Sometimes users write to us: “I created a website, but there are no sales. What should I do?” We answer.

Immediately after creating a website, each entrepreneur consistently has two tasks: attracting visitors and receiving orders from these visitors. The first can be solved with the help of the tools that we talked about earlier. The second depends on a number of factors: the convenience of the resource, prices, products, the availability of convenient payment methods, delivery and communication methods, guarantees, positive reviews, etc.

If there are visitors on the site, but no orders, this indicates that there are errors on it that interfere with sales and force them to leave for competitors. In this case, you need to identify and eliminate them as soon as possible. Here are the 10 main mistakes:

1. Incorrect display on mobile devices

Check the display of your website on smartphones and tablets. Is everything visible? Is everything displayed correctly? Probably yes, since he works for Nethouse. In any case, it is advisable to switch to one of ours if you have not already done so. Their essence is that all interface elements automatically adapt to screens of various sizes. This is very important as visitors are increasingly accessing the Internet and placing orders from mobile devices. In addition to convenience, responsive design is loved and appreciated by search engines.

Sometimes site owners unnecessarily complicate the order form and add not only the standard email and phone number, but also date of birth, passport number, and some personal data. Some even require you to register. Leave in the form only what is really needed to place an order, and all other data can be clarified later. The more fields in the form and the more stages in placing an order, the more visitors leave without purchasing anything from you.

By the way, not everyone is comfortable ordering goods through a shopping cart, routinely filling out a lot of fields. The solution is to add a " " link to the products. By clicking it, the client only needs to leave a phone number, and then the site manager will contact him to clarify the order. Thanks to this option, you can reduce the number of abandoned carts.

When creating a website, choosing a domain name and email is very important. Should not be used free domain view ivanpetrov..ru. After all, if your customers want to return, it will be very difficult to remember or enter the site address without errors. Also, don't confuse your visitors with email. [email protected]. Create corporate mailboxes like this in a few clicks [email protected] And [email protected] using the service.

4. Inconvenient site navigation

Visitors come to the site in order to obtain some specific information about goods or services. If they can’t find her quickly, they leave him pretty quickly. That’s why you need to pay close attention to the structure of the site and the formation of the menu. Possible mistakes: bloated menu, unstructured sections, lack of search, availability blank pages on the site and links to already deleted ones (404 error).

5. Prices are too high or they are not available on the website

If your competitors’ product costs 3,000 rubles, and you offer it for 10,000 rubles, don’t expect to see a bunch of orders. As practice shows, clients almost always compare prices on at least 5-10 sites. The next point that may confuse visitors is the lack of prices. Even if you are selling expensive equipment, indicate them at least in the format “from 120,000 rubles.”

Next important point. If you set high prices for goods, then users with the Yandex.Advisor extension installed in their browser will see competitors' offers with a better price. We have .

The peculiarity of any online store is that the product cannot be seen “live”, tried on or touched with your hands. The main selling elements are photographs. Do them yourself or invite a photographer. Do not use low-quality images, especially those with copyright from another site.

7. Delivery and return conditions and guarantees are not specified. No reviews.

Efforts to attract visitors to your site may be frustrated by a lack of information about shipping, returns, and guarantees. These are very important points, which is why many online stores include them on home page in the form of triggers, for example, " free shipping in the Russian Federation", "return within a year" or "lifetime warranty".

Also, a decisive argument in favor of ordering on the site can be positive reviews clients. Ideally, they should be from accounts, .

Sometimes it feels like some sales-oriented website owners want customers to never find them. Remember: the more contact information, the better. Don't be afraid to go overboard. Provide a detailed address, phone number, e-mail, opening hours, details, instant messengers, skype, online consultant, etc. Display the location of your office or store. Post additional . This, at a minimum, will emphasize your openness and inspire trust among visitors.

Another argument in favor of purchasing on your website is the opportunity. This is not only convenient and encourages impulse purchases, but also inspires trust among visitors. For some reason, some site owners think that it is enough to indicate the numbers of bank cards and electronic wallets on the site. This is fundamentally wrong and repulsive. After all, if the client makes a mistake in one number during the transfer or simply does not receive the goods, he will not be able to get his money back. On the other hand, if payment is made through integrated methods, then the client can always request a refund through his bank or payment system.

10. There are errors and typos on the site

Despite the many services for checking the literacy of texts, quite often there are sites with errors and typos. This also creates negativity among potential clients. To check spelling and punctuation, use Advego.ru/text or Online.orfo.ru.

Check your site for errors now and make it sell. Remember, you must like him yourself. Good luck!

Yesterday, in the Turbostart training, which we conduct together with Azamat Ushanov, a serious problem arose among students, which arises in most entrepreneurs (especially beginners).

I usually rarely pay attention to this problem publicly, because it is such a high priority for me to solve it that in some sense it has become a marketing reflex (however, it is with this problem that I begin absolutely any personal consultations with clients).

This problem is so serious, and its solution is so important, that without solving this problem, all other actions in your business become meaningless.

In part, I already wrote about this issue in the note “”. However, I have not fully revealed it until now.

So, you want to know what this problem is?

You may have heard the phrase: “The right offer to the right people”. This phrase implies that you convey to people the offer that they want to receive from you!

There are 3 key components here:

1. This is the very offer you are making.
2. These are the wishes of the people to whom you are making this offer.
3. This is your personality (or the personality of your business)

If at least one component is missing, or it does not fit in with the others, then you can forget about business.

Let me explain with an example.

Imagine a man in the desert. The sun burns mercilessly, thirst torments a person. He is ready to give everything for a sip of water, but then you appear and offer to buy him a miracle vacuum cleaner that gets rid of dust in seconds, freshens the air and does all this silently on full automatic, and there is a 50% discount on it only today!

Do you think a person will buy this vacuum cleaner from you? Obviously NO. Yes! You have a good offer, but the person does not need this vacuum cleaner now. He's thirsty. If you approached a housewife with such an offer, you would quickly exchange the vacuum cleaner for money. But this number will not work with a thirsty wanderer, no matter how luxurious the offer you have.

You just chose the wrong audience for your awesome offer.

How to get money from a wanderer? You just need to offer him water!

But there is one more nuance here. It does not always play a role, but it should not be neglected.

Remember the old Russian saying: “Take care of your honor from a young age?”.

Yes! IN modern world honor is rarely valued by its owners, but this makes it even more valuable to other people.

