The most common methods of growing sales include adding salespeople and removing non-sales activity; increasing the effectiveness of the sales team with sales training, advertising and motivation; expanding the market size by adding products and geographic coverage; and changing the competitive environment by hiring a competitor's staff or even purchasing a competing business.
But you don't have to be common.
There are a few very powerful methods of increasing sales that are more difficult for competitors to attack and have less risk than the methods cited above. Following are some of the best:
- Team-building
This is the place to start. A supplier with a great sales force and a poorly developed team overall is just another revolving door for customers and referral sources to enter and leave. On the other hand, a supplier with a poorly developed sales force and a great office team is likely to see that great office team become complacent or leave. The fastest-growing companies spend a lot of effort on team-building.
One of the fundamental elements of building a team is the shared vision. Shared visions are what crusades have been built on. It is a bonding agent that ties people to one another and each to their tasks. Employees must see the vision of the company as being worth their effort and time. Take the time to create and share a powerful vision.
- Pick the turf
One supplier had collected some of just about every type of patient and referral source imaginable in order to grow sales, but while studying profitability, the company decided to focus on certain payers and products. After 18 months, they had better sales results and better profitability from each sale.
Another company decided to pursue payers that other suppliers didn't want. They focused on acquiring capitated contracts from HMOs, adapting business processes to the contracts and negotiating cost out of the contracts. It resulted in a net profit margin two times better than the industry norm.
What these companies did is not the same as finding and pursuing a niche. However, “nichemanship” is another powerful way to pick your turf.
- Give customers what they want
The best sign of what a customer wants is what they are willing to pay for. Many businesses try to make the choice for their customers. The supplier does so by selecting the products that have the feature sets and price points they think are best. Then they justify the offering to their market.
The most successful businesses are those that give the customer what the customer thinks is best. But remember to do that, you have to ask your customers what they want.
- Make sales everybody's job
There are two thoughts here: one, that everyone sells the company's products and services; and two, that everyone in the company has something to sell.
First, great companies don't live off their sales force alone. Everyone in the company is selling the company's products and services at every opportunity. They can do this because they have built a team that takes ownership of the company's results.
Second, great companies teach everyone that they are selling authorizations, or selling the payer on cutting the check or selling the discharge planner on the next referral. Great companies show their employees how all of these tasks fit into the overall sales plan of the company.
- Get ink
This is marketing speak for getting press. Get the news media in your market on your team. Media relations is an important part of growing your sales. Remember that being “out of sight is out of mind.”
Have someone in your organization get in the habit of looking for the opportunity to issue a press release, such as hiring and promoting employees, getting a new contract, adding a line or winning an award, etc.
- Remove the speed bumps
For most businesses, “speed bumps” are restrictions that prevent people from getting a task done as fast they could otherwise perform. Look around, and ask what policies and procedures slow your people down. Find ways to remove or reduce the artificial hindrances to growing sales.
Wallace Weeks is founder and president of Weeks Group Inc., a Melbourne, Fla.-based strategy consulting firm. He can be reached at 321/752-4514 or by e-mail at wweeks@weeksgroup.com.
