You’ll sell very little of anything – no matter how good it is – if you keep it a well-hidden secret. We might be an online media agency, but this tip goes for all areas of your sales, including those offline areas, too.
If you don’t tell people what you do, and you don’t tell them often enough for them to notice, you’ll sell very little.
The sad thing is, many lost sales aren’t due to a lack of marketing touchpoints, PPC, sales techniques, or clever sales funnels-thingies. Many lost sales are due to empty shelves, a lack of till, or even the existence of a shop at all.

If you have something to sell, sell it!

A full stock cupboard of ideas equals a lacklustre bottom line
We all have wonderful ideas and business concepts. We come up with new products or services when we least expect it – did you know you can get a waterproof digital notepad for the shower as so many people have ideas whilst washing their particulars?

Anyway.

The shortage isn’t of ideas; it’s in the implementation of the ideas.
– Got a new service? Put it on your website.
– Updated your service offering? Email it out.
– Got some new-fandangled packages? Maybe tell your social media connections about it?

It might sound bleedin’ obvious, but an idea is just an idea until you put it into action and tell the world about it.

Backroom shelves still need storage space
If you sit on an idea for months, years or even forever, it’s also taking up space in your proverbial stock room. Your head, your cloud storage, your quarterly meetings, and your vision boards. It’s taking bandwidth in the online world and the real world without earning its keep.

Leaving it as an idea, or a service and product you sell when you remember, keeps it a secret and doesn’t allow it to reach its full potential. Worse still, it’s likely to be taking up valuable time and space (in your digital storage, cupboards, or grey matter) that you could free up for something else, or simply make better use (profit) of.

Created but not shared, is potential not results
You did create the product? Great! Where is it? Oh!? It’s actually in the stock room? It’s actually hidden from view? You’re not even in the analogy above, you’re living this nightmare.

Get that product into real life and get the use from it. This doesn’t even need to be a product you sell, either.
When you go networking you might take a roller banner or some product samples with you. Since live networking took a bit of a sabbatical (thanks, Covid) that banner is sitting in your car, and those product samples are gathering dust.

You still go networking online though, right? Get the banner out of your boot, pop a bookcase behind you, and share your products and your brand with a cool, real-life backdrop. Zoom backgrounds can be a bit twee, but a banner and some actual products can really make you come alive.

Whatever you have, give it some light of day to shine in.

Brand merch? Show it off
Just because you’re not at business shows every month doesn’t mean you can’t use those mugs, pens, mini banners, or team mascots either. Just like the above example, bring them into your online Zoom or Teams calls and add some 3D to your backdrop.

It really makes you look like the real deal and judging by the lack of Zoom etiquette, you’ll not need to do much to rise above the rest and stand out. Being branded and having assets makes you appear bigger than you actually are because of the associations with branded merchandise being for only larger, more successful businesses.

Side hustle? Push it forward
Maybe you have some great products that you make in your spare time? Maybe you’re creating chocolate brownies for the local market, or you like to make handmade jewellery or original art in your spare time. Set yourself up a simple website or Facebook page and sell it!

Why not? Mostly this will cost you nothing but time. Get those things online and at least give them the chance to sell. We’ve always been amazed at what people will buy online. Go and make the most of it.

Set the target for your side project
Got a side project you’ve been beavering away at for years? Why not set yourself a timescale or target and get it live and get it earning you some dollar? It might just surprise you, you know.

Using free social media groups, online networking, and a bit of elbow grease you can drive some interest to it and then let the internet cogs go into drive and bring home some cash.

Sure, there’s more to it than that, but even Amazon started somewhere, right!?

Switch your brain or physical storage into server space and sell the darn thing!
What’s stopping you? Not much.

Decades ago, entrepreneurs and inventors would have killed for Facebook, Instagram, and platforms like WordPress. You have the ability to be online in less than a day, promoting your business to the world for free. Again, there’s a lot more to it, but the journey of a thousand steps starts with a few clicks.

Get it out there and at least give it a chance. You’ll sell way more than you will when you leave it hidden in your store cupboard.

If you need a few more encouraging words, or would like more advice on how to get your stuff selling online, just contact me today.

 
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