So, if everyone knows that you sell poisoned water and then rob travelers, then of course they will bypass you, no matter how thirsty the person is.

Therefore, the role of your personality (or the personality of the company) is very important.

Sometimes it happens that in one business sales are going well, but in another, where all the processes are the same, there are no sales. Why? It's about the personality (the brand, if you like).

So if you want to make big money in your business, then...

Make a great offer to people who are eager to get it from you!

Once you have found such an offer and an audience, then no further selling text can spoil your sales :-)

Vendors, clients...

or marketers?

This story is about how a free ad on Avito saved the client’s business, advertising budget and reputation of a marketing agency. This is also one of the possible answers to the question: who is to blame if there are no sales?

Fight the cause, not the effect

Hi all! Viktor Soloviev is in touch. I am writing this article as a cry from the heart addressed to entrepreneurs and managers. Be sure to read to the end.

I am sure you will agree that the key responsibility of the entrepreneur and manager (responsible for the final result) is to find the true cause of the problem and eliminate it. Very often we don’t see her and are forced to fight the investigation.

And this is the same as pounding water in a mortar - there will be no result. The Japanese have a methodology for finding the root cause. The technique is called . But now we are not talking about the Japanese approach, but about ours, the Russian one.

What does your profit depend on?

Most entrepreneurs focus their efforts on main problem in business - lack of new clients. There are clients - there is money. And vice versa.

Those who can secure a queue of clients have every chance of prosperity. This is why a modern entrepreneur needs to understand marketing and sales.

Money in the cash register = flow of applications + sales department conversion. There are only 2 elements: applications and sales, everything is extremely simple. But cash in hand and profit are not the same thing.

Profit depends on many components:

• quality of applications;
• number of applications;
• cost of applications;
• conversion of the seller (his professionalism, motivation, working conditions);
• value propositions (the product itself, its cost, availability, service, warranty);
• and so on…

All these elements are links of one chain. And if one link breaks, the chain falls apart. There are situations when you cannot find this link. And that’s exactly what my post is about.

What to do if the product is in demand, the price is acceptable, there are requests, the seller is working, and sales No?

So, from the very beginning.

Is only a good product enough for success?

It all started quite optimistically, no one expected any difficulties. Cool Cars had a marketable product and a working business model.

The guys are engaged in the supply of children's electric vehicles for sale to wholesalers throughout Russia. Cool Cars needed customers willing to buy children's electric cars in batches of 3 at a time (small and medium-sized wholesalers).

These could be rental points for children's cars, toy stores, children's centers, as well as representatives of other areas of business with related topics.

Therefore, a website for Cool Cars was easily and quickly created, where we talked about all the advantages of cooperation with the guys, and also showed the entire range of cars. We set up analytics, launched traffic – and the system started working!

There were enough applications - the cost was less than 400 rubles per application, and their number depended only on the volume of the advertising budget and the speed of their processing.

At the same time, the quality of applications was noted by the sales manager as high. Some of them were designated in the CRM system as applications with a potential of 1.5-2 million rubles. Over 3 months, the CRM system received more than 220 applications.

Who is to blame—customers or marketers?

However, after 3 months of operation of the system, not a single transaction followed. Yes, there were several private sales, but from the point of view of the working mechanism there was no result.

The sales manager blamed everything on the people who contact Cool Cars - he said that they were poorly motivated to buy, put off making a decision, and refused to place an order.

And, of course, before his manager, he transferred all responsibility for what was happening to the side of the marketing agency. Experienced managers already know that you either sell a solution or they will sell you a problem.

Cool Cars executives, of course, trusted their manager first and foremost. They were under the impression that we, as a marketing agency, had chosen the wrong path to begin with.

At that time, it began to seem to them that the strategy of attracting large B2B clients using contextual advertising and advertising on social networks was fundamentally wrong.

Our relationship with the client began to deteriorate.

Do salespeople know how to sell?

And even the fact that there were high-quality applications in the Cool Cars CRM system did not help build a constructive dialogue between us. The client saw only one thing in front of him - no sales. His excitement gradually transferred to us, because we sincerely wanted to help him.

We began to look for a solution and suggested that the client conduct a professional sales audit or try another manager. Of course the client was against it. It seemed to him that his manager was working normally - he answered the phone, answered calls, entered data into the CRM system.

Fortunately, I already had a similar experience when working with our other partners (“Nevskie Vesy”, “Izba”, “Tvoyzubnoy”, “Vira Stroy”). In all these cases, a change in the head or manager of the sales department led to an increase in the number of transactions. Therefore, I was sure that the problem was with the manager.

There is a fact: 2 containers with 360 electric vehicles have been idle in the warehouse for 3 months, and there are more than 100 potential buyers in the sales department! This means that the results of the manager’s work are zero. Meanwhile, we were approaching the busy New Year season, and drastic decisions had to be made.

Why is listening important in sales?

After long negotiations, Cool Cars management finally agreed to change the salesperson.

The director posted an advertisement for a manager on the Avito website. And in the end, Cool Cars decided to hire an Azerbaijani named Hti.

Hti began calling applications that had been contacted by the previous manager 3 months earlier. He approached his work with full responsibility: he looked for common ground with clients, offered various options cooperation.

But most importantly, he truly listened to clients. Didn't pretend to listen. But I really wanted to help, to choose the appropriate option for placing an order for everyone.

Result: in the first week of its operation, an entire container of electric vehicles was sold out! And this is for the same old phone numbers from CRM! It’s simply incredible, because these contacts were already cold. But even under such conditions, the manager of Hti did in just one week the work that the old salesman could not do in 3 months!

As you understand, the mood and degree of our relationship with the client have normalized. Confidence in us and in the chosen promotion strategy was restored. But the most important thing is that sales went up and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

And for me it became another case in the piggy bank. But the case is not about the fact that all the problems are on the sales side. It often happens that the problem is on the side of the marketing agency: low-quality applications or an insufficient number of them.

Out of 254 projects, we have already had 8 cases where we were the reason for the lack of profit for clients. In the near future I will publish cases about each of them so that others know how not to step on our rake.

Of course, it is unpleasant to admit your own mistakes. But it is thanks to these mistakes that we become professionals.

Therefore, this story is primarily about the fact that in each specific situation you need to look deeply and look for the reason - in addition to incompetent employees, it could be the price of your product being too high or the wrong point of entry into the market.

