Part of our plan involves pinpointing specific actions for advertising, marketing, selling and promotion.
Today, let’s focus on selling and promotion. Quick actions include:
Sell
Cross-selling and up-selling are one of the most effective ways to boost near-term sales. Briefly:
- Identify customers with upcoming projects or outstanding orders and contact each one
- Focus on cross-selling and up-selling to these core customers
- Create special offers for higher-cost products/services at a reduced (but profitable) rate
- Find ways to expedite orders, shipping and billing to boost cash flow
Promote
Pinpoint one or a few public relations and promotion opportunities. Briefly:
- Issue one or more press or news releases
- Highlight new/interesting equipment and services that increase capacity and appeal to core customers
- Post all press/news releases on the website and add metatags to boost SEO results
- Submit a content-rich article to an online publication
General Issues
First and foremost, ABC needs to deliver all committed work while it works to revive sales. Second, it needs to avoid over-focusing on new or expanded opportunities and jeopardizing existing customers and projects through shoddy work or unresponsiveness. Third, in general, it’s easier to drive a five or ten percent improvement in committed sales than attract brand new, high-dollar customers, which is why cross-selling and up-selling are effective in such situations.
Bottom Line
Clearly, ABC Company is facing significant challenges. This plan is by no means complete, but it does emphasize specific actions the company can implement right away using its existing resources and personnel. It also ensures all customers are touched directly and indirectly through multiple channels, which in and of itself tends to have a positive effect on both near- and long-term sales.
What elements would you add? Eliminate? Alter? What next-steps would you recommend, if the 90-day plan is effective in helping the company weather this rough stretch? The only bad ideas are those you don't share.
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Related
Sales | How Do You Jumpstart Sales? [1]
Sales | How Do You Jumpstart Sales? [2]
Case Study | The Case for Cross-Selling [2]