In our last post that we made
concerning How To Grow Any Business, we focused on increasing the number of
transactions our customers do with us. In this post of How To Grow Any Business
we are going to focus on:
How To Increase The
Average Size Of Transactions Our Customers Do With Us.
In other words, how do we get our
customers to buy more, to spend more money with us? This is a great question
and extremely valuable.
Before we go any further we need
to clear something up. I have heard over the years people say that you should
be trying to get people to spend less. This really isn't true; you should do
all that you can to take care of your customer’s needs. Sometimes they will
spend more and sometimes they will spend less to accomplish
their goals.
There is so much available
business in the world you don’t need to mislead people or try and pack on more
than they need, you just need to help them meet their objectives. Our job is to
take care of our customers to the best of our abilities and that is what we are
going to do.
Back to our subject for today:
How do we increase the size of the orders that we get from our customers? In
our last post we gave a few clues to how to accomplish this.
First thing that you need to know
is your customer, what they do, their needs, their pain, etc. Some of you may
be asking yourself why they would tell you their pain. Because they want
someone to take it away! They want someone to come in and help them not just
try to sell to them.
If we really believe the
statement “It’s All About Them, It’s Not About You,” then we will try to see
everything from their point of view. Most businesses start out this way but as
they grow they begin to think that the marketplace should conform to them. Once
we begin to think this way it is the beginning of the end of our business.
Get together with your customers
and prospects and ask them what they are going through, what is their biggest
pain, what do they need or want changed? These questions can lead to huge
amounts of business.
Once you go through this exercise
you will begin to see ways to grow that are easy to implement. You may be
pushing a particular type of product or service but your customer actually
wants something else. Once they learn they can get it from you they will buy
from you.
Let’s look at the example we used
in an earlier blog post. When someone buys a large amount of computers, the
company selling the computers is happy and they are all feeling great about
what they have just done. This is good however, there was far more to this sale
if they looked a little deeper into it.
What are they hooking the
computers up to? How will they get them all installed? Do they need software,
cables, furniture to put them on, the software installed, a network
configuration, etc.?
You might be thinking that you
don’t do all of these things, but someone else does. Find the best people that
do this in your area or the area where the customer wants this done, and
partner up to get the work. Your customer will love you for this because they
don’t have to find and manage all of these people, you can do this for them. We
have made millions in sales doing this and we got a piece of all of it from all
of our partners because we had the customer.
What about packaging items
together? Increase the normal quantity and give them a better price and your
sales will go up (think Costco, Home Depot, Sam’s Club, etc.).
Does this work for every
business? Absolutely! If you are in business and are taking care of your customer’s
needs, you can be sure there are things they are buying that they are not
getting from you. Figure out what these things are – how?
Go through all of the items that
you sell. Now make a list of all of the other items that would complement them.
For instance:
-Sell
carpet? What about the installation, cleaning, removal, etc. Why not get
together with an interior designer
to help out and add that as a bonus. What about painting, or cleaning their upholstery? What about
partnering with an upholsterer? You can keep going
with this.
-Are
you a hair salon? Why not add all of the hair care products in a bundle and
offer a special? What about partnering
with an upscale clothing store and get a discount for your customers? Don’t forget that you get
a cut of all of the sales they make. How about a local gym, once they get their haircut they will look great and want
to feel even better?
How
about going to the gym and offering a discount to all of their members? How about
a special treatment for those that lose
the most weight that month? The list goes on and on.
-Are
you an engineering firm? What about offering construction management? How about working out a deal with your
suppliers to give your customers a discount and you get a piece of all of it?
-Sell
computers? Work out something with cable installers, network designers,
furniture companies, electrical
suppliers, electricians, fiber optic and copper cable companies.
-Janitorial
business? How about the paper products they use, coffee service, vending machines, office supplies, etc.?
No matter what products or
services you sell, there is a lot more that goes with it that you are missing
out on right now.
Here are some real life examples:
-A
salesperson at a computer company took our advice and turned a $60,000 order of computers, asked them what they were
for and offered to handle the rest of the project and
turned it into a $680,000 order – in about 10 minutes!
-A
company that we consulted always shut down in the month of December because of such low sales and took a loss. When we
showed them how to bundle their offerings their December turned in more profit than they had in their entire
existence combined!
-A
salesperson at another company was asked for 60 HD T.V.’s. (they didn't sell televisions but she asked us what to do). We
said we would partner her with a company that
does but what are they using them for? It turns out they were for the Army and
were being used for training. They
needed computers, networking gear, desks and chairs, someone to install it all, etc. It turned out to be over $1
million that they were going to turn
away!
-In
a company that we were working with, they were having an issue with one of
their best customers. They couldn't seem to win any more business and were stuck at a certain level. We went with them to their meeting and
started asking some probing but friendly questions.
We found where they were having their issues, resolved them and saw their business grow by over $1 million per month,
each and every month!
-A
salesperson in another company was working on a large order of computers for
about $60,000 - $80,000. We worked with
them right on the actual call and within a few minutes
turned it into over $800,000!
Don’t use the excuse that
everyone uses “they already have someone that does that” nonsense. Of course
they have people that do that, but that is part of their pain. They have to
chase everyone down, make sure all is going well, put up with the finger
pointing, etc. If you can offer all of these services and do it better,
cheaper, faster, they will be interested.
Offer them one-time sales,
specials, bundles, etc. Offer “Time of the Year” specials. New Year’s,
Valentine’s Day, Customer Appreciation, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Iced Tea
Day, Hot Chocolate Day, 4th of July, the list goes on!
Sit down and start to make your
list of what other products and services you can offer to increase the size of
your transactions. Don’t self-edit as you make your list just list everything
that you can. Once you do this set up a plan as to how you are going to carry
it out. Who will you need to partner with, what can you do on your own. How
will you offer these items to your customers, etc.
We will continue in our next
post.
Until then, we wish you all
success!
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