The possibility of another recession can be a terrifying prospect for businesses to face, but if the time comes it doesn’t have to affect your sales process. In the previous episode of the Digital Prosperity Podcast, JDR Group directors Will Williamson and David Roberts shared a six-step framework that can help businesses grow in a recession.
However, there are also three untapped areas of your business that you can use to get the most out of the resources you have in order to generate sales and revenue during the recession, and that’s the topic of discussion for Will and David in the latest episode of the podcast.
Area 1: Your Company Website
The first untapped area might appear to be obvious, but you can truly get the best out of your website no matter how often it’s used and updated with content. However, by regularly viewing your Google Analytics you can look at the rate of traffic your website is experiencing and whether more needs to be done in order to be seen by more potential customers.
Google Analytics can also provide you with information on how well your website is converting. This means looking at the views your pages are getting, and seeing how many leads this is resulting in so that you get a good idea of how many enquiries you’re getting each month. You can use these figures to work out your conversion rate by looking at your monthly enquiries compared to the number of visitors to your website.
With Google Analytics, you can also analyse the bounce rate of your website, this means a user has found your website but doesn’t click on any other pages and instead will leave. The preferred bounce rate percentage is anything under 50%, and if this figure is higher then this can be down to numerous factors such as lack of content, site speed issues, poor layout or your website is attracting the wrong customers.
By diving deeper into your website analytics, you can explore any additions or changes needed in order to convert customers into leads. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a brand-new website, it can instead be smaller changes to keywords on existing pages to improve your SEO.
Area 2: Your Contact Database
The next area of opportunity is your contact database, which can be hidden away in your CRM system, such as HubSpot, or alternatively in an excel spreadsheet, and as such this can often be underutilised even outside of a recession.
Therefore, it’s vital that you regularly update them on your products and services, whether that be through telephone or email, to build a relationship and have them see you as a trusted solution in their buying journey.
If you have a large database of contacts in a HubSpot CRM, you can identify when those contacts have revisited your website, watched videos, or opened emails etc, and then you can follow up on that and get in contact as it can lead to positive results!
Area 3: Your Sales Team
The third area of opportunity comes as a result of making the most of your contact database, and that’s your sales team.
While they’ll have the sales skills and expertise to get new customers, it doesn’t mean that they should be left to their own devices. Much like with the website, it’s important to monitor their progression and see whether they’re performing to the standards set. Look into what KPIs you would measure your sales team for, and if they’re achieving said targets.
You want your sales team to initiate the conversation with potential customers so that they can build a trustworthy relationship that makes them feel comfortable when deciding to purchase your products or services.
Many businesses struggle to have sales teams that also have in-depth knowledge of their products and services, but with regular training sessions to enhance this, they can easily resolve any challenges from potential customers, as well as confidently provide solutions to ensure what you have is a good fit for them. A confident and knowledgeable sales team adds another layer of trust in the relationship you’re looking to build when looking to make a sale.
By investing time and effort into these three areas of your business, not only will you be prepared for any impending recession, but you’re also more likely to make effective decisions based on the various figures you find to thrive and grow during it.
If you’re a small or medium-sized business looking to improve your digital marketing strategy, please get in touch today. Click here to listen to the full podcast episode, and stay tuned for future episodes of the Digital Prosperity Podcast.
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