Here is a quick Q & A session that will open your eyes as a business owner and possibly help you double your yearly sales. These small business questions should be answered by every successful marketer out there.
Q: Which items on your to-do list make money?
A: You should always pay attention to your weekly or bi-weekly to-do list. Notice which items are actually making money and which are just regular tasks associated with a business. Once you do that, you should recognize your properties so that the money-making tasks are first in your list.
Q: Which businesses already have my customers?
A: Search for non-competing entities such as other businesses, groups, organizations, etc. that are somehow connected with your niche and target audience, and work out a strategy to insert your business in this area.
Q: Is my pricing okay?
A: The key to answering this question is to know your competitors. A common practice is to undersell those competitors, but it is not always a good idea. It is proven that a higher price instills a sense of higher quality. The question here is which customers you are after and if you are targeting customers ready to pay more for better quality?
Q: Who’s answering the phone?
A: Customer service is just as important as your product quality, and many businesses keep losing tons of customers because they have not put enough effort into showing a caring and helping customer service. In a way, you should be prepared to answer all the small business questions coming from a customer, to succeed in this game.
Q: How good are my salespeople?
A: In order to worry about who answers the phone, you should have customers calling that phone number. If your sales department is not doing a good job, don’t be afraid to shake things up a little bit. Pro tip: reward systems usually kill the numbers.
Q: What’s my marketing budget?
A: Ads and marketing are expensive when you’re just looking at numbers on a piece of paper. How much is a new lifetime customer worth to you? How much are a hundred new customers worth? This makes that big number a whole lot easier to swallow. Consider increasing your marketing budget even if it means you need to increase your prices.
Are you ready to double your early sales? We hope those small business questions and answers will help you.