It is necessary to understand and take active steps to improve the situation: introduce trial products, test periods, offer promotions and special conditions.

Know how to find a common language!

When an entrepreneur and a marketing agency work together, active communication and trust are very important. Only when we have complete information about the applications received - about their quality, cost, sources - does it become possible to see the real picture of what is happening.

Unfortunately, not all entrepreneurs are ready to dive into such nuances. It is easier for some to conclude that the marketing agency has failed and needs to change the contractor.

But, as you understand, the real problem in this situation is in the entrepreneur himself and in his lack of desire to understand what the real source of his problems is. IN currently It is simply vital for every manager to understand the intricacies of marketing.

Your competence in this area will make you and your company stronger, at least because you will be able to objectively evaluate the work of your contractors. As they say, knowledge can only be verified by those who know for themselves.

Are you confident in your marketing? If yes, then go through our crush-test which will show everything weak sides Your marketing.

To be honest, sales can fall for only one reason: you don’t know how to sell. On modern market the consumer often purchases not the highest quality product, but one that is accompanied by a powerful advertising campaign. We offer effective solutions that will help identify your problem and increase sales.

You will learn:

• The main reasons for the decline in sales.
• What to do when sales drop.
• How to fix a drop in sales during the off-season.
• Why did retail sales fall?
• What mistakes of sellers lead to a drop in sales.
• How to stop falling sales in an online store.

We identify the reasons why sales have fallen

1. Seasonal drop in demand

In most cases, companies' turnover decreases due to the seasonal decline. You can download an example of calculating the dependence of sales on business below.

There are certain types of businesses for which a decrease in sales in summer or, conversely, winter is a common occurrence. However, the seasonal decline has a distinctive feature - it is stable over many years and does not affect the overall sales results for the year.

This feature should be taken into account when entering new markets. For example, in the CIS countries a significant drop in sales in stores is observed in the first month of the year. In European countries, the same situation occurs during the two summer months. In a number of countries, sales are falling due to extreme heat, which makes it difficult to work properly.

1. Customers are moving to competitors

Another common phenomenon in the modern market is that a company’s sales have fallen sharply due to customers leaving for competitors. Let us note that the latter often behave very actively: they dump prices and put forward new profitable offers. There is no way to avoid this, and there is no point in openly fighting with a more experienced player on the issue of lowering prices, since this way you risk incurring even greater losses.

Script that increases the purchase amount

1. Unbalanced assortment

To achieve balance, an enterprise should offer the buyer two types of goods: for turnover and for earnings. Of course, products for sale are usually highly competitive, but there is always a demand for them.

The balance of goods from the categories indicated above must be maintained taking into account the specifics of the enterprise. In some situations, products for circulation account for 50% of the company's total revenue. If you don’t pay enough attention to them, the demand for the assortment for earning money will fall, and as a result, you may face a shortage of working capital.

1. The product is losing popularity

Unfortunately, buyers often lose interest in various services and products due to various factors. For example, sales of household appliances may decline if more modern products appear or cheaper brands take over the market. A script that will help increase the purchase amount, despite a decrease in demand, is available for download below.

1. During a crisis, demand falls

Another reason why sales fell is the crisis. Almost all companies face a drop in demand for products during a crisis. And it’s not always that buyers don’t have money. Often, even if they have funds, consumers do not want to spend them and wait until the economic situation in the country stabilizes.

Often during a crisis, demand for real estate, cars and other goods falls. Russia went through difficult financial periods in 2008, 2014 and 2015. Again, due to the crisis in 2016, sales of household appliances fell. To deal with this today, read our practical solutions later in the article.

1. Excess of loans issued to citizens

There is an opinion that sales are falling due to loans. At first glance, favorable terms for providing loans only benefit sellers, since the population is more confident in buying expensive products. But there is also a downside - financial crises occur because of loans. Since getting a loan is so easy today, many people distribute their earnings in four main areas: pay public utilities, groceries, pay off credit card debts and make loan payments. In some families, more than 50% of total income is spent on paying off loans. As a result, in 2015, sales decreased significantly in many business sectors. Taking into account the fact that almost all loan programs are long-term, no one can yet find a way out of the situation.

1. Blame the staff

They offer buyers what is easiest to sell. If a manager does not have an incentive to sell products that are important for the company, he concentrates on products that are interesting to him, according to the principle “if I like the item, then others will like it too.” The specialist works in a hurry, loses sight of the moment when it is necessary to replenish stocks of products, or does not pay due attention to the display of goods. As a result, the store does not have a full range of products, and the client cannot purchase an important product for the company, which is simply sitting in the warehouse. Sales are falling, and the owners, not understanding what’s going on, blame it on the crisis.

• How to manage people in a crisis: advice from practitioners and psychologists

“Sales have fallen! What to do?”: 7 options to overcome this

Option 1. Develop a sales strategy for each client

Entrust your customer service team with creating a personalized relationship with each valued customer. Specialists responsible for retail sales must calculate the planned sales volumes for each brand and analyze the prospects for their growth, as well as the resources necessary for the development of certain positions. The responsibilities of wholesale sales managers should include control over the number of wholesale trade points and sales volumes in each of them. In addition, these specialists must analyze the resources needed to support wholesale customers.

For example, sales fell in 2015, causing customers to find it difficult to promote certain brands due to high costs. Neither the manufacturer nor the distributor wanted to incur additional costs, explaining that there was already a demand for the product. However, for the point of sale this brand was ineffective, as it brought almost no profit. As a result, he was replaced by another position. At first, the demand for the new brand was low, but the supplier, being very interested in promoting its product, made a lot of effort to increase sales. Promotional materials were provided, part of the advertising and marketing costs were reimbursed, sales training events, promotions, etc. were held. As a result, after just one season, the new brand brought in twice as much profit compared to the old one, which the store excluded from its assortment.

Option 2. In your work, focus on “stars” and “cash cows”

According to the theory developed by the Boston Consulting Group, any product goes through 4 stages during promotion:

• entering the market (stage “difficult children”);
• growth (star stage);
• maturity (stage “cash cows”);
• decline (dog stage).

In a developing market, most companies choose products that are going through the “problem children” stage. The distinctive features of such products are low share and high growth rates with certain investments.

When sales decline, it is best to deal with “stars” or “cash cows” (such products provide a wider market and a stable sales volume). If a company does not have the resources to promote “difficult children” to the stage of their transition to the category of “stars” or “cash cows,” then it is better to abandon such products.

