Expand Your Product Options – Grow Your Sales December 9, 2009
Posted by Joan Nowak in Marketing, Products.Tags: build profit, get more customers, grow small business, increase sales, new products and services, product development
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Another Key To Success
One of the easiest and most effective ways to increase sales is to expand your service offerings. You don’t need to start from scratch or even reinvent the wheel.
Simply package or re-package current products and services to provide more options for your customers. After all, customers love and want options – and packaging provides convenience, savings, simplicity and often better results.
So where do you start? Here’s 7 questions to consider.
Who is the package being created for? Be specific. If you want your package to sell, it must meet the needs of the target. It is much easier to add the relevant ‘features’ when you have a specific customer or niche group in mind. You’ll achieve greater success if you avoid the one-size fits all solution.
What results can your customer expect to receive? If they purchase the ‘package’ what will they get – more time, savings, increased growth, convenience, etc. Try to be as specific as you can.
What makes it different from other products or services? This is an important question so don’t overlook it. Think about the system or process you use to use to deliver it? What makes it easier or convenient? How does it work better? What additional value do they get? Are the expected results tangible or measurable? Can you guarantee the benefit you expect to deliver? Often going through this process triggers ideas and helps you build the features for the package.
What features are included in the package? Remember to link these back to the benefits/results you will deliver and only include features that are important to YOUR specific target.
What will you charge? Before you just throw in a number, consider the target, the benefits or results they can expect and the difference from other products or services. If your new package is positioned (built) around convenience or better results, your target may not expect savings or a lower price; if it’s built around savings then your price should reflect this. What would your target be willing to pay? Do you wish to establish a price but offer a special introductory offer to current customers? How will they pay – as they use it, payment plans, multi payments, monthly invoicing, etc?
What will you name it? While not applicable to every package, an easy to understand or cool name can help with marketing and promoting your new package.
How will you communicate it to reach customers? Do you simply wish to rely on up-selling or cross-selling existing customers or prospects? Do you wish to reach others with this package and need additional tactics to do it? The key here is to have a plan. Don’t create the package and hope for the best.
So get the juices flowing and look for ways to provide additional options that your customers want.
Find this helpful? Then share it with others. For additional resources and ideas to grow your small business, visit my website. While you are there, join my mailing list to receive my monthly eNewsletter and get a free copy of my eBook, Mastering the 7 Elements of Business Success.
#1 Rule To Get More Customers December 2, 2009
Posted by Joan Nowak in Marketing.Tags: consistent marketing, get more customers, grow sales, grow small business, Hybrid Business Advisors, increase profit, Joan Nowak
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If you want to grow your small business, here is the #1 rule you need to follow. Never let a day go by without doing at least one marketing activity.
Unfortunately many small businesses only focus on marketing when time allows, which rarely happens, or when forced into it when leads and sales dry up. Like most things in business, success comes from consistency – doing a lot of small things each and every day.
I know many of you are thinking, “I barely have time to do what I do, how do I add marketing into each and every day”? Well here is the key – break down activities into small tasks that can easily be done in 15-30 minutes AND block the time on your calendar to do them.
So what can you do in just 15 minutes a day? You will be amazed at what you can accomplish when you stop viewing it as just 15 minutes. Here’s a few things to get you thinking:
- Write a few notes (or cards) to people you met at an event
- Call a customer (or two) to request a testimonial for your website
- Write a blog post (mine typically take 15-20 minutes)
- Make a ‘stay connected / how is it going’ call to a strategic partner
- Post an update on a social media site like Linked-In or Facebook
- Contact former customers – engage them – any new opportunities
- Ask or answer a question on a social media site
- Make a follow up call to prospects in your sales funnel
- Make a ‘survey’ call to customers or prospects – for feedback and ideas
So what about all those ‘bigger’ activities – like a direct mail campaign or a new tactic you want to implement? That’s where breaking them up into smaller pieces really pays off.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you want to start using (or get) Linked-In – but it will take a few hours to create a quality profile, download contacts, request connections, etc. So you wait until you have a few extra hours to tackle this – which rarely happens.
But, what if you broke the task into a series of smaller ones – first complete general information, next current business / position, then past positions, then, summary and specialties, etc – and worked on each of these for 20 minutes each day. In about a week, you would likely be done — and can remove it from the ‘to do’ list!
Remember, if you want to see consistent results – you need to take consistent action. So make marketing activities – big or small – something you do every day!
Find this helpful? Then share it with others. For additional resources and ideas to grow your small business, visit my website. While you are there, join my mailing list to receive my monthly eNewsletter and get a free copy of my eBook, Mastering the 7 Elements of Business Success.
