Learn the One Best Way to Increase Sales
We are told that there are no one best way to do just about anything in life. How is it that I can make that statement that you can learn the one best way to increase sales?
That is what will be discussed in this article, and when you implement it, you'll see that it may work well for you.
It doesn't matter what kind of product or service you are selling. If people don't know about it, they aren't going to buy. It could be the best product in the world, but no one will take the bait.
Using this relatively unknown technique has the potential to explode your sales. It is easy to set up and manage, too. Most of the work is done for you. Simply use the method, and you should start seeing results quickly!
Big Companies Have Large Sales Teams
Big companies have the budgets to afford large sales teams. This usually entails providing these teams with a expense account, giving them a base salary, and paying them a commission. If you use ten sales people, the base salary alone could cost your company $500,000 or more ($50,000 x 10). This doesn't include the expense accounts for each.
Most small business owners simply can't afford a sales team. Even one salesperson can get expensive. There's also no guarantee these teams will produce for you. The top selling sales people are always at risk of jumping ship to another firm, too.
Advertising Is Expensive
Many small businesses rely on paid advertising. This can work, but most small business owners don't know the first thing about how to do it. This means they will spend money with no increase in sales, or they will hire people to handle their paid campaigns for them. As with a sales team, there is not guarantee of results with this method either.
Even when you learn how to do this right, you'll still need to spend a fair amount to get your campaigns earning. Things change, too. You can spend thousands of dollars to finally get a campaign optimized and within weeks, the products stop selling. When this happens, you'll need to identify why and take alternative actions. Sometimes, those actions are to move onto the next products, which means starting the paid advertising cycle all over again.
Grow Your Business Organically
I'm a big fan of organic growth of a business. This is the type of growth where you get discovered by visitors and they pass the word on about your business. Or, you start to gain recognition in the search engines. This type of growth is usually a good sign that better days are ahead for your business.
When you set out to grow your business organically, it usualy consists of creating a good content strategy. Most small business owners don't know how to do this. They will end up taking the wrong steps and spending too much money in the process. There is also the option of hiring a content specialist to help with the strategy, but once again that can cost a tidy sum of cash.
A big problem with organic growth is it can takes months or years to achieve, depending on the market you are targeting. It still pays to develop this type of growth, but if you're looking to increase your sales sooner, you'll need a better method.
And The Winner for the One Best Method to Increase Sales Is...
Here is the moment you've been waiting for. It's that drumroll moment. Are you ready?
Start Your Own Affiliate Program
Most small business owners are not even aware that this is something they can do. Most don't even know what the heck an affiliate program means. If you belong to that camp of small business owners, this article is for you. You're going to learn what an affiliate program is and how you can take advantage of it to its fullest.
What Is an Affiliate Program?
When a vendor agrees to implement an affiliate program, they give outside entities the ability to sell their products in exchange for a commission. Theses outside entities, referred to as affiliates, obtain coded links containing what is known as an affiliate id. This is how the vendor knows who sent them traffic on their websites.
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Suppose Walmart wanted to implement an affiliate program (they have one, actually!) They would create a tracking system that assigned affiliates with a code. Affiliates place this code on their website in the form of links and/or banners. When visitors to the affiliates' websites click on the links, the code is passed on to the vendors website. It's usually a product page related to the page the affiliate set up to get the visitor to click through.
At this point, the affiliate does not receive any credit for the sale. That's because the visitor has not made a purchase. Once a visitor makes a purchase though, the affiliate will be credited with a commission for the sale of the product or service.
How an Affiliate Program Benefits Affiliates
Affiliates benefit from this arrangement because they don't have to carry any inventory. They don't have to worry about order fulfilment or payment processors. They don't even have to worry about customer services or returns of the product. That is completely handled by the vendor.
The affiliates responsibility in this arrangement is to get visitors to click through to the vendors' websites. Once that happens and the visitors buy, the vendor credits the affiliates with the sale.
How an Affiliate Program Benefits Vendors
The vendors do not have to give the affiliates any money for their promotional efforts. This is perhaps the biggest benefit of affiliate programs for vendors. There are not base salaries or expense accounts. There is only a predetermined commission rate that the vendor sets and is used to determine the amount of commissions the affiliates will receive when sales occur.
Another advantage is affiliates are not employees of the vendors. This means they don't have to worry about payroll processing and taxes. They also don't have to pay any benefits. Affiliates are considered independent contractors in this arrangement. It's incumbent upon the affiliates to cover all the advertising costs, promotions, payroll process, taxes, etc.
What Does an Affiliate Program Cost for Vendors?
There are several options for vendors looking to implement an affiliate program. The first aspect is to implement a tracking system. This will help the affiliates know how they are doing with the affiliate program. It can help them understand the number of impressions, clicks, and more importantly, sales.
Vendors need to decide if they will build or buy an affiliate tracking system. The right answer depends on the needs of the vendors and the budget. Developing an inhouse tracking system requires a good knowledge of web programming and database concepts.
Packages that handle these functions are available for vendors to use. These packages vary and are competitively priced. Often, the services are priced in tiers. The more affiliates in the system, the more it will cost. In general, the costs are manageable and can grow as the vendor's business grows.
Several affiliate tracking companies have emerged which means that pricing will be competitive. However, influx of companies will cause prices to change frequently, making it difficult to specify the pricing in this article. It will also depend on the needs of the vendors. The best course of action for vendors is to check the features and prices before signing up.
Some Potential Issues with Running an Affiliate Program
Nothing in life is 100% perfect, and that is true with running an affiliate program, too. One of the biggest issues is making sure your affiliates are representing your company with integrity. Your reputation is on the line. If you have rogue affiliates telling lies about your products just to get sales, your company will take the hit. The affiliates will move onto other programs.
These rogues affiliates may not comply with laws in your country or other countries. These days, this can leave you with legal issues. You'll have to make sure these affiliates are complying with disclosures, etc. This can get complicated when you have hundreds of affiliates scattered in many different countries.
Another issue is when you have a large number of affiliates who are not selling for you. Of course, when your products are great, you'll attract superstars in the affiliate world, so this won't be as big an issue when that starts happening. But, remember, you're usually paying a monthly fee for a certain number of affiliates. You may want to weed out the poor performance out from time-to-time.
Training for Your Affiliates
Many affiliate managers (that will be you) implement an affiliate program and leave it to the affiliates to start selling. That is the point of an affiliate program. However, if you want to supercharge your sales, consider creating training modules that you offer to the affiliates that sign up to your program. You know better than anyone how to sell your products. Give some pointers about the nuances of doing so. Again, this isn't necessary but can help to streamline the process. It can be as simple as providing a checklist, or you can create how-to videos.
NOTE: This option is completely optional. Affiliate programs do well without this!
Next Steps...
Disclosure: site owner may receive commissions for puchases from the links and banners on this website. It does not cost any extra when purchasing from this website. The price is the same.
It's time for the rubber to meet the road. This article has given you some pointers on how implementing an affiliate program can increase your sales. It's not guaranteed, but it is effective enough to put the odds in your favor. These days, it's difficult to ask for more than that.
If you want a great platform to start your affiliate program, consider OSI Affiliate. They offer an extensive set of features with great customer support. They are reasonably priced and you it takes about ten minutes to set up the platform.
Here are the reasons to use OSI Affiliate:
