Scaling business sales is the goal of every good entrepreneur. If you have an established business, with a defined target, a market share, and a certain positioning, you don’t just want to “float”. Your goal is to conquer new market shares and see your business grow more and more. Scaling sales is crucial for the growth and profitability of any business.
Being able to achieve this goal also implies improving the quality of your life, increasing the motivation of your collaborators, and reaping the fruits of your work with pride and satisfaction. Many businesses struggle with scaling sales due to various challenges and obstacles.
But, how do you scale sales successfully and without wasting precious time and resources? In this article, I will show you 8 factors on which to focus your attention to scale sales up to $1 million. The figure may seem unattainable to you, but by adopting the right strategies this goal is possible. Focus in particular on the following aspects:
- your offer,
- the channels to use,
- the processes,
- training,
- the analysis of the results.
To scale business sales, you can’t improvise. You must have a well-constructed action plan, which helps you define where you are, where you want to go, and what strategic moves to make to achieve your goals. Implementing the right sales strategies and techniques is key to successfully scaling sales.
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8 tips for scaling B2B sales
In the video, you got a taste of the factors to focus on to scale sales. I explained to you that reaching $1 million is easier than doubling or even tripling this amount. Businesses can achieve scaling sales by expanding their customer base and increasing revenue.
The reason is simple: to get to $1 million, there is no need for large investments in terms of human resources. But you will have to focus on new technologies and digital channels to increase the visibility of your products or services, learn how to generate traffic (online or offline), acquire new contacts, and finally generate conversions, i.e. sales.
It may sound complicated but it is not. Now we will look at 8 surefire strategies for scaling sales in your business.
1. Analyze the market and set up an action plan
The first step in increasing the sales of your business is to fully understand the market in which you operate. Focus on these 3 key factors:
- buyer persona,
- competitors,
- characteristics of the offer.
The buyer persona represents your reference target, the potential customer to whom you are addressing your offer. You have to make a real identikit of it: identify characteristics, needs, and purchasing habits. Knowing your audience well will help you understand how, where, and when to reach them, and manage to communicate with them effectively.
Similarly, identifying your competitors, and understanding where and how they operate within the reference market, will be useful for defining your positioning, and the space your brand occupies within that market. Proper sales training and development programs play a vital role in scaling sales efforts.
The first two factors will then guide you to outline the peculiarity of your offer: your competitive advantage, i.e. what especially identifies your products/services and distinguishes you from the competition. In other words, it gives your prospects why they should choose you.
Around these 3 elements, you will have to build a communication and marketing strategy, set up your action plan to increase turnover and scale your business. Utilizing technology and automation tools can streamline and optimize the scaling sales process.
Find out how to generate more sales and increase your turnover!
2. Differentiate your offer
If you want to increase sales, find products or services that are related to your basic offer. Imagine all the possible contexts for the use of your products or services. Several other related elements that you can include in your business proposal will automatically become apparent.
Differentiating will also serve to satisfy different levels of demand from your audience and allow you to increase the volume of business. Scaling sales requires a deep understanding of customer needs and effective communication.
In the case of seasonal products, for example, having an alternative offer will be useful in maintaining a certain level of turnover when the product or service you offer is out of season. When demand returns high, you can easily increase sales. Sales forecasting and data analysis are critical for identifying opportunities and scaling sales efforts.
3. Use digital tools and technologies
An effective way to scale your business and increase sales is to combine digital channels with traditional ones. In this way, you will have new ways to reach your audience, without limits of space or time, as digital technologies overcome all space-time constraints.
In this phase, all the information gathered during the market study, competition analysis, and target definition phases will be useful. At this point, you will be aware of the physical and virtual places where your audience is shopping. In the same way, you will know which paths have already been taken by the competitors and you will be able to conveniently enter those that are still uncovered.
To use new technologies effectively, you don’t need large investments in terms of resources, but specific digital skills to choose and use the most suitable tools to outline the action plan I told you about in point 1. Scaling sales often involves building strong relationships with customers and providing exceptional service.
In the following paragraphs, I will show you the channels and digital tools that cannot be missing from your strategy if you want to increase turnover. Effective lead generation and lead nurturing are essential components of scaling sales.
Find out how to implement an effective digital strategy!
Social networks
Social channels cannot be missing from your strategic plan to generate more sales. You will need to have a corporate social page that allows you to retain existing customers and get in touch with your potential audience. Implementing targeted marketing campaigns can support and accelerate scaling sales efforts.
First, you will have to choose which channels to use, based on the type of business and your target. Then develop a plan and an editorial calendar, i.e. a schedule of content to be posted. This will help maintain direct and constant contact with your audience and give visibility to your brand.
The digital professional who deals with managing the contents of social channels is the social media manager.
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SEO
Another strategy to scale sales in the business consists in taking care of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), that is to say, the set of digital marketing techniques that make your site gain visibility, allowing you to obtain the first positions among the results of search engines.
Being among the first results in the SERP increases the probability of generating traffic to your site and improves the visibility of your brand. In the medium to long term, this will also bring benefits in terms of conversions and therefore turnover.
Blogs
How to increase sales with content marketing? The contents must be interesting for users and add value, responding effectively and promptly to public requests: they must clarify doubts, satisfy curiosities, and provide useful elements for purchasing decisions.
Often the contents also serve to generate awareness of latent needs, i.e. hidden needs, of which the potential customer is not yet aware. Hiring and retaining talented sales professionals is vital for scaling sales in a competitive market.
