Internal Trends

By Christina Suter on Nov 22, 2014 at 02:03 PM in Business Issues
Internal Trends

This week I am going to discuss internal trends. When you’re dealing with theft in your business, that’s internal. More than 80% of theft from your business comes from people who steal when they think they can get away with it and when they think they need it. The way you eliminate that is to track your inventory.

When it comes to identifying the internal trends in your business, or dealing with shifts in product sales, it’s important to know the changes in your business and what is causing them. Look back at what happened a year ago; what was your most popular product then? What is it now? Use the numbers; don’t just go by what your favorite product was. Look at which product sold the most, which was ordered the most, per number. If your product is service hours, how many hours were billed and on what services?

Whatever the moves over the two years were, that informs what’s going on inside your business. This trend, this shift, shows you the growth, and your work is to figure out why that’s happening. Have you changed or increased your marketing? Are you targeting a different type of customer now? Is there a specific customer whose word of mouth has helped bring you more clients?

In addition to tracking your inventory, and knowing your sales patterns and trends, know who your best customers are. Who is your single best customer; and base upon your business’ billing cycle?

Action the top 10% of your customers, give them your energy and focus first, because they’re paying your bills. Write down your top 10% of clients and send an email checking on them and keeping them aware that you are available should they need your services. Continue to send them newsletters, emails lists, etc. on your schedule. Be sure to send and share content that is of value to them. Reengage people who used to pay you, reactivate previous buyers.

How were most of your sales made in 2013? Were they mostly in store, were the majority of items sold online, or maybe they were wholesale accounts. Who’s buying the most and how were the sales made? It might make sense for your business to close its brick and mortar storefront and pay for people to do more online work and social media work. Go with the growth in your industry; know your best customers, know what they’re buying more of, and know where most of your sales are made.