4 Ways to Grow Your Pharmacy Without Selling

Not every business owner, and certainly not every pharmacist, is a natural-born salesman. Finding opportunities to sell products to every patient who visits your store can be awkward, but you have to constantly sell to increase profits, right? Maybe not. In reality, there are several effective strategies that will allow your business to grow without pharmacists engaging in uncomfortable sales tactics. Let’s take a look at four proven strategies that will allow you to build your pharmacy business in other ways:

1) Increase Prices

A small uptick in prices could translate to a big profit increase at the end of the quarter. If you haven’t taken a close look at your pricing strategy in awhile, you’re probably missing a big opportunity. When compared with your competitors, you may find that many items are underpriced. Remember, low prices are not the only thing your customers care about. Personalized, top-quality care is your competitive edge. Many customers will not noticea small price increase and those who do will remain loyal to your exceptional customer service.

2) Add More Available Products

Many pharmacy owners focus too much on gaining new customers and miss the chance to maximize untapped potential with current patients. Building trust is the most nerve-racking, expensive and time-consuming portion of any sales process, but you have already overcome this barrier with your current customers. The smartest strategy for increasing pharmacy sales is to offer more to your existing customers, which is also known as cross-selling. Keep an eye on your inventory to make sure you carry related products that are in-demand. Make sure your staff is trained to recognize cross-selling opportunities and recommend additional products when necessary.

3) Grow Through Acquisitions

Depending on your pharmacy’s financial situation, you may consider buying out a small competitor rather than working to gain their customers in other ways. If pharmacies in your area are struggling and selling at relatively low prices, then growing your business through acquisition could be a very viable strategy. If this idea sounds overwhelming to you, PDS can help

4) Simplify Your Products

If you are running regular reports, you may quickly find that some of your products and services are actually costing you money. Eliminating items that are costly, hard to sell or expire too quickly will increase your profits in the end. Taking the time to replace unprofitable products with better options is a worthwhile investment.

If selling isn’t your forte, but you are looking for ways to grow your pharmacy business, don’t worry. Keep your eyes open for pharmacy acquisition opportunities. Remove unprofitable products and add inventory that will increase cross-selling. Effectively managing products and prices can increase your pharmacy’s profits exponentially.

One of the best ways to identify new growth opportunities is to connect with other like-minded independent pharmacy professionals. This industry is different from many others, which is why networking with other owners and learning about the future of pharmacy is so vital to your success. The PDS Together Toward Tomorrow Conference is held annually to unite pharmacy owners as we pave the way toward a better tomorrow.

Learn more and reserve your seat today