Business owners typically have one thing on their mind…..how to increase company revenue.  The most profitable business owners get this and understand how challenging the task can be.

When consulting with our clients, we typically find one thing in common, many business owners make the task of increasing revenue way too difficult.  They layout extravagant plans to drive sales and in many instances, get lost in the details because they are so busy working in their business, they can’t work on their business.

The key to successfully growing your company revenue is in keeping your task list simple.  So simple in fact, that any employee in the company can pick up the list and run with it.

Once your task list has been developed, focus on implementing the items that are the quickest or easiest to implement first, and then work your way down your list.

One of the first items on your list should be to up-sell to your existing customer base. The task typically requires little time or revenue to launch and is easy to communicate to your team.

While this may be fairly effortless if you market online, it’s not so easy when you have “human interaction” involved.

Sales agents can be creatures of habit, they can overthink the sales process and can fall prey to “learned helplessness” which can diminish your’ up-sell ratios.

When working with your sales force, we recommend focusing on the “Law of Averages” vs “Total Sales” during conversations. This helps keep the agent focused on the fact that It’s okay to get a “no” because that puts them one step closer to the next yes.

Once you get your sales force focused on up-selling on every sale and have a baseline established, have a little fun by incorporating a “beat your best” contest.

Kevin Thole, owner of several local Servpro franchises in the St. Louis, Missouri area has won several awards since purchasing the company in 2011.  Awards such as Rookie of the Year, Fastest Growth Award and Missouri Franchise of the Year may be elusive to many people, but for Kevin, it’s reality.  Kevin  attributes much of his success to teaching his construction crews how to sell. Kevin states, “Anyone who interacts with our customers should understand the value of semantics and how words can impact consumer behavior. They also need to understand how to understand buying signals.”

Think about that for a moment, Kevin is teaching his construction workers how to speak with their customers, how to recognize buying signals, how to sell.  Who are you teaching?

Remember, keep the process simple, have some fun with it…and watch your revenue grow!