Most people will tell you that to increase your profits you need to do two- (2) things:
- increase your number of customers,
- reduce your costs.
And whilst they are excellent ways to grow your business, I’d like to add a couple more into the mix here. And I know just what you are going to do.
You are going to say, “Of course. That is so obvious.”
But even though it may be obvious to you and I, it isn’t obvious to the vast, vast majority of businesses I see.
Your customers are gold! Being customers, they have 2 fantastic things you should love about them.
2 Fantastic Things About Customers
1. They are far more likely to buy from you again. That has to do with knowing you, knowing where you are and knowing they can trust you.
For most businesses, that costs plenty of money to achieve.
2. They tell their friends about you. A tremendous source of new business for many businesses is referrals from happy customers.
And it’s been our experience that referred customers will buy more from you than customers who find you through any other means.
But encouraging referrals, as excellent an idea as that is, isn’t what I’d like to talk about here.
One of the easiest ways to increase your sales
The first thing I’d like to mention is one of the easiest ways to increase your sales. This technique is so simple, so basic that I’m constantly amazed that all businesses don’t devote a major part of their efforts to it.
Because all successful operators do this. And I just guarantee that just about all unsuccessful operators don’t.
I’m going to use an example. It’s a boring example because every man and his dogs uses it. But I’ll use it because most people reading this will be able to identify with it. And that’s important.
Example # 1: “Would you like fries with that?”
What a magnificent question. It’s a simple question – a basic technique – that has generated millions and millions of dollars in sales.
They are called add-on sales.
Did you read above where I mentioned your customer is highly likely to buy from you again? Do you know when he/she is most likely to buy from you again?
That’s right… the customer is most likely to buy from you again when they are already buying from you.
They are at their most receptive. They have indicated their trust in you (other they wouldn’t buy). They are in a buying mood.
Ask the customer to buy again whilst he is in the process of buying
Now is the time to ask them to buy again. Not sometimes. Not maybe. But every single time your customer buys from you, you should offer another item.
But be smart about it. Add value to whatever they have already purchased. Keep it related and relevant and you will make more sales. A ton more sales.
But get this. Even though this is an obvious and incredibly simple way to make a heap more sales, I cannot remember the last time anyone, anyone at all, offered me an add-on sale.
Let’s say you sell sofas. That’s a decent sized purchase for most people. How do you think you would go if you said,
“Madam, that’s an excellent purchase – the colour is simply divine. I’d like to show you something that I think you will love… this coffee table complements the lines of the sofa, etc, etc. Would you like to have the table to complement the sofa?”
Now, the customer isn’t going to say “Yes” every time. There’s no question about that.
But a good 20-30% of the time you will make that add on sale.
Give it a try and reap the rewards.
Maximise sales with this one- (1) easy technique!
The second thing I’d like to talk about is making as many sales as possible. And increasing the number of sales you make can be as simple as pie!
For this example, I don’t want to use McDonalds. I’ll use myself instead.
I’ve never considered myself to be good at selling. In fact I’ve never thought of myself as a salesman of any type. I very genuinely believe that I never actually sell anything.
But I’ve always been far more successful at having our clients buy our services than anyone else in our business.
So this is what I did. (And this made our sales jump by many, many thousands of dollars per year.)
Each of our team came along with me when I went to see prospective clients. We made notes of every variable we possibly could. Those differences were interesting, but not really relevant to the message here.
The message here is this:
Find the most successful salesperson you can find in your industry and copy him or her. And even benchmark against successful salespeople from any industry.
It’s that simple!
One of the most interesting things that our team discovered was that I didn’t ‘sell’ any of our clients.
We discovered that all I did was:
- asked lots of questions
- listened to the answer
- suggested solutions, and
- provided reasoning for the recommendations I gave.
The entire team started doing this – we practiced many a long hour – and immediately our sales conversion rates went through the roof.
Do what works!
If it works, do it.
If it doesn’t work, don’t do it.
Examine the variables in your organisation. Survey your customers and find out why they purchased. Find your best salesperson and closely review what they do.
With all of that critical information you have a wonderful start to push you sales through the roof. Start today!
Cheers
