There are few businesses which don’t utter this cry from time to time, but I think we have to be careful exactly what we wish for!

I don’t really want more sales, in fact if truth were known, I want less sales. What I really want is more profit and this is much more significant.

So what happens when businesses talk to me about increasing sales volume as part of Business Growth? The first thing we do is look at all the activity that presently generates income. It can be an eye opener to see just how much activity and effort goes into promoting sales of goods or services that deliver the lowest margins!

“It’s an easier sale” my client cries “we’ll make it up in volume”. No you won’t – if analysis of business strategy over the years has taught us one thing it is this: -

Volume helps absorb your fixed costs, but low margin is low margin. It dilutes your entire financial picture, it infuriates your finance director, your accountant and your bank, and it generally fails.

Using strategic marketing tools, it is entirely possible to refocus activity on profitable sales as opposed to volume sales and deliver strong bottom line performance as opposed to flashy top line performance.