so you want to increase sales

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So, you want to increase Sales, don’t you?

Many of my Clients today face the same situation:

Suddenly their beloved main (and only ) Client has dropped its orders.

“Crisis” – we know –

But is not all: their belov… etc etc Customer told them that they want to differentiate.

In plain words, this means: He is looking for a (new) supplier that can provide the same stuff / Service at a better (lower price).

The result is – Panic – Volume drops due to crisis, what remains has probably to be shared with a (new) competitor, and the Price ( yes, the same price that has been sucked to bone in the last 4 years) will go down.

Let see what are the options:

Increase number of Customers:

There are a number of potential Customers you could tap in:

· Customers you did not tap before because out of your reach (they are in distant continents, are too loyal to competition, are sheltered by political reasons… )

· Customer of your Customers: you may think to go direct and try to serve the low-end segment of your Customer’s Customers. E.g.

- You may think to provide services on the components you sell to your Customer, directly to his Customers.

- You may start to sell spare parts on your customer’s after sales market

- You may start to sell spare parts to Independent Service Providers who target your Customer’s installed fleet

· New Customers: you may want to look around for other near by industries: E.g. if you play in the Oil & Gas equipment business, you may want to tap into the Power Gen, or the Aerospace business.

Increase the number of units bought by each Customer:

There are several way to see this:

· You may want to enlarge the scope of supply of your typical offer:

- If your Customer forwards a volume reduction, you may agree provided that the scope of supply of the remaining volumes will be extended: adding services, integrating systems, supervisions, etc.

- If you can move your offer on the service side, helping your customer utilize your products: offering consulting services or logistic services to make them more convenient, providing reports or making some of the operation and maintenance. Or you can move all your offer to the service side: stop selling and start renting, offering pay-per-use deals.

· You may try to influence the Customers of your Customer so that they ask more of your stuff:

- This is what in the consumer business do spots like “ I brush my teeth after each meal” : they increase the frequency of use in order to multiply the purchase.

- You may be able to influence the “size” of your stuff

- Or you may be able to spot further use occasion that till now were not served

- Or you may empathized scarcity and the need to stock piling (ok… this is tougher)

Increase your Share:

Again in this situation you may see this in more than one way:

· You may want to push on the competitiveness by reshaping your offer and make it more appealing.

- In this case please give a look at the latest theories about innovation management, before you waste your efforts trying to enhance the performance of an overserved Customer’s need

- You may try to re-segment your market in order to understand if there are Customers with underserved needs, and refocus your offer accordingly, first: reshaping your communication (messages, marketing, sales processes) in order to highlight what you already offer for those underserved needs; second: getting ready to develop sharp ideas that match exactly those underserved needs.

Increase Your Price:

Not easy, I admit, but you can try along this routes:

· If you are able to bundle a further piece of product or service, you may hide a little margin increase into the new offer.

· If you are going to sell to your Customer’s Customer: you may enjoy a better price (please do not forget that this comes at an additional costs: the ones that before were borne by your Customer)

· You may want to tear down your price in order to gain volumes. (Even if I would not recommend this in this moment of time: everybody is in the same condition, and the only one that will benefit of a price war would be your Customer )

Is there other option you can see?

Please let me know.

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Flavio Tosi