Five principles for maintaining high sales in a crisis

Pavel Maestro - entrepreneur,business researcher and founder of a consulting company Magic Marketing. It is guided by the principle "business is a game for money with its own rules and risks, where the consumer is the judge." Opponent of gray marketing methods and methods of “pairing”, believes that clients should be “done” for the sake of clients, and in business there are an infinite number of opportunities for creating something new that can be useful to people and makes them happier. 

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The crisis begins! These words sound like a sentence for those who are just about to open their own business. For 80% of all entrepreneurs, the crisis is also alarming. With these words, the following pictures pop up in their heads: people stop buying goods, competitors begin to quickly and frantically sell their goods at bargain prices, banks refuse credit, government agencies are more often visited with checks.

But this situation has another side to the coin. From the ancient Greek language, the word “crisis” is translated as “solution”, “turning point”, and this definition contains the meaning that is right for perception and a guide to further actions. For a businessman, the concept of “crisis” should mean that the time has come to make new decisions and change your business. Successful entrepreneurs know for sure that the crisis is another limitless field of opportunities for modernizing an existing business and creating new enterprises. They are not afraid of the crisis, they are waiting for it. Many successful businesses were launched precisely in times of crisis. We can say that now is the time for them, because the crisis is cleaning up the market, clearing it of amateurs, lay people and crooks. It is during the crisis that the industry leaders change and their rapid growth.

Before giving recommendations on doing business in times of crisis, I would like to tell you about one experiment that illustrates one of the most important laws of doing any business. The researchers gathered an audience of 80 people and asked everyone who has shoes to stand up: everyone got up. Then the researchers asked everyone with more than 4 pairs of shoes to sit: about 50 people remained standing. Then, in the same way, they found out that about twenty people had more 16 pairs of shoes, and only three people had more 32 pairs. And only one of the subjects had more 64 pairs - this woman adored shoes, and in her collection there were about 80 pairs of shoes.

This experiment demonstrates the most important law of doing business - the Pareto law. In this example, 20% of people own 80% of shoes, which means that 20% of your customers bring you 80% of profit. Based on this law, you should be constantly focused on identifying this “Golden Twenty” and trying to sell it the maximum of your goods. The most important asset of your business in a crisis is your customers. For some reason, many businessmen do not understand this. They believe that their main asset is a site, sellers, goods, technologists. Anything, but not customers. Although it is the customers who make daily decisions about which business to give their money to and which not. It depends on their choice whether your business will be profitable or not. Always keep this in mind and focus on working with clients. For Pareto's law to show the best results, use it along with the five principles.

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Principle One: It's important to understand which audience you are selling.... If you don't know for sure what your typical customer looks like, then it's best not to sell at all, or else 80% of all your marketing efforts will go to waste. Usually the majority of entrepreneurs when asked "Who are your customers?" cannot give a clear and clear answer. I emphasize once again: you must know as much information as possible about your clients, and it is obligatory - gender, age, profession, marital status, approximate income. As you collect information, you will be asked more and more additional questions that will soon give you a very clear portrait of your client. You will make sure that your customers are united not only by gender, but also by other similar characteristics. After such a study, you will be able to determine the very 20% of customers who bring you the main money, and you will try to work with them. As a result, you will feel more confident in the market among competitors.

Principle Two: It's important to understand what you are selling to your customers. Selling shoes, you can sell style, fashion, comfort, quality, guarantee, ecology. First of all, you need to understand why customers come to you and what the very 20% of your most desired customers buy from you. It is very important to answer this question. Once you find the answer, you can multiply your profits by making more and more attractive offers for your customers.

Third principle: trying to keep in touch with the customer is critical. Now this can be done in various ways. The most common is sending out letters, but lively conversation is always better. So if you really want to impress the customer, call him a week after the purchase and ask how he is doing and if everything worked out for him in the product, if there are any difficulties. Believe me, now nobody is doing this, with this call you will definitely remain in the client’s memory for a long time. Most business owners believe that calling and sending letters to their customers is necessary only when sales take place. They are very mistaken: these calls only annoy and cause negativity.

Principle Four:it's important to understand how you differ from your competitors. It is very important to know and analyze their product range, methods of working with customers, pricing and other factors. If you study your competitors, then you just need to make people buy from you, making more attractive offers. Usually, our businessmen can offer nothing except price competition. It is important for you to remember that only 10% of all buyers consider price to be a key factor in the purchase, and 90% decide on the purchase based on other factors - the convenience of the shoe, warranty, brand, style, the general feeling of the store, the attitude of sellers. The fifth principle: it is important to constantly focus on stimulating repeat purchasesso that the buyer constantly contacted you. This will help you cards of regular customers, special offers for regular customers, thematic catalogs, special events, prize drawings.

And again about the most important. Always remember that 20% of customers bring 80% of your profits. These customers deserve your close attention. If you focus on them, your business will be profitable at any time, regardless of crises.