5 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Sales and How To Avoid Them

Businesses fundamentally rely on sales for sustaining in the market and reaching their desired goals. Everyone strives hard to close more sales, as it is directly proportional to the revenue earned. On that basis, none would ever want to lose any possibility that could generate a sale.

Achieving more sales not only depends on the improvements you lay down for your business. It is also underpinned by the extent to which you rectify the mistakes that deliberately affect it. I have read about a lot of sales mistakes on the internet, but still, there are five prominent mistakes that will invariably affect the sales of any business, as well as ways to avoid them.

1. Not Knowing your Customer Base

After you’ve decided to start a business, you probably strenuously brainstormed on things like developing a desirable product/service; methods to market it; pricing it; calculating the profit margins; and so on. Wait! Did you think of who you’re going to sell it to?

Mistake – Once you arrive at the valuable stuff, most think that they’re all set for business. But, it’s just the beginning. People ignore the importance of identifying the crowd that is striving to buy it. Without knowing your buyers, your business has no chance of surviving.

It’s crucial for every business to explicate their target audience. It will help in reaching the right prospects, and eventually in augmenting sales.

How to find your target audience…

  • Assess who will benefit from your product; whether it’s for kids, senior citizens, or youngsters, based on what it does and its features.
  • Next, craft your customer profile based on the demographic and psychographic info of your target audience. It’ll help you reach your customer base, specifically.
  • Scope out your competitors and observe their successes and failures. It will help you to know more about what your target audience likes.
  • Conduct your own primary research via social media. It will help you to sort your prospects’ behaviors.

2. Cluttering product pages with poor UI design

Now, you can smartly sell to customers through online channels. But grabbing credibility among customers is really hard here. They don’t see your face; they simply judge you by the look of your website/app.

Mistake – Not focusing on framing a legit and convenient layout. Mistakes in category collaboration, including too many fonts, using random colors, etc. will create a major impact, such as:

  • Diminished credibility and conception
  • Increased bounce rates

How to formulate a great interface…

Simple is Effective – People are affinitive towards simple and clear interfaces, rather than complex ones. Consider increasing the size and number of characters per line; leave more space; navigate buttons using hierarchy.

Design for Mobile Users – The world has already gone mobile. 88% of consumers who are prone to buy from you have already searched your business on a mobile device. Hence, make sure that your interface is responsive in such a way that it fits all types of devices. It’ll enable the users to easily navigate across various enlisted products/services.

Connect emotionally to Users – Color is a good way to stir people with emotion. So, use different colors to create an emotional bond with your users. Another way is by uploading convincing images of your products, with some emotional touches.

3. Not paying attention to the online customer reviews

Each and every day, members of your customer base post countless comments, reviews, and ratings related to your brand. These reviews and ratings will help other prospective customers narrow down their research and make decisions, faster and with greater confidence.

Mistake – Neglecting to comprehend online reviews and take action based on them can greatly impact your reputation. While the negative reviews will surely affect your sales and credibility, every star from a customer will give you a chance to increase your revenue.

According to a recent survey, 25% of businesses are engaged in social listening. It helps them to heighten their reputation and to propel their product widely in this competitive arena.

How to become one of those people and increase your sales

Employ a Resource to Handle Reviews – Allocating an employee to specifically handle online reviews will render shrewd results. By doing this, you can make sure that all of the reviews and comments are addressed relevantly.

Gather Pertinent Keywords – Aggregating the reviews based on keywords can make it easy to understand the common problems faced by your customers. Understanding the collective response is a valuable entity to improving your services, according to the masses.

Deal with Negative Reviews – Negative online reviews can shoo away potential customers from your business. To overcome this, respond to them promptly; respond like a person and not like a firm; be real and admit your mistakes; provide proper resolution and document it, with appropriate comments.

Deal with Positive Reviews – Positive reviews are definitely a boon to your business. But, if you’re not responding to the positive reviews, then you’re missing out on seizing an opportunity. Show your gratitude by saying thank you; ask what you can do better, and reinforce your product with suggestions.

4. Not including call-to-actions

All of your marketing endeavors are expecting some action from your customers. Call-to-action is a unit that asks them to take that action, whenever you want them to do something or respond in some way.

Mistake – Not asking customers to take the necessary actions. There’s no point in putting forward marketing content to the customers and not asking them to do anything with it.

Customers tend to take actions that are obligated. In that way, a CTA can be used to prompt the user to order a product; add it to their cart; purchase it; and more. Persuasive CTAs increase your business, so immediately fix a CTA button in the following ways.

How to make the most out of call-to-actions?

Place the CTA in the Perfect Location – You can place a CTA any place on your landing page. But, certain placements can be more convincing. For example, you can place the landing page CTA just above the fold; bottom of the page; and even below the fold, with directional clues.

Keep it Convincing – As mentioned above, the right design and colors can establish an emotional touch to the customers. So, select persuasive colors and shapes for your CTA. Also, ensure that the text is clearly visible and readable.

There are Different Forms of CTA – CTA isn’t just meant for online businesses and landing pages alone. They acquire vital importance in all mediums, but in different forms. For instance, a verbal CTA is used in a TV ad, a purported design block in an ad flyer, and so on.

5. Forgetting to create Buyer Personas

A buyer persona gives a well-suited vision of your ideal customer. Creating an assertive buyer persona paves the way for securing more profit on your sales.

Mistake – Forsaking the importance of buyer personas and the advantages they can offer. Without a conducive buyer persona, a business is susceptible to atrophied product development; incapability of predicting business alignments; and subsequently, unproductive sales endeavors.

A good buyer persona will be able to attract the most valuable visitors, investors, and customers to the business.

How to create a suitable buyer persona…

  • Go through your database and study the buyer demographics; this will help you to ascertain your target audience.
  • You can also take a closer look at social media to grab the behavior patterns, goals, and motivations of the people you’re trying to reach.
  • Hear from your clients or customers on how and why your products/services satisfy them; and also what makes them retain the brand. This will help in the relevant creative aspects of the persona.

Wrap up

Letting the sales slender does actually mean that you’re killing the business itself. The power of sales is indispensable, with each one of them adding up to the continued growth of your venture. Thus, avoid the aforementioned mistakes by enacting the advised methods to reinvigorate diminishing sales numbers.