It doesn’t matter whether you are a brand new startup or whether you are a veteran of entrepreneurship, there will always be times when you go through sales downs. These can be terrifying at first as you may have no idea how long they will last, whether they can be overcome, and whether they are the death knell for your venture. However, there are ways you can be proactive in turning a sales lull around.

You should have a business plan that acts as a working document. Here you need to detail the potential risks that you may encounter.

• Don’t think that a strong business means no risk. It is how you mitigate risk that makes your business strong. Is your product liable to seasonal interest fluctuations?

• Does your service appeal to a limited niche? Consider how you will address the risks to your sales that you identify.

The easiest way to do this effectively is to follow this guide.

Be Different

There will be many rivals vying for your customers attention. They may offer a similar product or service for a lower price.

They may be a household name inspiring loyalty with their excellent reputation. Or they may be a well established and able to undercut you. You need to make yourself a different business entity.

You can do this by offering something new or exciting or by doing something in an intuitive way.

• If you are working in the food industry, offer up a vegan range.

• If you are keen on increasing sales of your custom made tee shirts, make sure that you have larger or more bespoke sizes that your competitors don’t offer.

Try to show off your better value by incentivizing your customer base. You need to attract customers to increase sales rather than relying on your existing customer base. This may result in some repeat custom but it won’t result in an increase in revenue or profits.

Reinvigorate Your Image

Sometimes your look can become a little stale. If the last time you overhauled your branding was in the 1980s, the chances are times have changed and the millennial generation will no longer find your logo relevant. Instead, you need to conduct some market research to reinvigorate your branding. This can then be utilized across your online channels such as your social media feeds and your website.

Your image can also be used on new promotional materials. While being online is vital in the twenty first century, you shouldn’t underestimate the impact of flyers and business cards.

Doing leaflet drops can result in gaining new customers especially if you manage to hand out promotional materials to your niche market. You might also want to put your new branding on billboards, or in a local newspaper as a full page advert. Advertising is still the best way to get your branding out there locally and globally, whether this is in print or online.

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