Feeding your blog with valuable content will help you gain authority over time in the eyes of your audience, and gain their trust, to the point that it will automatically associate your brand with the solution to certain needs. Over time, the customer will be looking for you.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a powerful way to grow your sales. It allows you to get in touch with actual and potential customers using specific platforms, through which you can set up campaigns aimed at conveying commercial information, addressed to a defined audience.
Email marketing campaigns assume possession of a database of contacts, which you can obtain by offering, in turn, valuable content such as ebooks and mini-guides, through the various digital channels and tools I have already told you about social networks, blogs, and sites.
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Web advertising
You can scale your business sales through online advertising. There are dedicated platforms, such as Google ADS for example, through which you can set up advertising campaigns starting from keywords relevant to your offer. Each keyword will have a cost based on its competitiveness: the more the word is searched for by the user, the higher the cost per click will be.
Social networks (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) also allow you to carry out promotional activities. Through social platforms you can set up advertising campaigns, directing them to targets defined based on specific criteria: personal data, geographical area, type of income, and purchasing habits.
4. Start selling online
To develop your business and boost sales, seriously consider starting to sell online. If you have always used physical channels for your products or services until now, expanding your business to the network will offer you further opportunities to grow.
There are several solutions to sell online:
- with your e-commerce site that you can manage directly or entrust to a store manager;
- rely on marketplaces (for example, Amazon, eBay, and Facebook);
- sell in dropshipping or by entrusting the management of logistics to an external supplier.
5. Streamline and automate processes
To increase turnover and grow your business, you don’t need complex processes, on the contrary. The most effective way to grow your business is to simplify as much as possible. In other words, make procedures clear, eliminate superfluous steps, and make information flows fluid.
Simplifying also means automating some activities: resorting, for example, to sending automatic emails to predefined targets; standard information videos on the services offered, demonstration tutorials on the use of the products, and use of software to develop demand forecasts.
All these activities will save you many resources. Naturally, this implies relying on digital technologies, and undertaking a crucial process for the growth of your business: the digitization of the company. Leveraging customer feedback and testimonials can enhance credibility and support scaling sales.
Find out how to digitize your company with Digital Coach!
6. Outsource some tasks
Delegate all activities not directly related to the increase in sales: shipments and warehouse management, administrative activities, management and maintenance of the site and e-commerce, and promotional activities. Collaborating with strategic partners and exploring new markets can facilitate scaling sales.
Remember that you are an entrepreneur, your time and resources are precious and must be used to identify new profitable opportunities for your business and develop the most suitable strategic choices for sales growth.
Therefore, the more activities you will be able to outsource, the more time you will have to devote not only to strategy but also to data analysis, to improve performance and not just maintain results but improve them over time, implementing new growth.
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7. Train the sales force
To improve the results of your business, always remember that people make a difference. Human resources are invaluable. The sales force in particular represents the business card of your brand. Investing in sales training is a strategic move.
Your sales force will need to be impeccably trained on your products or services, and have in-depth knowledge. To manage the sales process effectively you need:
- knowledge of sales techniques;
- competence in handling objections;
- negotiation skills.
Don’t underestimate soft skills, those transversal skills such as empathy, stress management, problem-solving, and time management which, combined with technical skills, represent an extra gear, strengthen and complete the skills of your collaborators.
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8. Use analytics to improve performance
The last important step that cannot be missing in your strategy to increase turnover is data analysis. Every marketing initiative, communication channel, and sales tool offers you a very important asset: data. Regular performance tracking and metrics analysis is essential for measuring scaling sales success.
All this data must be analyzed and interpreted to provide an evaluation of the results to understand if they are in line with the objectives set and therefore identify room for improvement.
For effective data analysis, you must already define the KPIs (key performance indicators) during the strategy development phase. That is to say, factors indicative of performance must be specific, relevant, and measurable.
For each channel or tool in your strategy, you will have certain KPIs. Here are a few, for example:
- No. of shares and clicks, for social channels;
- Bounce rate (percentage of rebound), for landing pages and blogs;
- Open rate, for email marketing automation;
- CPM (cost per thousand impressions), in programmatic advertising;
- Cart abandonment rate and average receipt, for e-commerce.
To continue to scale your business, all indicators must be periodically measured to verify which channels convert more and better, which generates more turnover. The results will guide your future strategic choices. Scaling sales requires adaptability and agility to respond to changing market dynamics.
Conclusions and Coaching to scale your business
At this point, all the steps necessary to generate more sales and increase your turnover will be clear to you. First of all, you will have to start with an accurate analysis of the market and the target, to then define the peculiarity of your offer. Then convey to your potential audience the value of your offer, with effective communication, based on a well-thought-out strategy.
It is on the strategy that you will need to focus your energies, on identifying the best opportunities such as new digital technologies. Remember that developing a business is not a finished process but an ever-evolving one. As an entrepreneur to see your business grow, you will therefore have to open yourself up to innovation, which today above all means business digitization.
To do this, you can turn to professionals in the sector, with the experience and skills necessary to help you scale your business. Digital Coach offers you the opportunity to request a free strategic consulting session.
What are you waiting for? Start scaling your business now. We can help you!
I direct Digital Coach®, the professional training school, leader in training all professionals who work in the Digital Marketing & Sales field.
As a trainer, I have trained over 35,000 business professionals from over 300 large multinational companies and over 5,000 Italian SMEs.
I devised the “Digital Strategy Framework®” method, thanks to which since 2014 I have been helping companies to define and improve over time a digital strategy that maximizes the generation of turnover and online sales.
