How I Generated 250 Sales in 1 Week for My Small Business
Ever noticed how every business, big or small, has that one thing they’re known for? Take Costa, for instance – they’re all about coffee, despite the many options they offer. Whether you’re running a business with a single product or juggling a variety, there’s always that core product or group of products that stand out. It’s your bread and butter, your product that you’re known for and the one that pulls in most of your revenue.
So, you’re selling this core product, but the thing is are you getting your core product to as many people as you can? Or as many people as you need? Or as many people as you want?
If you’re answering “yes” to all three of those questions, you might not need this blog. But if there’s even a hint of doubt, then stick around.
Now, I won’t claim to have a magic solution that’ll skyrocket your sales overnight. What I can share, though, is something that genuinely moved the needle for me and my businesses.
It’s about getting that core offering in front of more eyes – but doing it right. I’ve been there, trying, failing, and then finally hitting my stride. And, this blog will help you leapfrog some of those mistakes.
Technique Overview
Several strategies will help you enhance the visibility of your product within your market. I honestly believe in the notion that “one size doesn’t fit all”. Meaning, that relying solely on a single go-to-market channel will not get you, your business and your product to success. Placing all your efforts in one channel is not a good idea and it will limit where you get to.
Here are the 5 primary go-to-market channels:
You have to do all of them. But the two I see being done the least are numbers 1 and 2 from the list above. The good news is, that the technique that I cover in this blog helps with both of these.
Where Does This Technique Come From?
A while back, I stumbled upon a piece of advice that seemed so simple, yet I can’t for the life of me recall where I first saw it. It was probably in a book, actually, it’s more likely it popped up in several books – I read loads on this type of stuff. Anyway, one day, on a bit of a whim, I decided to give it a go. And would you believe it? The books were right! This worked!
Our company’s revenue got a great boost, and the best part was, that we were genuinely adding value to our customers – both the loyal ones and those just getting to know us.
Now, I’m not expecting anyone to follow my words to the T. What’s worked for me might take a bit of tweaking to fit your own business.
What I’m trying to get across in this blog is how straightforward it can be to get more people buying your core product. And hopefully this blog will motivate you to give it a shot in your own business.
How to Implement This Technique
So there are 4 tasks you need to do to implement this yourself. I can’t stress enough how important it is to do this. These simple tasks will help you generate more leads and get your core product to more customers.
I highly recommend that you do this with some colleagues. Get your team together and do these tasks.
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Task 1: Identifying the Gap
Start by gathering your team for a brainstorming session. The question at hand? “What problems do our customers face that are linked to our main product, but we’re not offering solutions for?” Get everyone to jot their thoughts on Post-it notes and stick them on a wall. Give it 5 minutes – a short, sharp burst of creativity. Then, group similar ideas together.
Imagine if Costa only sold coffee – their team might say customers are hungry, in a rush, or need to entertain their kids whilst in the shop.
Task 2: From Problems to Solutions
Next up, tackle each problem one by one, brainstorming solutions as a team. Scribble down a brief description of each solution on new Post-it notes. Don’t worry about the complexity or cost to create the solution just yet, you’ll come to that later.
Using the hypothetical Costa problems from above, their staff could lead to solutions like sandwiches, a drive-thru service and colouring books for kids.
Task 3: What’s Worth It?
Draw a simple quadrant and categorise each solution based on the size of the problem it solves for your customers and whether it’s low-cost or high-cost to create. This visual helps to prioritise which ideas are worth pursuing first.
Task 4: Making the Call
By now, you should have a clearer picture of which ideas could be winners. If there’s a standout solution in the ‘big problem, low cost’ quadrant, that’s what you create. If not, don’t lose heart. Review, refine, or maybe even revisit the brainstorming session. Sometimes, a second round of thinking is all it takes to hit upon that brilliant, cost-effective solution.
How I Used This & The Results It Gave
My business’s core product was software for schools, it helped teachers record how pupils were doing, and it worked great for pupils between the ages of 5 and 11 years old.
Now, growth was more of a slow crawl than a sprint at that point. The PlayStation in the office saw more action than it should have done (although we did have a load of fun!).
Our existing customers loved us, and we were getting a good number of referrals. But attracting new customers beyond those referrals? That was a whole different ball game. It was like we were invisible to them. And honestly, it was because we weren’t even trying.
So, we rolled up our sleeves and gave it a go. We brainstormed, and identified a gap our core product wasn’t filling. Before we knew it, we’d come up with a new product: a simple, £75 analysis pack that offered insights our main software didn’t cover. This was analysis for pupils that were just 4 years old. It was a bit of a eureka moment when we realised that there was a widely used free app for schools to use for pupils of this age. And this app standardised the formatting of data exports. But it didn’t cover the depth of analysis that we did. So we created a report that did.
The result? We put our new product out there through each of the other 3 channels mentioned at the top of this blog (cold outreach, warm outreach and advertising). And in the first week, we got 250 orders. Why? Because it was a low-risk purchase for schools. Just £75. Those initial sales opened the door to conversations about our core product, converting roughly 30 of those new customers into full-paying customers over the next three months.
So what’s the moral of the story? Don’t overlook any avenue to market your business. Whether it’s giving away freebies, selling low-risk products, reaching out to old contacts, braving the cold outreach, or advertising, each channel has its own magic.
I hope you found this blog useful. If you’ve got questions or want to chat about these techniques, feel free to drop me a line, here on LinkedIn. I’m always up for a natter about business adventures.