It’s coming to the end of the year and 2011has generally been a poor performing year for most businesses, especially in the retail and tourism sectors.

With Christmas fast approaching, many businesses are hoping they are able to improve their overall sales results with consumers are more willing to spend during this period.  B2B business should also be thinking how they can boost sales to cover any slow period after Christmas and at the beginning of the year.

Hopefully, you’ve started your Christmas preparation.  If you haven’t then these tips might come in handy for you.

1. Are you working your email list/customer list & social media opportunities?

Unfortunately, many businesses are not engaging with their customer mailing list.  You don’t need to SPAM your list, but if you have a good co-ordinated approach, good content, a great call to action, it will become a very valuable and cost effective part of your overall sales strategy.

If you’ve got a facebook page, twitter account or other social media avenues, get the word out about new products, gift ideas, specials or promotions you’re having.  Use these avenues to educate your customers, answer questions they may have and to take action.

2. Work your relationship with suppliers.

The Christmas/New Year period can be busy and then very slow.  Ask your supplier updates on stock levels so that you’ve got adequate stock for Xmas sales and into the early part of the year.  Some suppliers might be closed for longer periods or shipments may be delayed.

Perhaps bulk buying before the period, could give you more profitable margins too.

Get informed of new saleable products coming, so that you have adequate funds available to bring them into your business, time for training staff and developing a promotional plan.

3. Manage staff properly

Make sure you have enough staff to handle the increase in sales, enquiries, customer traffic etc.  You’d be surprised how many sales go missing because a business is inadequately staffed.  People are generally time poor, so the quicker you can address their need and close the sale the better the outcome.

4. Add value

Yes shoppers are always looking for a bargain.  As much as possible try not to discount.  There’s a saying, “If there’s nothing else to talk about, then people will always talk about price.”

Adding value allows people to differentiate your offering from competitors offering and in most cases the cost of adding value vs. discount could save your bottom line.  Instead of discounting, offering a voucher to spent on their next purchase.  This ensures they’re coming back to spend more money with you.

5. Ensure you’re selling what customer want

Are you getting regular feedback from customers and employees?  Using face to face, competitions, social media, surveys, etc… will help you have critical information to make better business.

No matter how technologically-advanced, your new fangle-jangle-thingy-ma-jig is… if people don’t want it, they won’t buy it.

Ensure your employees are asking the appropriate questions and that they are highlighting opportunities or issues back up to upper management.

Get rid of your poor performing products and test new products.

6. Educate your customers on why they want your product/service.

Although the previous point is true, sometimes it’s also a lack of customer education that causes a business to fail.  The truth is the majority of people don’t know what they want.

Before the iPad, many companies had tried to sell tablet PCs without much success.  Then along came Apple Inc. and showed everyone how a tablet was meant to be done and educated the masses as to why they should want one.

Today the tablet market is one of the fastest growing technology sectors and will be one of the hottest ticket items this Christmas.

Also, take note, that competitors are taking the fight to Apple with their own cheaper tablets and in most cases, more feature rich too.  However, Apple has also learnt to build a brand following engaging with the consumers emotion and ego.  You don’t see Apple discounting, yet people are still want their products!

7. Improve your online presence.

Building a website is only half the story, but a website is really only a passive marketing tool.  It needs to be found and you need to drive traffic to it.  This can be done through both online and offline promotional mediums that will drive traffic to your website or facebook page.

The fact is a growing majority of people use the Internet to shop, research and compare for products and services they are looking for.  Furthermore, with a website you can effectively reach a much larger proportion of potential customers.  You need to be in that space and ensure that you’re get eyeballs looking at your website and product offerings, so that you can convert them into sales.

Hopefully these are some things you can think about and implement in your business.