Every business, whether large or small, makes use of sales channels. Whether they generate sales of physical products through distributors, engage in government service contracts, or even conduct training sessions as a B2B offering – the conduits through which they make money are essentially their all-important and indispensable sales channels.
These sales channels are vital to a business but are often not being utilised to their full potential. Now, business owners and managers have the opportunity to re-energise these channels and ensure their businesses reap more revenue. Here are four methods to add energy to your sales channels:
Give people information in a new way
Though brochures and flyers have become old and outdated due to the emergence and dominance of online marketing strategies, there is no doubt that they work. Why? They offer strong visual appeal and provide easy-to-read information about your products and core services to consumers. Furthermore, they can conveniently be placed almost anywhere. However, to create interest in these, it is important to ensure they are well-designed, attractive, informative and interesting.
Another method is to use hologram advertising. This creates an interesting feature that wows your consumer because of the technology and the content which you create with the hologram.
Partner for payments
Consider partnering with a bank or insurance company that offers a reward scheme to their customers. This will open you to a whole new set of potential leads and customers you will be keen to do business with you because of the benefit they will receive from their bank or insurance.
Give partners commission
This simple suggestion may be one that managers and business owners have considered, and found to be impractical. Yes, the power in the simplicity of this form of incentive is often undermined by some. However, what many fail to realise is that if they allow for a commission structure in their sales channels, the rewards-based incentive motivates other stakeholders to undertake the major work when it comes to making a sale or closing a deal. In this way, you can enlist the services of your partners, whether distributors or individual agents, who will help to expand your sales.
Consider new ways to pay
More and more these days, consumers are starting to wise up to the different ways to pay for the items they buy. No longer are they limited to debit and credit cards, and cash. Now, they can make use of a variety of ways to pay. Some examples are Masterpass, InstantEFT, Mobicred, SCode, and Zapper. Banks have also opened up more methods of digital payment like Apple Pay.
If consumers are changing their payment channels, surely businesses should be adapting too. There are some limitations to these various methods of payments as some rely on mobile or internet access and if this is limited then they may not work.
So, it is important to know the environment in which you trade and which method of payment would suit you best.
The lesson to be learnt here. Be realistic about your payment and sales channels, but don’t be too afraid to take risks. The aforementioned are some of the ways to reinvigorate your sales channels – and if well executed there’s no reason why they won’t pay off in the end.
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