Another group is “dog” products. They have low profitability and are considered ballast, which in a crisis can completely destroy your business.

Option 3. Do not agree to offers that contradict the concept of your business.

Now, when sales in Russia are falling massively, it is important to understand exactly what products the company needs and for what target audience, and what products should not be promoted. Every company is faced with the fact that suppliers offer products that completely do not fit into the concept of your company. By trying to promote a product of a different category, you blur the positioning of the enterprise. In a crisis, this “drowns” it - accordingly, sales fall.

Let's give an example. The clients of the lingerie store were mainly women over 45 years of age who were interested in classic and shapely models. The owner of the store, during a visit to the exhibition, succumbed to profitable proposition brand manager and purchased for sale erotic lingerie from the luxury line, designed for customers aged 18 to 30 years. The hostess really liked the models. She had no doubt that customers would appreciate the new products and the expansion of the product range would increase sales income. But the expectations were not met. Regular customers left for another store, and new ones never appeared due to the strengthened opinion that the assortment in this store is conservative. A year later, the owner tried to return the unsold collection to the supplier, but to no avail.

Option 4: Do not install special rates even for very profitable clients

When chasing a one-time profit, do not reduce the selling price of your goods, especially if you cooperate with large retail chains. Prices should not vary much. Otherwise, products may appear in retail sales at the price at which another partner purchases them. This will certainly have a negative impact on your image and you may even lose a strategic position.

Let's give an example. The owner of an outerwear store placed a large order with a supplier, divided into a series of deliveries. But after the funds were spent on advertising campaign For new collection and the first batch of goods was received, the store management was disappointed. In a hypermarket located nearby, they found the same collection, but with retail prices similar to the store’s purchasing prices. As it turned out, a large federal retail chain ordered goods from the same supplier and received an excellent discount. Given the decline in demand for outerwear, the store decided to sell the goods at a minimal margin.

Of course, this outlet never used the services of the supplier again. She also spread information about the incident to other sellers, causing the supplier's reputation to suffer.

Option 5. Entrust employees only with what is a priority for the company

It often happens in small enterprises that brand managers or sales specialists perform the duties of a chief accountant: they issue invoices, invoices, control prepayments and solve other similar tasks. This prevents the company from conducting effective sales.

It is necessary for the company’s employees to solve the problems that the company has as a priority at the moment. When a brand is just beginning to conquer the market, managers are needed who are able to discern the potential of the product and find an audience for it.

If the goal is to increase the efficiency of cooperation with existing clients, you need a specialist with sufficient qualifications to establish contacts and successfully maintain them, build a portfolio of brands, etc.

Working with mass market products requires a sales manager with an excellent understanding of their technology so that he can optimize all processes and ensure promotion through the distribution system of goods in maximum volumes with minimal investment.

The sales manager must imagine what the market potential is in relation to a particular Russian entity, what specific features it has and what capacity it has. For example, retail stores often ask for exclusive rights to sell certain products so that competitors do not have analogues. In this situation, the sales specialist must analyze the market capacity and ask a counter question: “Is this entity capable of potentially “absorbing” a certain volume of this product? Do you guarantee this level of sales? Of course, neither a retail outlet nor even a small chain can solve such a problem. Accordingly, providing them with exclusive rights to a product is a pointless undertaking. If a company cannot accurately determine the market potential, either a shortage or a glut occurs, which equally negatively affects its financial performance. It also happens that managers do not even have an idea about the number of potential buyers living in the region of interest to them.

Option 6. Work only with the best partners

To operate effectively, a company must clearly understand the benefits of cooperation with each partner. Create a complete list of enterprises - your counterparties, write down the pros and cons of interaction with each of them. Consider the specifics of your activity. If you sell wholesale, ask if a particular company will help promote your products in their area. If you sell goods at retail, determine whether you are confident in the reliability of a particular supplier: will he provide high-margin supplies of goods during a crisis? Thanks to this analysis, you will understand how important a specific partner is for you in terms of optimizing the product matrix. If it is clear that you do not get any particular benefit from cooperation and are unlikely to receive it later, it is better to stop working with this partner.

Option 7. Maintain a balance in the partners’ portfolio

If your sales have fallen, try to avoid situations where you work with one supplier or supply only one retail outlet. Dependence on one partner during a crisis is a big risk. As clear example Let us present the following situation. One large store children's clothing sold almost 70% of goods famous brand. At some point, the store began to work only with this brand. After several seasons, the retail outlet stopped cooperating with the brand, and now it is almost not represented in Russia.

Because partners compete with each other in the same distribution channel, they do not always play fairly. Today it is necessary to reach a crisis truce throughout the entire chain - from manufacturers and suppliers to retail stores and merchandisers. The priority for everyone should be cooperation on mutually beneficial terms, at least until the consumer becomes stably solvent.

• How to find business partners who will increase your sales

What should a commercial director do if sales of goods have fallen?

• Smile and wave

It is very important to save face with your staff and not complain about difficulties. Practice shows that employees, seeing the leader’s confusion, usually do not try to support him and work together to get out of a difficult situation. As a rule, employees prefer to turn around and leave. So, no matter how difficult your situation is, you cannot show this to the staff. Let your employees see that you are a strong, authoritative manager who knows how to behave and what to do if sales have fallen. Even if you are completely confused, don’t show it. Your team should work in the same mode, and then you will cope with the crisis faster.

• Aim for a big piece

The advantage of a crisis and recession is that these phenomena affect not only you, but also other market participants - your competitors. In this regard, while everyone is trying to stay afloat, you can use time wisely and win new clients. When the environment is quiet, you can be heard better.

Remember: the less money a consumer has, the higher the demands he places on purchases. Therefore, in a crisis you must be at your best. Conduct as many marketing activities as possible during this time and do not limit yourself to simple sales. During a crisis, leading positions are occupied by companies that act most actively and attract maximum attention.

Create a marketing plan for each down month. Let these be promotions aimed at increasing demand and not requiring significant investments. To do this, you must learn to look beyond traditional approaches and be creative.

• Implement a productive meeting routine

Set a clear rule: conduct weekly brainstorm initiative group. During such a meeting, you will be able to discuss the current state of affairs and put forward your options for improving the situation. The main thing is that this is a classic assault (study the technology), and not a boring meeting. There must be at least five participants, and it is better if they are representatives of different levels of organizations. The presenter must suppress criticism and stimulate the generation and release of ideas. In addition, we need a screening mode, evaluation of ideas, and a mechanism for quickly implementing what is invented.

