SALES ANALYTICS

Sales Volume: Why It’s Critical To Your Business and 15 Ways to Increase It

Selling a product or service is not always profitable from the start. Sometimes, certain offers don’t sell as well as a market might initially indicate. 

Since it is important to see which products sell and which ones don’t, knowing and establishing key performance indicators (KPI) in your business is critical for its growth. Sales volume is one of the many metrics owners should track to continue their day-to-day operations. 

What is sales volume?

A company’s sales volume is the total number of products or services that they are selling within a certain period of time. It is essentially meant to measure the exact tally of the goods that were bought in the defined period or season. For example, if a business sells notebooks, the sales volume should identify how many notebooks were sold in, let’s say, a calendar month or a 30-day period. 

Although volume measures the number of units that a business sold, it does not measure the revenue the products bring alone. Total proceeds may still be affected by taxes and other factors that are also KPIs in the business. 

Knowing the sales volume of all your offers are very important to increase your revenue. Of course, since there are many things to consider as to why the sales are low or booming, assessing your current data is crucial if your goal is to improve your numbers.

How do you measure sales volume?

The process of measuring sales volume is straightforward. As mentioned earlier, all you need to do is determine how many units of goods or services you sold in a given period. 

Of course, the period you will assess should vary depending on your goals. You may measure your sales volume monthly, quarterly, every six months, and annually. What is the formula for you to determine if there is an increase or decrease in your sales volume? 

The equation will be (the number of sales for the latest month – the number of sales for the last month) divided by the number of sales for the last month and multiplied by 100. 

In mathematical format:

((Month 2-Month 1) / Month 1) X 100

Here is an example.

Let’s say that you want to measure your notebook sales every month. For the month of November, you sold 500 notebooks. Last December, the sales increased to 800. 

Using the formula above, 

(800 - 500)/500 x 100 = (300/500) x 100 = 60%

For the notebooks, you can report a sales volume increase of 60%.

15 best ways to increase your sales volume

Now that you know what sales volume is, why measuring it is important, and the steps to measure this key performance indicator, we can discuss a few strategies you can implement to grow your individual product segments.

1) Know everything about your product and services

What are the products and services you are offering? Do you know what your edge is among your competitors? Do the prices of your goods differ greatly from the prices of the other competition? If so, what are the things that could prevent potential consumers from purchasing your product?

Learning every piece of information about your product is crucial for increasing sales volume. Since the ultimate goal is to sell more of your items, you and your team should understand what keeps them from being sold so that you can deal with these issues and boost sales. 

Take the time to analyze what you’re offering your customers. Is your product seasonal? If so, how can you encourage your prospects to purchase even during the off-season? Make sure to address even the smallest detail as it’ll be useful once you start reviewing your marketing strategies.

2) Let your customers know how they can benefit from your product

How can your target buyers try out your product if they are not even aware of its benefits? In every business, showcasing a clear benefit and value of using your products needs to be a priority if increasing sales volume is your goal. 

Whenever marketing your products, make sure that you’re crystal clear about how your product can benefit your consumer. Since you’re already aware of every important detail regarding your product, you need to demonstrate the value they will get from owning your product. The easier you can achieve this, the more you’ll see your sales volume will increase.

One effective tip you can make use of are surveys. Doing this can allow you to know why consumers are not buying your product or why they prefer to support your competitors/

3) Learn more about your competitors

Aside from learning about your products, doing a detailed analysis of your competitions’ products will also benefit your business. You need to know the most essential info about your top competition. 

What kind of company are they? What services do they offer? Are their prices higher or lower than your products? What types of discounts or bundles do they give their consumers? Understanding your competitive landscape is critical in knowing the value you bring to the market.

Knowing your opponents will allow you to be more strategic with your own services. You can mirror some of their successes while avoiding some of their costly mistakes. Also, you should study how they get their name out to the market. How are they getting their customers? Are they active with their social media, are they active on certain apps, certain platforms, etc? If you know how and where to look, you can save your efforts from fruitless strategies that do not work and instead invest in the things that are proven to have a high return on investment (ROI).

4) Identify and focus on your top buyers

Do you have repeat customers? If so, how long have they been with you?  How much is the lifetime value of your average customer? What are the goods or services that they always purchase? What are their buying patterns? Are there buyers you can identify as top customers?  How can you show them extra appreciation?

