Marketing and Sales Strategies for 2015

The holidays are over. January is here and with that comes tightened belts and promises to be more accountable for your money. So how do you keep the momentum of holiday sales and what will be the trends and ideas that will shape sales strategies in 2015? Here are eight sales strategies to spark your ideas.

  1. Know Your Customers. Technology brings an expectation from customers. They have researched you and know you and what you sell, which means that you are coming in at a much later point in the buying cycle. To complete a sale you need to quickly understand your customer and know what they determine as value. Sales training should now be about researching your markets needs, ideas and priorities, as well as the art of conversation. It is no longer about the hard sell with product specifications.
  2. Let Your Customers Know You. Now is the era of radical transparency. Also known as the Human Era. Your customers want to know you, personally. They want to know you are human. Tell them your story. Don’t tell lies. If you make a mistake, own up and apologize. Gain their trust, be authentic (don’t roll your eyes) and work collaboratively with them. 
  3. Get Personal and Follow Up. Have an online store that had abandoned carts? Or a list of clients who decided not to progress with a project before the holidays? Now is the time to follow up with them. Ask them to take another look using a compelling offer to encourage them to take action.
  4. Optimize Your Customer Relationship Database. Your easiest sales will be to existing customers, so make sure you’re keeping track of who they are, how to contact them, their likes, dislikes and what they have bought. There is now an expectation for your to know your customers as well as they know you, so make sure you have the information available to you.
  5. Data Driven Marketing. Whether it’s web traffic or the number of sales, analyze your data in real-time to find out which tactics are working and which can be improved. Adaptability and customization are the two key tactics for marketing in 2015. Use your data to focus marketing efforts and increase sales.
  6. Repelling the Wrong Clients. 2015’s key marketing tactic is defining what Marcus Sheriden calls “anti-personas”. Marketing is no longer about the number of views or likes, it is about conversion. Instead of the blanket we are for everyone approach, businesses should be creating precise strategies to attract specific customers and repelling those who will not convert anyway. 
  7. Strengthen Your Social Presence. Customers are increasingly expecting customer service via social platforms. It is increasingly replacing the contact us form or personal email. Be prepared to answer questions, respond to complaints and thank praise, quickly. Where these interactions were once a private query, they are now in the public domain, so deal with them swiftly and professionally.    
  8. Say Goodbye to Problem Customers. It takes energy to maintain customer relationships, so don’t drain yourself serving customers that continuously create problems. It is hard to let a paying customer go, but the time you spend resolving problems could be use acquiring new customers. It’s time for some tough love. 

By taking into account a few of the aforementioned strategies, your business will be able to jump-start your 2015 sales efforts.