• Expand your sales channels

Analyze how much your sales have fallen and try to expand your sales channels. Are clients not coming to you? Go to them yourself. Suppose you conduct retail sales at a fixed location. Organize additional points of sale for yourself in the form of mobile store or a mini-counter in a walk-through area. You can also start visiting friendly organizations where there are representatives of your target audience and giving presentations. If you've never done this before, then it's time to start.

Analyze what other channel you can use to successful sales. Perhaps an online store? Wholesale? Selling products in street tents? Through peddlers, ad sites, vending? Objectively evaluate your sales and think about where and how else you can implement it.

A good option is to sell a unit of your products through an auction on social networks. How it works? You take a product, set an initial price for it, and from there the vote goes down for a fixed time. The lowest price offered within a limited period wins.

Actively collaborate with partners - companies with the same target audience, but not with direct competitors. Use this resource both for sales and to attract clients. Create double coupons with your partners. Post the addresses of any objects, be it shops or cafes, where a person can receive a discount coupon for your store. The amount of coupons is added up to a fixed percentage. The more coupons, the greater the discount a person receives. Then play it back.

• Increase your contacts with clients

If you run a retail business, think about how to make your store a destination. It’s probably worth thinking about organizing an exhibition at the store, setting up a shoe shine area in the room, giving everyone the opportunity to take an original photo in the window, offering a stylist’s help in choosing a wardrobe, and inviting musicians to the store every Friday.

Having an informational reason, you can call old clients. Call the buyers in your database and invite them to come to you. It is important to call and not send messages.

If you work in the B2B segment, you should meet with your audience more often, and with all its representatives. Organize some kind of event for clients, be it a training session, a round table, a meeting with famous person, master class, etc. This way you will kill two birds with one stone: increase the frequency of contacts and increase sales. You communicate with your audience and understand what they want and need.

• Charge!

If sales have fallen, then your energy to move forward is essential. Above all, you should energize your staff with your positive energy and answer unspoken questions to avoid unnecessary rumors and panic. You should communicate with your employees every day or at most every week. There are a lot of ways to do this: sending morning letters, SMS, recording internal blog, radio news broadcast.

Your request may have the following structure:

• A cheerful greeting (“Good morning” or other positive message).
• Topic of the day (what is important today and why).
• Motivation (belief in employees: “You are the best, you can do it”).
• Anticipation (an answer to a difficult unasked question, for example: when will the money appear, why were 100 people laid off, etc.).
• A positive message on your behalf (“I’ll give out bonuses today”/“I’m very pleased with the order in the office”/“our employees exceeded their daily plan yesterday”).

You need to make a conscious effort to keep your staff motivated. Understand what your employees fear most and surprise them with the opposite effect. Suppose they are afraid of being laid off - establish an official ban on layoffs for a month. If you are afraid of delays in your salary, pay it a day earlier.

• Turn on the excitement of overcoming

Give your staff tasks of increasing difficulty and test their endurance. Often people themselves do not know their capabilities, but you know what they are capable of. Hold internal competitions, charge people emotionally. An excellent solution would be the “Kill the Boredom” promotion for sellers. Its essence is that there is a water pistol hanging in the hall. Anyone who sees a bored salesman can take a gun and charge those around him with positivity.

• Get to the front line of your sales yourself

Show that you are not afraid of difficulties. You will see the full picture of what is happening and get feedback from clients. Information collected should be actively discussed with the initiative group.

• Delegate operational tasks to partners and look for new resources

This period is the most suitable for teaching people to be your deputies. One way or another, preparing for delegation takes time, and by the time orders and clients increase, you will just learn how to interact. This will free up your time and you will be able to start looking for additional resources - making useful connections, attending training courses, and considering new projects.

• Delegation of powers by a manager: rules, principles and risks

6 effective ways to overcome a crisis when sales volumes drop during the off-season

1. Special low season service offers to maintain her interest even during a crisis. For example, a company that sold expensive software, constantly observed a seasonal drop in sales volumes during the holiday periods. Taking this fact into account, during the period of high sales (winter, spring), the company offered customers an incentive promotion, according to the terms of which, for a certain amount of purchase made in the summer, the client received the opportunity to train his employee for free. Thanks to this offer, seasonal sales stopped falling, and the company’s competitiveness in the market increased.
2. Business diversification. A good solution for enterprises whose activities are highly seasonal. As part of business diversification, conditions are created that allow the company to work in more promising areas. The owner of a hotel chain on the Black Sea coast has found an excellent solution to avoid a decline in sales during the low season months. During these periods of time, his hotels did not accept tourists. Workers lived in the hotels, seminars, corporate parties and other events were held.
3. Long-term project planning. When the year ends, you need to start developing an advertising strategy for the next period. An action program that takes into account seasonal sales declines should be aimed at promoting business during them. To do this, you can select advertising that has previously helped achieve good results, and strengthen it with an approach whose goal is to expand the target audience with new buyers. In addition, it is important to find ways to efficient work in higher-income markets when the core business suffers a seasonal decline in sales. Thus, one well-known company opens a network of cafes in open areas every year during the warm season. In the fall, she switches to selling tourism goods, in the winter she specializes in corporate events, selling Christmas tree decorations and gifts, and in the spring she sells gardening products. This tactic is called the “locust strategy” and involves quickly jumping from one business sector to another.
4. Bringing new products to market. Seasonal companies need to work on a strategy to effectively bring new products to market. Experts believe that it is best to present new products to the consumer audience in July and January. Trying to avoid a decline in car sales, it is during this period that many car dealers provide consumers with significant discounts and lucrative gifts.
5. Assortment adjustment. Offer customers products that are relevant for each season. For example, restaurants and cafes in winter time They offer visitors warm cocktails, mulled wine and a variety of hot drinks; in spring and summer - kvass, shakes, smoothies, and cold cocktails. As for advertising agencies, during the period of sales decline, in the summer, they can add flash mobs and promotions based on the use of shadows to their list of services. During the crisis season, construction contractors are reorienting themselves from large orders to private construction.
6. Short term promotions, aimed at stimulating demand, as well as motivating ordinary workers to achieve high results in trade turnover. This problem can be solved by developing new directions, holding competitions among employees (for example, “Highest summer sales”), setting high goals and visible bonuses for achieved results.