Taking care of your top consumers will yield your business positive outcomes. Aside from making sure that they are appreciated, you can even convince them to buy more from your business in the long run. Just make sure to offer them high value services that they can use, or you may risk annoying them with your non-effective pitches. 

Always put yourself in your client’s shoes. Never do pitches just for the sake of doing them. When you know your VIPs’ demographics, you can eventually use this data to improve your marketing based on their preferences. 

What should you do if you do not have top buyers yet?

If your business is new or if you are just not getting enough sales yet, you will need to set a target customer profile. These are the “ideal” customers that need your products and services. By knowing your ideal customers, you can create strategies for selling that will attract your targets without spending too much of your resources. 

5) Look into your customers’ needs

According to Brian Tracy, all great success and all great fortunes come from serving people with what they want and are willing to pay for better than someone else.  By adopting a “help” rather than “sell” mindset, you can understand how to serve people better and provide incredible customer service. (1)

As mentioned earlier, putting yourself in your consumers’ shoes can greatly help if you want to increase your sales volume. Your business is here to provide value to consumers, save them time, provide entertainment, or make their day-to-day lives comfortable. In other words, you should know exactly what the needs of your consumers are in order for you to solve them. 

Did you ever wonder why advertisers spend millions of dollars to put their product in your face? Obviously, it’s well worth it for them, this is because they get an opportunity to show their customers how they can help. Conducting a thorough market analysis allows you to know the average prices that clients are willing to pay for, their usual preferences, and the quality of the items that they are willing to spend their money on. 

6) Give rewards to your existing customers

Did you know that word of mouth recommendations are one of the most effective types of marketing for a business? Just think, if you are a consumer who is asking for recommendations for the best shampoo, who will you most likely believe? An ad you saw on Facebook, or the recommendation of a close family member? If your answer is the latter, many people would agree. 

Think of your existing customer base as an extension of your sales team. Treat them well when they bring a potential sale to you. It doesn’t take much to show you really value a client, give them a certain percentage off their monthly invoice, give them extra “points”, give them an extra service this month, or send them a company promotional product as a thank you.  These small things go a long way.

7) Invest in your sales team

The sales industry can be cutthroat, but this does not mean that you should expect your sales team to just go out and close deals without any continuous training. As with other businesses, your team is only as good as its weakest link. Why not invest your resources into training them and teaching them effective sales closing strategies? 

This can be done by recommending books, offering sales seminars, encouraging one of your sales members to put together a training presentation for his/her team, or bringing in someone from outside the organization who has recently had success with a certain strategy.  Make it fun and show that you care about your sales organization’s success. 

8) Motivate and reward your representatives

Happy, healthy, and well-rewarded employees are the assets of your business, therefore, giving them incentives and bonuses will boost their morale. Incentivized sales reps = more products sold. 

9) Know the reasons for rep turnovers

Are your top representatives suddenly quitting or transferring and you have no idea why? Chances are, they may be unhappy with a lot of things that you can address and improve to lessen turnover rates. 

For example, if your sales reps are not happy with their territories, you may want to assign them to areas where they can perform better. This is the reason why mapping and implementing a good territory design is essential. New reps may also be overwhelmed when assigned to accounts that require years of experience. Knowing the strengths of your people and playing to them will keep them happier and more productive, which can also bring a positive effect to your sales in the long run.

10) Attract new customers 

Obviously, if you want to increase your sales volume, having more customers would help achieve that. Bringing on a fresh client base is great, but actually doing that is easier said than done.  

This is the reason why doing product promotions, offering discounts, and giving extra products when launching are some of the strategies companies implement when trying to convince potential buyers to try out their products. Buyers can be very sensitive to price and value, so think of bundles that give them high value.  The purpose isn’t to give away the farm, but it will increase your chances of converting them into regular customers.  

11) Always provide excellent customer service

How long does your average client stay with you?  Do you want to retain them longer? Of course you do.  Does your product or service rely somewhat heavily on customer support? If so, give them world class support. But what is customer service, and how can you improve the way you provide it to your clients?

