Up your profits in a down economy – Post 3

In my last post, I wrote about the importance of improving your selling skills. Without a doubt, it is the simplest way to dramatically increase the value of each sale.

Even if you don’t take the time to go through a professional selling course or book, there are some things you can do to increase the average transaction value.

• Start by identifying your most popular selling products or those that are easiest to sell.
• Select one or more products or services that compliment these products.
• Create “bundles” with special package pricing that applies if the client buys the extra product at the same time as the initial purchase.
• Create a sales script and rehearse the words that you will use to up-sell to a client. Say you own a pet store and a client just bought a training leash for their new dog. You say, “If you are using this for training, I recommend you also get the bookGood Owners, Great Dogs. I think it’s one of the best training books ever written. If you get the book today with the training leash, I can discount the book 10%.”
• It’s that easy. The key is to know what extra value you can bring to your client, believe in the value of what you are offering and ask the client to buy it.

The key is to get used to asking. Will it work every time? No, but it will only work if you ask! Whatever you sell, it is very likely you can add value with additional products. Since you’ve already spent the money to get the client in front of you, you owe it to yourself and the client to insure they have everything they need!

How to write your Unique Selling Proposition

Once you’ve completed the research on your Unique Selling Proposition, you need to craft your initial USP. Don’t try to create a slogan or be cute. Write between 60 and 100 words that capture the essence of your uniqueness.

Once you have that and believe it fits the bill, start to wordsmith it down to fewer words. Read it into a recorder and play it back to see how it sounds to you. Improve it and then set it down for a day or so and read it again. Does it sound compelling? Is it filled with benefits for the client? Will it make a prospect say, “Really, tell me more?”

This video goes more into depth about actually writing your USP and gives some great tips and pointers about creating a powerful USP for your company.

Up your profits in a down economy part 3

In a down economy or market, far too many businesses withdraw and adapt a bunker mentality. This is the absolute biggest mistake they can make. Continue with your marketing but be more demanding for accountable results. If you need to cut anything, cut overhead that is not contributing to increased sales.

I’m going to be throwing up a lot of suggestions about what you can do to increase your profits. A lot of them will cost you absolutely nothing but will require time and focus.

The first and easiest thing to do is to focus on increasing the value of every transaction. Most businesses leave a fortune on the table with each transaction because they never attempt to cross-sell or up-sell. MacDonald’s makes an absolute fortune by asking the simple question, “Would you like fries and a drink?”

The easiest person to sell to is an existing client and you can leverage this fact. If they just made a decision to buy, what additional products or services can you add to the transaction? What will add to their initial purchase? Car dealers sell maintenance agreements, restaurants add deserts, clothing stores add accessories, CPA’s can add consulting services, insurance agents can add an umbrella policy.

You must train your staff and give them the sales scripts and the words they should say. Leave nothing to chance. Get your staff to suggest products and services that go together. Create a phone follow-up program to thank the client for their purchase and offer them a special “customer-only” discount or coupon on an additional service if they buy within the next 30 days. Always have an offer and a deadline.

I’ve worked with clients and increased the average transaction by 20% and more just by teaching them to do this. I made sure it was part of their culture. I created incentives and contests for staff to insure they were on board.

This is the easiest money that is hiding in your business!!! If you do nothing else with your marketing except to focus on this strategy, you can easily increase profits by 10% or more. The great thing about it is that it costs you no extra money to make the additional sale.

Go for it!

Increase your profits in a down economy- Part 2

Where do you want to spend your marketing dollars in a “down economy?”  In my last post, I wrote about how the media plays a big role in the perception of the economy.  If you believe them, the entire world is now broke and living in boxes underneath highway overpasses.

Business owners start to believe that there are no longer clients willing to buy from them and they enter a hibernation mode, hoping they will make enough sales to survive.

Have you been to a department or grocery store lately?  If so, you may have seen what I have been seen.  People are buying things.  Have you been to a restaurant lately?  Did you notice that people were buying meals? Have you noticed a dramatic decrease in rush-hour traffic because nobody has a job any more?

Hey, I believe there are some serious problems with the economy but the fact of the matter is that people are still making and spending money. The wise business is not retreating. Instead, they’re spending marketing dollars wisely. They are throwing useless “brand/image” advertising out the door. They are demanding accountability from agencies and others selling them media.

The way I look at it, if your marketing isn’t delivering a measurable return, either get rid of it or figure out how to measure it. There are companies out there that do detailed ROI projections for capital investments but often spend the same amount of money on marketing with no strategy to measure return.

The bottom line is that this is the worst time to cut back on your marketing. Your competition is probably doing it so why not take advantage of the situation to strengthen your presence? When things turn around, there will be a lot of your competitors who may be great buyout targets.

You also need to spend some serious time strengthening your relationships with your clients. Be sure you are maximizing revenue from each transaction. Be sure your sales reps are well-trained in selling skills and product knowledge. Be sure your service staff knows how to up-sell and cross-sell.

Finally, quit listening to the media and chart your own future.

Attract premium and profitable clients with a powerful Unique Selling Proposition

Why should I buy from you?  A simple question but one that few business owners are able to answer.  They say, “We have good service,” or “We’ve been in business for 50 years.”

To the we have good service company, I say, “Well, you better have good service or I’ll never be back.”  Good service is expected, it’s not a differentiator.  If you’ve been in business for 50 years, that may mean nothing to most people.  Who cares how long you’ve been around?  TWA was one of the best known names in the airline industry.  They gave good service and were in business a long time.  They are now a nostalgic memory.

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) answers the question, “Why should I buy from you vs. your competition or do nothing at all?”  If you can’t answer that question, then you are hoping your prospect will figure it out on their own and will hopefully decide you are worth the investment.

Creating a USP is not as dificult as it may seem, if you follow a process and approach it as a stategic project that answers the why should I buy from you with a compelling reason.  If you approach this as a project to create a clever slogan for an ad, you are handicapping yourself.  In a series of videos, I am going to walk you through the process of creating a powerful and compelling Unique Selling Proposition.

I hope that you find these videos helpful.  At any time, feel free to contact me, Paul Flood, to discuss or review your USP.

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