The practitioner tells

A mathematical approach to preparing for the off-season

Valery Razgulyaev,

information manager of the companies "Izbenka" and "VkusVill"

First of all, you need to do it in advance for the off-season. It is important to ensure that goods do not go missing. At the same time, there should be no shortage on the shelves. During the off-season, the buyer purchases fewer goods - accordingly, the volume of supplies must be calculated taking into account demand.

Seasonality coefficients. They are used when planning sales and purchases for the next year. Using them, you can determine how much revenue the company will receive in a particular month and how much goods need to be ordered.

If deliveries are carried out in a short time, then in the off-season you should focus on the consumption of products over the last 1-2 weeks. At long term It is necessary to look specifically at the seasonality coefficient of products, for the calculation of which the following formula is used:

k seasonality = Si: Ss × 100%, where

• Si is the actual amount of sales for a certain month;
• Ss - average monthly sales for the year.

This formula can be used to calculate the stock of goods both in season and out of season.

All coefficients for the year must total 12 (according to the number of months in the year), otherwise the calculations will be incorrect and will have to be manually adjusted taking into account the trend of growth or decline in market sales, unforeseen circumstances or the company’s internal development plan. To make it more convenient, we multiplied the coefficient by 100%. For example, in some month we received a coefficient of 56%. This means that exactly this volume of goods is sold out of 100%.

As for stocks of seasonal and non-seasonal goods, when purchasing them they rely on seasonality coefficients. For example, if in April we purchased 100 units of ice cream and 50 units of semi-finished products, then we calculate the volume of goods that needs to be purchased in May to meet basic demand using the formula:

quantity of goods for May = quantity sold in April × (kn: kn – 1), where

• kn - seasonality coefficient in the month in which the season ends;
• kn – 1 - seasonality coefficient in the month preceding the end of the season.

8 reasons why retail sales have fallen

Reason #1. The store is poorly located

The most common reason why sales suddenly drop. If a retail outlet is poorly located, it may have very few visitors, and therefore fewer clients.

Reason #2. The display window and sales area are incorrectly designed

If the display window is decorated brightly and competently, it attracts customers and immediately “sells” the products. But a nondescript display case can not only scare away buyers, but also ruin the reputation of any company. To find out exactly how good your display window looks, check out the opinions of experts and ordinary store visitors. Are the display and sign attractive to them? Are they pleasant to look at? Don't they cause negative emotions? Ideally, a person should see a display window and immediately want to visit the store.

Another important point - correct design hall, since over 70% of purchases are made spontaneously by store customers. Accordingly, goods must be folded beautifully, and shelves, racks and price tags must be designed correctly. Only in this case will the guests make a decision in your favor.

Reason #3. Difficulties with product range

The drop in sales precisely because of the assortment is evidenced by the fact that the store, as before, is visited by many people, but few people make purchases. There can be many reasons for this: the emergence of a competing store near you, the introduction of government restrictions, changes in demand, the introduction of substitute products to the market. It could also be your product range: it’s probably no longer fashionable or in demand.

Reason #4. The atmosphere in the store is not conducive to shopping

If there is a pleasant atmosphere in a retail outlet, a person has the right emotional reaction and is in the mood to buy. At first glance, an inappropriate atmosphere in a store cannot be considered a significant reason for a decline in sales. However, it is cleanliness, comfort, fresh air in the room, convenient location of display cases and shelves, the presence of a seating area, music, signs, attractive price tags and interior items that make the space more comfortable - all this has a much stronger influence on the buyer than low prices and a large selection goods. The only difference is that we want to return to stores with a pleasant atmosphere, but we don’t want to go to uncomfortable places, even if the prices there are much lower.

Reason No. 5. Poor quality service

Retail experts believe that sales are falling and financial performance is deteriorating precisely because of the human factor or, in other words, the incompetence of sales workers. Remember that sales personnel (we are talking about salespeople, consultants, cashiers, cleaners and security guards) are the face of the store. It is these employees who directly communicate with customers, which means that it is their actions or inaction, politeness, and accuracy that influence a person’s purchase. If the staff is incompetent or impolite, customers will not only not buy anything, but will also have a negative opinion of the store.

The importance of the behavior of sales employees is difficult to overestimate. The results of a number of studies show that many consumers today are dissatisfied with service in stores. Because of this, of course, sales decrease, and it is this parameter that sales workers should pay attention to.

Reason No. 6. Improper pricing policy

According to analysts, in the conditions of the economic crisis, many retailers unjustifiably inflate prices, believing that consumers will purchase products of daily demand regardless of their price.

As for other trading enterprises, on the contrary, they are afraid of losing their positions and, trying to stay afloat, sell products at very low prices, which as a result affects their profits. To eliminate such distortions, experts recommend that each company form its own pricing policy and strictly follow it. If customers immediately leave when they see the prices in your store, consider whether your prices are too high compared to your competitors.

It is difficult to achieve high sales in a retail store if few people know it exists. At the moment, the correct advertising and marketing materials are very important, since the conditions of a market economy are quite harsh. Your retail outlet may be very well located, you may have the most attentive and polite employees, a pleasant atmosphere that makes you want to shop. But is there any point in this if the company is unknown to anyone? And advertising alone is not enough now. Among the many similar offers, yours should stand out.

Retail experts note that almost 90% of retail store advertising currently does not bring results or produces an almost imperceptible effect. That is, the considerable funds that business owners allocate to advertising events simply go to waste.

Reason #8: Customers are not loyal to your business.

Customer loyalty in the marketing sphere is their positive perception of a certain trading company, business, brand. In other words, the client, when choosing a store where he would like to make a purchase, relies on his emotions and previously received impressions. If a buyer is loyal, he trusts the company.

Why is customer loyalty so important? Because this is not a momentary phenomenon, not a short-term impulse to “go to the store and buy,” but a stable state. A regular customer, under any circumstances, will go to his favorite store and will recommend it to friends and acquaintances. If your customers are loyal to you, then your business is thriving. If you don’t have many regular customers, it’s time to think: perhaps it’s worth introducing a customer loyalty program?

