Ann Marie Puig provides ways commerce businesses can increase sales in 2021

If the social outburst and pandemic impacted your business, like many other SMEs everywhere, you’re most likely wondering how to increase your sales by 2021.  The year is still young and is certainly the perfect time to define and start executing tactics and actions that will restore the desired level of liquidity and lay the groundwork for expansion and growth.  Ann Marie Puig, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist from Costa Rica, offers five effective techniques to increase sales and, therefore, profits.

Influence marketing is gaining strength.  A survey conducted jointly by Viral Nation, NeoReach and Influencer Marketing hub, in which 800 brands, agencies and professionals who excel in the marketing world were consulted, demonstrated the importance of influence marketing.  60% of the respondents for this research stated that it has a specific budget for this marketing technique that has as its main window social networks.  In addition, 92% of respondents said they were confident that influence marketing actually produces great results.

Explains Puig, “When consumers see that their favorite artist, athlete or personality uses a certain article, they develop a link with this product without even having used it and are willing to give it a vote of confidence.”  In addition, the return on investment in influence marketing can be very positive and favorable.

Sell solutions, not products or services.  Although it seems like a kind of metaphor, this can be considered a solid sales technique. The success of a company and its products or services lies, in large part, in its ability to meet the needs and solve the problems of users.  That’s why entrepreneurs must strive to understand the key concerns of consumers that are part of our target market and, based on that, communicate, disseminate and demonstrate how our business can help them with those specific needs. Among the practices that can help us fulfill that premise is content marketing, which is part of an in-depth analysis of the ideal customer and then educating, captivating and attracting it through value content.

Work in your database. 
Many times, new customers are much closer than we think and to “catch them,” we don’t have to invest as much money and effort as we think.  “Usually, in the databases of sales teams, there are many users who have not yet been sufficiently encouraged to make a purchase decision,” explains Puig. “So, it is worth working on them before allocating human, technological and financial resources to find new business contacts.  Focus on getting to know these users even better and explicitly show them how your products or services will help them.”

Detect friction points in the workplace and eliminate them.  To increase the revenue of a business through increased sales, entrepreneurs should also target their customer base.  If they retain a significant percentage of their customers and also encourage them to increase their level of consumption, the business augurs a successful future from a financial point of view.  To achieve this, focus on detecting friction points, i.e., all those elements that generate nonconformities and inconvenience in users during payment, information request and interaction processes in general.

An example of friction within the customer experience is poor and time-consuming billing processes. In that case, we would have to propose to incorporate the necessary technologies to optimize that area.  In addition to eliminating friction points, we can encourage increased individual consumption through point accumulation programs and other classic but effective strategies.

One of the strategies to impact consumers, with the aim of increasing sales, is to develop the visual appeal of the brand.  This doesn’t just mean making changes to the visual identity and to elements as sensitive as the logo.  Simply improve the presentation and packaging of our products, renew the atmosphere of the office or store, and generally create and innovate from a visual point of view to differentiate ourselves from competitors.

Of course, it’s worth noting that it’s very important that you modernize your business operations to serve the new volume of customers you’ll get, especially through accounting and electronic invoice software.  Only in this way can SMEs meet their tax commitments and maintain accounting order, even if the level of transactions grows significantly and they may need to open new branches.

Adds Puig, “Good software will make it easier for us to invoice and issue accounting receipts and tax documents in compliance with the formats established by tax authorities, avoiding fines and penalties that compromise the liquidity and operational stability of the business.”

About Ann Marie Puig  

Ann Marie Puig has been a distinguished Consultant, Assistant Controller, Accounting Manager, Director of Accounting and Finance and Chief Financial Officer for almost 20 years.  She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has a reputation for accurate, clear and concise record management in month-end closings, accruals, reconciliations, AP, AR and JE, as well as superior human resource skills.   She is extremely knowledgeable in current technology, eCommerce and a variety of Industries.

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