No matter the shape or size of your business, it exists to sell something, whether that’s a product, service, or combination of the two. If your business isn’t making sales, or making enough of them, then it’s going to be left without enough money.
Unfortunately, hundreds of businesses have to shut up shop every single year for this very reason. This is why it’s important that you do everything in your power to ensure your customers keep buying from you, but, to do this, you need to know the real reasons why they stopped in the first place. With that in mind, here are six reasons why customers might not be buying from your small business.
No One Knows You Exist
Your product or service might be the best on the planet, but customers aren’t going to buy it if they don’t know that it exists. Because of this, you need to invest some time and money in your marketing strategies. Do some research on your target market and try to come up with methods that are best suited to your customers. Experiment with a number of strategies for your market, including email marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and direct mail, and measure the effectiveness of each one. Once you’ve done this, you can adjust your plans accordingly.
Your Product Has No Purpose
You might think that your product or service is cool, but, unless your customers agree, you’re not going to make money from it. This means that you need to take off your rose-tinted glasses and take a cold, hard look at the things you’re selling. Speak to people in your target market and identify the problems they face and the issues that are most important to them. If your product or service doesn’t solve a problem or address an issue, then things need to change. This might mean changing target markets, revamping your products, or ditching them altogether.
People Don’t Trust Your Brand
You might not have necessarily done anything to appear untrustworthy, but that doesn’t mean that people are going to trust you anyway. This is something you have to earn. With crooks and fraudsters aplenty, customers don’t want to stop with unknown brands, so you need to make sure that you establish credibility. You can do this by earning a large social media following, publishing content on a blog, and using 1300 numbers hosting. You should also ensure you’re easy to contact and introduce a clear and simple refunds policy for those who do purchase.
The Checkout Process Is Complicated
Whether your customers are buying in-store or online, you need to ensure that your checkout process is quick and simple. If it isn’t, it can lead to frustration, which will result in customers abandoning the sale. In a brick and mortar store, you should clearly identify where the queue is supposed to be and ensure that you have enough staff at the checkout to prevent a pileup of customers. If you sell online, you should guide your customers through the process with words and images, and make it as quick as possible, by removing unnecessary fields.
Your Prices Are Too High
Your customers might want to buy your product, but if they think that it’s too expensive, then they’re not going to. It’s as simple as that. Because of this, you need to take the time to do some research on your target market and find out a little more information about their income and the types of things they buy throughout the month. If from this information, you can see that your product would be deemed too expensive, then you need to make some changes. Of course, you might not be able to lower your prices, but you could add value or switching target markets.
You Don’t Listen To Feedback
One of the easiest ways to find out why customers don’t buy from you is simply asking them. This means that you should identify individuals who your product or service is aimed at and ask them exactly what they want and how you could improve. You could do this in person, by email, using social media, or over the phone. Once you’ve done this, you need to gather all of your information and figure out what changes you need to make. After all, there’s no point in taking the time to gather feedback if you’re not actually going to use it to improve.
There are a number of reasons why customers might not be buying from you, so make sure you identify any issues and work towards improving them.