What do you think the biggest challenge facing businesses all over the country is? It’s what their business will look like after the pandemic.

About 71% of small business owners fear that they’ll never recover from the pandemic. About half have added more debt to their liabilities sheet.

The best way to overcome those fears is to increase sales. Can it be done during a global pandemic? It can, and we’re going to show you the best things that will immediately boost your sales.

Read on to find out what you can do right now to improve your bottom line.

1. Audit the Customer Journey

How many times does your brand reach customers before they decide to purchase from you? If you don’t know, then you probably don’t know the customer journey.

The customer journey is every interaction someone has with your brand. They might like a social media post, then make a comment. They’ll check out your website to see what you have to offer.

They’re not ready to buy, yet. At some point, they will, which is why you want to stay in front of them.

Audit every touchpoint and put yourself in the shoes of someone who is just learning about your products and services. Does your content welcome them? Do you provide useful information to help them make a decision later on?

You also want to audit the sales process and the delivery and support of the product. That will help you clean up your entire customer experience.

2. Work With Marketing

Is your marketing department delivering quality leads? Marketing and sales should go hand in hand, but they tend to end up at each other’s throats.

Marketing’s job is to deliver quality leads to the sales team. It’s the job of the sales team to close those sales. If marketing doesn’t deliver, then the closing rate is going to be low.

On the other hand, the closing rate could be low because the sales team isn’t closing leads fast enough. These two teams have to work together to identify the issue and resolve the problem.

How can they work together in a positive way? They can come up with an ideal client profile.

Then, marketing can come up with ways to qualify buyers. They can have a contact form or application that asks how much prospects are willing to invest in solutions. Prospects without a budget can get put onto an email list, where prospects with a budget can get a personal contact from a salesperson.

3. Automate as Much as Possible

There’s never enough time to take care of all of the tasks in the business. Automation is the buzzword in sales and there’s a good reason for it.

You can’t automate sales conversations, but you can put systems in place to automate a lot of other tasks. A calendar tool saves time from emailing back and forth to set up a meeting.

Automate forms and emails to increase the number of touches a prospect gets before a call.

4. Learn About Your Customers During COVID

The past year has been awful for many people. Some industries were affected more than others. Some people didn’t notice much of a change at all.

Empathy can go a long way to build a long-term relationship with customers. Ask customers and prospects how they’re doing and what their challenges are.

Instead of selling them at that moment, ask them how you can help them. They’ll remember that and remain loyal to your company.

5. Bring in Outside Experts

There are consultants, agencies, and other experts that bring in their experience and objective views to help businesses grow.

Yes, they cost money, but they have a lot to contribute to your business.

You might think that you need to hire outside experts because you already have employees to do the work. The outside help will help your employees do their jobs better.

For example, if you already have a marketing team, you can hire a digital marketing agency to complement the work that your team does.

A digital marketing agency has the capacity to write content on a consistent basis, focus on search results, or rebuild your website. This article goes into more depth as to why every business needs a digital marketing agency.

6. Execute a Follow Up Plan

How many sales reps follow up with leads at least once? How many reps follow up with leads more than once? You might be surprised to learn that there is a huge drop-off between reps that follow up only once and more than once.

You are also likely to discover that the sales reps who follow up more than once are your top sellers. That’s because nearly 80% of leads need 5 or more follow-up calls.

Just less than half of all sales reps don’t follow up with leads at all. If you want to make a big difference in your sales, put a follow-up system in place.

Have a CRM and use it. It can remind reps to follow up with leads. You can use the CRM’s reports to make sure that your reps are meeting their numbers.

It’s also an opportunity to spot and coach reps that are underperforming. You can keep those sales reps, rather than invest time and money to replace them.

How to Increase Sales Quickly

As the world looks forward to the end of the pandemic, businesses are going to work hard to make up for lost sales and opportunities.

You can start now and implement the tips listed here to increase sales. That will help your business get more sales now and close significant holes in your sales process.

Are you ready for more great tips to get more sales for your business? Be sure to visit the Business section of this site.