Customer service is essentially the way that you provide assistance to the consumers who have already purchased your products and services. To improve the ways your business serves customers, you need to be highly responsive to their needs. The great thing is that it doesn’t take much to offer great support.  Offer different modes of communication, respond quickly, but most importantly, try to resolve their issue(s) with as few interactions as possible.   

Of course, customers cannot always be right, but as a part of a business, being helpful and actively listening to what they need can earn you their business for a very long time. Nobody wants to support a company they feel doesn’t resolve their issues when they need them most. 

12) Optimize your store for mobile devices

Did you know that most consumers nowadays use their phones to buy goods and services? Instead of using bulky laptops and computers, it is no doubt, easier to check out products with a mobile device. If your website isn’t optimized to be mobile-friendly, then you can lose a good number of customers right away, without even knowing it.

Investing in your website comes with a huge number of benefits for your business, especially your sales volume. After all, who wants to shop on a site that takes too long to load or looks like an unprofessional, cluttered, website? Like most consumers, they would prefer to support a business that is accessible, responsive, and user-friendly. 

Improve your store’s appearance for desktop, tablet, and mobile use, especially if you want your services to be taken seriously. Also, invest in SEO or Search Engine Optimization so that potential consumers can find your site easily. Even if you are still starting a small business, these strategies will greatly help you market your products in the next couple of years.

13) Never get tired of marketing your products

Promoting services are very effective in boosting sales and increasing your brand’s visibility to new and existing consumers. In fact, marketing is the quickest way to increase product and service sales. 

Unfortunately, marketing can require a lot of time, money, and resources. Your team will need to dedicate hours in reaching out to your ideal prospects, especially if your business or product is still new to the market. If not done properly, your marketing efforts can yield a very poor ROI.

This is one of the things you should be ready to do as a business owner. Although it could take a long time to see results, you should never stop marketing your business. After all, you don’t always need to spend thousands of dollars to make your products known. In fact, depending on your product or service, aggressively going after the free or almost-free methods can yield the quickest results. 

If you have a bigger budget, posting deals and giveaways can earn you a bigger following while also spreading the word about your business. Running well-crafted ads is also great if you already have a target local market in mind.

14) Traditional ways are still as effective as modern strategies

Modern ways of marketing can be highly effective in increasing your sales and introducing your products to new consumers, especially if your ideal prospect hangs out in these non-traditional platforms. However, the traditional ways of print media marketing or even phone sales can still be just as effective, even in 2022.

In fact, many customers still prefer talking to sales reps personally. Sure, posting ads on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can be very useful for millennial and gen-z consumers, but nurturing relationships using old-school ways will never go out of style. 

In-person visits and ads in billboards, papers, and magazines are still valuable for client prospecting. It is always good to learn new ways and strategies, but never underestimate the power of skilled sales representatives. Not only will it be good for new clients, but traditional marketing and direct upselling or cross-selling can also keep existing customers and make them feel appreciated.

15) Learn and use effective tools to improve your overall performance

Building your brand requires manpower. Without your sales reps, it can take you a long time to improve your total numbers. Aside from your people, you will also need to make use of a variety of tools to increase your sales. 

As an example, you may need a lead generation tool to find consumers that will find your products to be of value. Using a software platform such as Recon Insight’s Ri360 can also allow you to see which clients may need your products soon, making it possible for your business to have an active delivery schedule. 

Since there are many tools for various purposes, you can choose which ones you need to determine your key performance indicators to boost your metrics. Customer relationship management or CRM software is one of the most effective tools business owners use to manage their current and potential consumers.

Looking for more strategies to increase your sales volume? 

We hope that the 15 strategies we mentioned above can help you boost your marketing and sales in the next couple of months and years. 

Always remember that increasing your sales doesn’t always happen overnight. Being a business owner or a sales rep requires patience, skill, and consistency to know which pattern and techniques work best for your industry. 

If you’re looking for a data driven approach on how your company and sales team can generate more revenue from its existing customer base, then check out our software that makes it possible for clients to view and analyze data regarding their sales, customers, and more in an accessible and digestible format.

References

1. Brian Tracy, 21 Sales strategies to increase sales
   https://www.briantracy.com/blog/sales-success/proven-strategies-to-increase-sales-of-your-product/

Get in touch and we’ll set up a meeting. Are you ready to add revenue?

Contact Chris at ReconInsight to discuss your list and data needs, or complete the form below.