“We knew we had to proactively re-engage with existing customers and expand our outreach efforts to get traction with different groups we hadn’t sold to before,” Larter says. “And we had to go looking where prospects were likely to be. That meant going beyond advertising and promotion in traditional outlets such as newspapers and radio to engaging in two-way conversations with our target audience through social media outlets such as Facebook.”

There is no denying the strategy has demanded significant time, effort and commitment from staff, but Parlez Wireless is seeing the results. The key has been keeping the team involved.

“Transparency is key in engaging team members,” Larter says. “I have taken the time to share with them how the business is doing, and ask for feedback on how to impact sales and minimize costs. We win as a team and we lose as a team, so in order for the overall plan to be successful and work, the team has to be involved.  They may not always like the decisions that are being made, but at least they understand why they are being made.”

Her team’s efforts to promote the business and grow revenues have focused on three key areas:

Sell more to your existing client base

“When the market is soft, it is easier to sell to people who have already experienced your service,” says Larter. “We chose to actively contact clients who had made purchases two years prior and invited them back to our location with a special offer.”

To build this database, Parlez Wireless as a policy asks clients for all their relevant contact information. This information is used for programs such as one in which people are notified when a warranty is up or they have the option to renew a contract.

“We started this outreach program with an incentive to get people to come back to our specific location to buy,” Larter says. “We opted to do this instead of spending the dollars on advertising. This way our ROI is guaranteed and our clients benefit from that spend.”

Sell to a different group

“We realized that if we relied on retail consumers only we were at risk, so we embarked upon a new program to sell to other businesses,” Larter says. “This created opportunities for us to sell one-on-many versus one-on-one.”

To support this strategy, Parlez Wireless created a new part-time position focused exclusively on outbound sales. This sales person was responsible for going out in the community and door knocking to try and garner new business.

“We offered free services such as complimentary annual bill assessments, number portability, set up of e-mail on Blackberry devices, in-store or on-site training, single point of contact for all account needs, and bilingual service and support,” Larter says. “This initiative has gone from one day a week to a full-time position.”

Utilize Social Media

Larter is quick to emphasize the value of social media as a marketing tool that can be used to grow a business and a brand for free.

“Social media is fun, free and happening,” she says. “We spent more time focusing on being present in areas such as Twitter and Facebook, updating our website to include a blog, and focusing on delivering quality information to our clients via email.”

This “quality information” includes insights into new products and applications, software upgrades on existing products, and tips and tricks on how to better utilize a technology purchase.

“Clients regularly talk about us – praise our service on both of these mediums unsolicited. They just do it because of the relationship we have built with them,” Larter says. 

“You can read our blog and product page to see what we write about. I also blog at LisaLarter.com and have a lot of clients who read my updates regularly.”

While the use of social media has certainly increased Parlez Wireless’ visibility, more importantly, it has grown revenues.

“We’ve enjoyed incremental sales growth and even created a wait list for new products before they have launched,” says Larter. “We have utilized social media for recruiting, sharing updates with our clients and announcing special promotions and contests … We have also used search functions to find key words that our clients might be talking about in order to position ourselves as experts in our market.”