• Consumer loyalty: 6 rules for developing a loyalty program and assessing its effectiveness

6 mistakes managers make that usually cause sales to fall

• Error 1. "The cheaper the better". Often, sales managers offer a minimum of options, hoping that the cheaper the offer, the better it will be received by customers. The seller, afraid of missing out on the order, forces the buyer to leave without getting the desired results. For example, a sales manager, hoping for a one-time quick profit, makes it more difficult for himself in the future, since after a bad experience it is much more difficult to convince the client of the value of the product.

Solution. At the training stage, the group leader, together with the employee, clarifies the cost of each position and compares the price of advertising placed at home and at competitors. The manager must have an excellent understanding of the product he is working with and be able to justify the cost of any product unit. If a sales specialist can answer to himself why a product costs that much, it means that he copes with the fear of refusal and begins to work with objections.

• Error 2. “Unreasonably long presentation.” Often sales managers make the following mistake: they believe that the more time they spend on product presentation, the greater the chances of a successful deal. But this is a mistaken opinion. Experience shows that the client is able to actively remember and scroll through information within 15-20 minutes. At the same time, the sales manager must manage to secure the interlocutor’s loyalty to the product or service within a set period of time and set him up for a purchase. It’s very bad if the seller loses his sense of proportion and turns the meeting into an endless presentation. This only causes irritation for the client. Most of the time should be spent on properly preparing for the presentation, that is, identifying the needs of a potential buyer and ultimately offering him the optimal range of services.

Solution. You can avoid the problem of overly long presentations if you implement meeting rules. Each of them should be divided into stages. The group leader and coach are required to monitor compliance with the temporary regime.

• Error 3. "Water wears away stones." This approach is another stereotype that it is better to starve the client out. That is, the sales manager endlessly calls him, offering the same thing. At a certain point it becomes like a sports competition. As a result, the client may purchase the product under pressure, but there will be no chance of repurchase.

Solution. If a manager makes the same offer over and over again, it means that he is not able to understand what the client really needs. Management should discuss with the employee the mistakes he made, help establish the reasons for the refusal and give recommendations regarding further communications with clients.

• Error 4. "Frustrated hopes." In the process of communicating with a potential buyer, managers often say that they would like to present new products and schedule meetings during which they try to sell the product or service. But the client, agreeing to the meeting, did not plan to buy the product - he wanted to listen to the presentation. A conflict of interest arises and both parties end up frustrated. Of course, this does not increase buyer loyalty to the company.

Solution. It is better to rely on standards for preparing for meetings and calls. The group leader monitors that the content of the negotiations does not contradict the goal stated by the manager.

• Error 5.“I know better what you need.” Experienced employees who have been with companies for several years often think this way. But this is a mistake. Sales managers often begin to think in stereotypes and do not pay due attention to customer requests, imposing on them own opinion. Because of this, sales decrease.

Solution. You can force a sales manager to work more efficiently with the help of monthly certification, the results of which determine the amount of his bonuses and bonuses. Note that it is worth assessing not only the manager’s sales volume in total, but his activities for individual product units or product groups with different categories of clients. And, if sales are low in any segment, this will affect the manager’s salary. Remember: it is better to evaluate an employee’s work comprehensively, taking into account all parameters: both the total sales volume and the increase in the amount of each customer’s order.

• Error 6. "Favorite". Every sales manager has a favorite position, and, as a rule, this is the product that is easiest to sell. The employee has already mastered the technology of selling this position, and therefore always promotes it. As a result, it offers the same thing to all consumers without exception. The employee completely concentrates on the “successful” product and stops thinking original, outside the box. As a result, instead of an individual approach, assembly line production takes place.

Solution. The style of work needs to change. If a manager gets fixated on one item and tries to sell it to all clients, he needs to change his emphasis and increase the plan for other products. Our company creates a monthly list of special tasks for sales managers. This list may include, for example, the implementation of specific advertising positions or switching the buyer’s attention from contextual to media advertising.

• Increasing the efficiency of a manager: what bonus to give for impeccability

Control is the best way out if sales have fallen

According to the formula of Ron Hubbard, the author of one of the most successful management technologies, control always equals income. As soon as you begin to effectively control certain processes, you begin to manage the situation: save time and resources, and also increase operational efficiency. If we talk about sales, we need control and continuous analysis:

• the number of potential customers who contacted you (for example, the number of store visitors, phone calls or people visiting the official website);
• the number of concluded contracts or punched checks, buyers who moved from the category of potential to the category of real. This indicator is needed to calculate conversion, that is, the professionalism of sales managers;
• the amount of the average transaction or average check. This value can be obtained by dividing the total daily sales volume by the number of transactions or punched checks;
• seller conversion. This value demonstrates the professionalism of your salespeople, their level of knowledge and the quality of application of sales technology.

Do you, as a business owner, know who your client is? What do your staff think about this? Do you have a spent efficient scheme sales, or do you sell goods and services by chance, using the phone and a directory? Probably all your sellers use their own experience, experience and personal abilities as they see fit? If this is the case, then you and your entire business are dependent on employees. That is: you hired an experienced, smart sales manager - which means your income increases; If this specialist quits, profits drop sharply. You were rude to a “difficult” client - he went to competitors, forming a negative impression of you.

If the company does not have an effective system for monitoring and controlling sales, it is almost impossible to influence this process. Only a tenth of clients complain to senior management about controversial issues that arise, giving top management the opportunity to rectify the situation. Others simply refuse to continue working.

Developing an effective sales technology that is right for your company is not that difficult. It is enough to remember and objectively evaluate all the actions you took in the past that led to the desired result, and write them down in the form of an algorithm, or sales script. The word script translated from English into Russian means “scenario”, and in relation to the field of sales - “pre-prepared plan”. That is, in this scenario, you interact with the client, striving for the most favorable outcome. In the script, you should display all successful actions, options for communicating with different categories of buyers or customers, as well as how sales managers work with standard customer objections. Remember: this is the most effective part of sales technology, and there is nothing more valuable to a business than a detailed script.

To grow your sales you need:

• develop sales technology;
• document it, create a script;
• make sure your sellers use this technology.

The first thing you need to do is evaluate the performance of your salespeople. Find out how polite and customer-oriented they are. It is possible that sellers do not pay attention to customers or, on the contrary, are too persistent, and that is why your sales have fallen. Don't forget: lack of control over discipline means missing out on performance, and therefore, on profits. Thus, you can manage the sales process using two levers - control and motivation.

