When sales and revenue are down, it can be tempting to jump into a quick reactive mode.
Run a flash sale. Reduce prices. Give something away for free.
Rather than this spontaneous reactive behaviour, your time would be better spent on 2 things:
- Find the cause of the problem.
The sooner you know why sales are declining, the sooner you can fix it in one go! To help find the causes, look at any recent changes. Have you changed your pricing or product offering? Have your competitors sharpened their offers, to become better than yours? Have you launched a new website? Have you had increased customer service failures?
Overall, you need to evaluate if any recent changes have contributed to the decline in sales. Find out what caused sales to start dropping. If you’re struggling complete this first step, ask your customers! Send out a customer survey or call your customers, to hear what they have to say.
- Plan your way back to success.
Spontaneous, reactive and rushed actions will rarely turn things around. Rather, you need to formulate strategies that target the root causes, to fix the problem. This may take more time, but the end results will be worth it. By fixing specific issues that matter to your customers, you will be rewarded for it.
After all, there is no point reducing your prices if your customers are unhappy with your delivery times. Your sales will not increase if you offer customers a free gift with purchase, if your product does not meet their needs in the first place.
Find the problems. Fix them. Re-engage customers and find new ones.
Don’t make it any more complicated than that.
