Episode 51: Diagnosing the real reason for lagging product sales
We all face periods when we feel like trashing our businesses and giving up. This occurs when you have tried a strategy and committed significant resources or juggling an excessive number of responsibilities, but your sales remain flat or fluctuate erratically. So you might be scratching your head now, wondering what you're doing wrong.
This is the episode for you if that description fits your experience.
In this episode, I will examine five potential causes for your inconsistent sales. In a nutshell, they are as follows:
- A lack of vision
- Doing it on your own
- Doing many things and not focusing on the things actually driving sales
- Having a complicated business model and bloated product assortment
- Complicated marketing and sales channels
You will leave this episode with a firm grasp of where you went wrong and what you need to do to make things right. You'll appreciate the value of vision, a coach or mentor, and how less means more in product assortment and marketing.
Episode highlights
- [02:00] The value of a vision
- [08:24] The value of sharpness and decisiveness in decision making
- [09:35] Why you shouldn't go solo
- [21:47] Why you should prioritize a few activities
- [26:35] Product cannibalism and how to avoid it
- [26:50] How a bloated product assortment chocks and drowns your business
- [27:14] How more products don't always equate to more money
- [36:00] How multiple marketing channels harm your business
Quotes
"The only way that people will experience what you're trying to sell, what you're trying to put out there, is by you knowing your vision and showing up for that vision."
"When you don't know what your vision is, you end up playing small. And when you end up playing small, nobody finds you. So you don't create the value that's required."
"If you're anchored to your vision, then it's easy for you to make a decision to help you solve the problem you're experiencing."
"A lot of times, I get questions of how long it will take me to build a six-figure brand or cross over the million-dollar mark? And I actually say this as the answer. It depends on the rate at which you make decisions. So if you make decisions fast, the chances of you getting to your revenue goal increase so much faster."
If you can't show up at the small stage, how will you show up at the big stage?"
"Entrepreneurship is actually impacting and changing lives. So let's get over this whole concept about money and freedom. That's a byproduct. That's what comes after you do things the right way."
"It's not about all the things that you need to do. It's about what you need to do right now."
"The more streamlined your product assortment is, the more money you'll make."
"Streamline your products. A bloated product assortment costs you a lot of money. And if you're looking to increase your sales, your product assortment is the easiest lever to pull before you even pull pricing for small business owners."
"Just because you like making it, it doesn't mean that it is needed, and it doesn't mean that it's actually going to sell. So do not waste your time and effort making a product because you think it is needed. Focus your time and efforts marketing the product that is actually selling."
"Only make a product if you've run out of stock, not when you're trying to be creative."
"If you know you want to be an entrepreneur, the biggest free piece of advice I can give you is get coached, get mentored, get somebody to teach you how to do it. It saves you so much time. The investment upfront could be hefty for you, but the amount of money you save on the back end afterwards is insane."
"There's this whole narrative I need to be on all platforms to make money. Honey, if you haven't mastered how to do one platform and do it very well, how are you going to be successful in another one?"
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