurdle) to have to make a decision, people will procrastinate….forever. If the procrastination lasts too long the potential customer may simply lose interest, they move on to a competitor or you shift your focus to acquiring OTHER new customers.
Your proposals should contain an “Expiration Date”. It can be a few days or a week. When people know there’s a defined date, (decision hurdle) they HAVE to focus on it and make a decision – or risk losing out on the solution. And people HATE missing an opportunity window.
Also, you don’t know how busy you’ll be in 30 days. Maybe you won’t be able to take on another customer. Thus why you need to know if the potential customer is in or out within the next few days.
#2 You’re only focused on acquiring NEW customers. (Or it’s MOST of your focus)
I get it, new customers are the bomb. But they can be expensive to acquire and sometimes have long sales cycles.
There’s a huge source of new sales that can be closed much faster, with less expense – and normally for higher amounts: Your current and past customers lists.
These people already know, like and trust you – yet like most companies, you’re not keeping them engaged, excited and coming back for more. These amazing people are also a HUGE source of warm referrals – which are normally 70% sold on you BEFORE you even talk to them.
Most companies are so focused on new customers that they overlook this pot of gold they can tap and generate huge spikes in profits (quickly).
#3 You’re not tapping the goldmine that is LinkedIn.
Imagine if you had a listing of 740 Million business people where 67 MILLION of them were decision-makers. A list where you can see what these decision-makers like by reading about them and finding out what groups they are involved in, their birthday, work anniversaries and more.
You can get to know ALOT about potential customers BEFORE trying to contact them – invaluable intel for sales. This is the untapped beauty that is LinkedIn.
Looking for Veterinary Practice Owners in Florida? You can connect to 784 of them on LinkedIn. 3800 in the US.
How about CEO’s? 226,000 on LinkedIn in Florida. Over 22 MILLION in US – all that you could connect and converse with.
LinkedIn is simply a pot of Gold at your fingertips.
We’ve trained many people (and sales teams) how to tap LinkedIn and mine that Gold! One quick tip: Don’t sell. Connect and converse – then you may be able to convert.
#4 You discount way too much.
One of my auto repair shop customers figured out his main salesperson (he was paying $100k in commissions a year) was offering discounts to some customers BEFORE they even asked for one! Don’t be surprised if your salespeople are doing the same!!! (Yikes!)
This does nothing but kill your margins and profits. Give a fair price and do good work and at least wait until the customer asks “if there’s anything you can do on the price.”
Even if they ask, I’m a big fan of ADDING VALUE instead of discounting your price. Throw in some other low-cost high-margin service as a sweetener to earn their business. This keeps the customer and your bank account much happier.
#5 Your pricing is too low for the value your provide
Want to give yourself a 10% Revenue increase starting tomorrow? Raise your prices by 10%….now.
$550 is the same price as $500 in a consumer’s mind. $1000 to $1100 – same. $300 / hour to $330 – no one cares. Most EVERY business we’ve worked with can increase their pricing 10% without ANY repercussions.
Why? Because the VALUE their customers receive is substantially greater than the price. In fact, if the price is too low, the perceived value drops exponentially. Crazy right?
If I told you I’d grow your business from $250K to $500K in the next 6 months and the price to do it was $950, you’d be waiting for the catch. What if I said $2500 – still sounds a little suspect right? Not until I get into 5 figures does it even sound like a substantial program that can bring big results.
PLUS, isn’t that the customer you REALLY want? Those that will invest what YOU’RE WORTH because they clearly see the value you can bring to them.
So the BEST news is that you can radicaly change the results you get in the 2nd half of 2021.
Hope is not a strategy. Innovation, strategy and EXECUTION creates success.
If you can’t figure it out yourself, why would you keep getting average results?
Get help and go Rock Your Business! I wish you the best! – Steven Placey
How-to Videos and the Rock Your Business Podcast.
Get more tips, tricks and strategies you can use to grow your Shop with our How to Videos and RYB Podcast (be sure to subscribe via Apple or Google).
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We’ve seen the simplest of changes create a huge wave of new sales. Even a 10% conversion rate increase could mean thousands of dollars in new sales for you.
Ready to start putting more profits in your pockets?
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