what sales channels to use for your business

There are many ways to get sales to your small business but what sales channels are open to you and how much will these cost you?

The sales channels we look at here are for offline businesses but most can be used for internet businesses also. The best way to look at sales channels is that everyone can be a sales person for you. The more you have your business and products and services in front of your potential customers minds the better. Wherever you believe your target customers are going to be then you need to have your business in front of them - over and over again.

Think about TV advertising for a moment (OK, this is not a sales channel but look at the effectiveness). TV advertising is actually mostly brand building (talking about the company) but many products are launched or described on TV. And when an advert comes on it must be shown at least 3 or 4 times for the message to come across. Then that needs to be translated into something so that you actually take action (that’s why there are sometimes calls to action at the end of an advert - but not always)

The advertisers want you to do something. To look out for their product and try it. To phone a hot line to get a brochure or something else.

This is the same with sales channels. You need your message to get out as much as possible. So let’s have a look at some of these.

- telesales - people hate getting phone calls trying to sell them something but this is still an excellent method of getting customers. I believe it works better if you are already a customer and then get a call seeing if everything is AOK with your business (it works if you haven’t made a purchase for a while) then the call can progress into a sales call. Telesales may look expensive but the return on investment (ROI) is quite high.

- direct mail - not really a sales channel more of an advertising method but it’s another way to get your message across

- your customers - this is ultimately your best sales channel. Your customers have tried your products and mostly will like them so get your existing customers to spread the message to their friends and colleagues. Offer incentives for your customers to get more customers on board.

- a sales force - if you haven’t got a sales force and are big enough then you should. There are other groups of customers you probably haven’t got at the moment and a well managed and motivated sales person can get you addtional business

- other businesses/ affiliates - get others to sell your products on your behalf. Offer big incentives and commission because you should be looking at lifetime value of your customers and not the initial sale. It costs a lot to bring on a new customer but once you have them you should work to keep them happy.

Post below if you can think of other sales channels for your business that have worked.