Six Sales Secrets Hiding in Your Accounting Software Data

In sales, it is less expensive to sell to your existing clients than to obtain new ones. As easy as that sounds, you need to have the right information about your clients to create repeat business.

Many businesses use customer relationship management (CRM) applications, which I highly recommend, but even if you haven’t implemented a CRM system yet, you have another rich database of customer information in your accounting software. Take a deeper look into the data, past the financial statements, and you will see how the numbers reveal unique and valuable sales information. The following steps will help you to analyze your current sales strategies and make improvements.

1. Don’t Save the Best for Last

Your best customers are the ones that should be shown the best care. To get a good handle on your top customers, run a sales-by-customer report sorting by the amount they spent with your company in 2008, and a second report for 2009. Compare the two reports. How many of your customers changed positions? Do you have a few new names on the top in 2009? If so, what happened to the customers that got bumped off?

Consider what you can do to bring back customers who may have slipped off the list. Look at the history you have with these customers and use that to bring them back to the top. There is a good chance that the economy is the culprit in their reduced spending, so perhaps customizing a VIP offer for your top 20% would bring in more revenue.

2. Find the Patterns

Buying cycles and spending trends become very clear when you run sales reports, the first by customer and the second by products or services, on a weekly or monthly basis, and review them over a period of time. Retail stores report their revenue and profits compared to last month, or compared to the same time last year. Adopt this practice no matter what industry you are in.

Sales reports uncover trends and cycles, but only if you are looking for them. Even if your company’s sales are stable, take a look at the details—which customers are buying which products or services, and when they are buying them. Your customers should be categorized by industry in your accounting software so you can sort by that field, creating industry-specific snapshots of your market. By understanding the granular data that makes up your sales figures, you can target your marketing appropriately. Sell to your customers when they typically buy, and you should sell more.

3. Timing Is Everything

In addition to identifying your top customers and their industry cycles and trends, take a look at the last time your top customers made a purchase. Just because they produced a high amount of revenue last year, or even the first quarter of this year, does not mean they have spent any money with you in the last few months. A customer ledger or customer transaction detail report that includes the date of their last payment can be very eye-opening.

Look for customers who are bucking the trends by NOT buying when you expect them to. This should be a red flag that you need to reach out to them. Rebuild that customer relationship and start the call with specifics: “We haven’t heard from you in four months…” Remember, you are reaching out to your current top customers, not the customers who have already slipped in ranking. 20%of your customers bring in 80% of your revenue, so you want to be very proactive now. If they are not buying in their regular cycle, it is possible that they are going to a competitor and you want to find that out as soon as possible!

4. Some Offers Can Be Refused

Time to look at whether your company’s products or services are still viable in today’s market. Run a sales report by product or service with sales figures in reverse order so you can focus on your worst-selling products or services. This is important information, as it is the flip-side of your customers’ buying cycles and trends. If you are not identifying how your customers are changing, then you are also not modifying your production, sales projections, and marketing either.

Changes need to be identified early and often to allow you to capitalize on them. When your customers stop needing what you are selling, then you have to be able to sell them something else. This is truly the name of the game today, and you have to be ready to strategize to stay in the black.

5. The Most Bang for Your Buck

Are your best selling products and services also your most profitable? Just because the revenues are high does not mean the profit is, too. The trick here is to be able to track the cost. If you are simply reselling items, then calculating the cost is easy. However, if you have other expenses, such as design, multiple parts, labor, handling, and shipping, calculating the cost is more complex. It is typically more difficult for service providers to do, as their cost is their time.