So, if your sales are down, of course you want to understand why. A fairly effective remedy in this case is to install a video camera with a microphone in the sales area or in another place where your sales managers work. The manager can monitor online the situation on the sales floor and how the staff is working, track errors and promptly eliminate them. Today, many companies control their employees and this is absolutely normal. Your task is to understand why sales in the store fell. If it turns out that it is the employees' fault, the manager can simply take appropriate action or hire new staff.

The next step is to introduce daily reporting for sellers. That is, sales managers must fill out special forms every day and reflect in them how many goods or services were sold, calls were made, and presentations were made. This information is needed to evaluate the results of both an individual employee and the entire department in general.

Another effective solution is the “mystery shopper” technique. Thanks to it, you can evaluate how your enterprise operates from the client’s perspective. The scheme is simple: a secret shopper, using a legend invented in advance and agreed upon with the management of the enterprise, checks the service in the company, the professional training of the staff, and evaluates the atmosphere in the sales area. Also, a mystery shopper can check your competitors, identify their advantages, which you can subsequently introduce into your practice and thereby attract new clients.

• Why should a commander study the demand for a product while working on the sales floor?

What to do if sales in an online store have fallen

What to do if online sales have dropped? First of all, find out why this happened. There may be several reasons:

• conversion fell;
• traffic has decreased;
• There are technical problems with the site.

Let's look at each problem in detail.

1. Fall in conversion

Online store conversion is a parameter that determines the ratio of customers who made a purchase on the site to the total number of visitors. Based on the conversion rate, you can judge how efficiently the online store operates.

It is important to analyze the conversion monthly, track all changes, keep a list of them and compare them with metrics. If you are in complete control of the situation, you will be able to objectively assess why sales fell at a certain moment.

You should also define your website's sales funnel. This concept is very similar to conversion. The sales funnel shows the number of users who have successfully completed all stages of the sale. It will show you at what stage the most potential clients are eliminated.

Let's list the main reasons for the drop in conversion:

• Changes to the site

Probably, the decrease in conversion was caused by certain changes on the Internet resource. There is a useful Google Analytics tool with which you can always track page conversion, see that visitors are leaving, and accept necessary measures to correct the situation. You can also easily check from which devices and browsers visitors access your site.

• Communication with the client

Another important parameter, allowing you to influence conversion. You can have a flawless website, but if the manager is not able to establish effective interaction with the client, sales will not grow. Pay maximum attention to the sales department, monitor its work, conduct training sessions. Try to convey the values ​​of your company through your sales department, and then customers will not only make purchases from you, but also recommend you to their friends.

• Lack of online consultant

Live chat can also increase your sales. There is just one click between a potential buyer’s question and the answer. But, if there are difficulties in receiving an answer or waiting for it takes a lot of time, the client simply leaves the site. Therefore, when implementing this widget on your site, try to maintain proper contact with visitors.

• External factors

Conversion may also decrease due to various external factors:

• “unseasonal” sales;
• holidays.

The seasonality of sales of your products or services can be analyzed using the Google Trends tool. If sales are influenced by external factors, you will need to stimulate them by holding various promotions, sales and additional advertising campaigns.

1. Decrease in online store traffic

First, let's look at what traffic is and what types it comes in. Traffic is the indicator of attendance of your Internet resource. The higher it is, the more potential clients you have.

Visitors come to your website from specific channels - traffic sources. Depending on them, the traffic is:

• organic;
• inorganic.

Organic traffic is an indicator of visitors arriving at your resource through organic search engine results. This is achieved through precise matching search engines content with the user's request. Such traffic is the result of effective SEO promotion of Internet resources.

As for inorganic traffic, this is an indicator of visitors who came to your site through contextual advertising and other paid sources.

Let's look at the main reasons for the drop in traffic:

• Drop in SEO traffic

Online store traffic often drops because site pages are excluded from indexing. It is likely that during the process of improvements you “sank” in the search keys. You can check whether an Internet resource is subject to sanctions using the Yandex.Webmaster tool. But often this service does not provide complete information on page blocking. Accordingly, if you think that some problems have arisen, use the services of SEO specialists.

What to do if the page is not indexed?

• Make sure that the page is not hidden from indexing by the robots.txt file.
• Check the page URL for errors in Google Webmaster Tools.
• Check the page for the Robots meta tag. He can prohibit search robot indexing.

• Decline in advertising traffic

The easiest way to increase traffic is through contextual advertising. But remember: this method is paid. Moreover, if advertising is configured ineffectively, traffic may well drop.

Let's look at the main mistakes when conducting contextual advertising:

Incorrect operation or lack of email distribution

• enjoy adaptive design letters.
• Send newsletters regularly.
• Use engaging content in your emails.
• Test different letter options.
• Analyze the frequency with which users open emails and go to the site.
• Work with “abandoned carts” and “abandoned views”.
• Inform customers about sales and new products.
• enjoy automatic services mailings so as not to be banned.

• Social media

Today you can increase traffic using social networks. Currently users social networks a lot, and each of them is your potential client. What needs to be done to ensure an influx of visitors?

If online sales are down, it may also mean that the site is not working properly. It is necessary to thoroughly test your Internet resource and identify problems.

• Site speed

This is another important indicator on which the loading speed of your resource depends. If the download takes longer than 2 seconds, you should take measures to speed it up.

• Website responsiveness

Adaptability is the correct display of pages of an Internet resource on various devices(on a smartphone, tablet, computer) and in different browsers. Your online store should be adapted to various gadgets. Otherwise, you will miss out on a large number of customers for whom it is more convenient to make purchases from mobile devices.

• Poor site navigation

Often the reason for churn is a simple reluctance to understand site navigation. Try to make it as simple and easy as possible for customers to find products. As soon as a person gets to the site, he should immediately understand how to find the product he needs.

Let's look at the main mistakes:

• There are no filters to search for products.
• Search on the site is missing or does not work correctly.
• The directory tree is not structured correctly.
• There is no "Sales" section.
• Popular products are missing.

If you use our simple tips in practice, in the future you will not have the question “why did sales fall?” and you will be able to work much more efficiently.

Information about the expert

Valery Razgulyaev, information manager of the Izbenka and VkusVill companies. Valery Razgulyaev is the most famous practitioner and speaker in the field of inventory management in Russia and Russian-speaking countries. He has more than 10 years of practical experience in the profession and more than 5 years of experience in public speaking at conferences and training events, project implementation, consulting and training for manufacturing, distribution and retail companies.