If you are not watching your target it is very easy to completely miss what you are aiming at. In other words if you don’t keep your eye on the target you will very likely miss the target you are trying to hit. In sales the very same holds true. What is the real target in the sales game? Is it a sales increase? Is it an increase in profits? Is it to sell additional items? Could it be an increase in your personal income? All of which are terrific, but I would identify these as the rings of the target and not really the bulls’ eye.
The bulls’ eye lies in creating happy customers. Having a sales increase, a profit gain, an increase in your personal income and selling more add-ons are all a result of producing happy customers. If the customers are happy they are going to buy from you, buy more from you and thus increase your overall sales, profits and income. The question becomes are you selling your customers in a way that will cause them to not only remember you, but to refer others to you and shop with you over and over again.
Is shopping with you an experience that the customer will remember? Have you established yourself and your company as a “brand name” all to itself within your competitive shopping area? Does the customer think of you first when there is a need for your products and/or services? If the answer to any of these questions is flat out “no” or even “maybe” you have some work to do.
There are specific strategies and techniques that will cause people to become personal trade, repeat and referral customers. There are strategies and techniques to follow up with customers, to sell additional items, to turnover sales, to handle objections, and even to close sales in a warm, loving and caring manner. If you are not focused everyday at keeping your eye on the bulls’ eye, then you may wander off track to simply making sales. Sales are fabulous for your business today, but do very little for the future. Let’s all focus on the future!