Make An Offer Your Customers Can't Refuse
Are your sales coming up a little short these day? Retail sales,
Internet commerce, and business-to-business suppliers are all
having problems matching their stellar performances of previous
years.
When economic times get tight, just about every business' sales
slump.
Get a quick and lasting boost in sales by making your customers
an offer they can't refuse. Customers will buy IF you give them
a really good reason to. Of course, the tighter their budgets,
the better the reason has to be.
Use Psychology
First, try to understand your customer's thoughts and desires.
Most people have goals they are striving to reach. They may be
trying to cut costs, spend less time on tasks, be more
attractive, or simply find more excitement in life.
When your customer falls short of her goal--as almost all of us
do from time to time--she may look for a purchase to move her
further toward where she wants to be.
As an example, Sandra is frustrated with the growing complexity
of her business. Last week she bounced a check and forgot to
invoice a customer. The simple bookkeeping system she created
when she started the business isn't able to keep up now that her
business has grown.
On a trip to her neighborhood office supply store, Sandra sees
an affordable accounting program. It promises to make quick work
of all the things that are frustrating her. As Sandra picks up
the box and heads to the checkout, she already FEELS like her
life is more organized.
Psychologists call this important principle "reaction
formation." It is a powerful motivation that influences a great
deal of what we buy.
Think about the goals your customers probably have. How can your
product, service, or idea help them feel like they are getting
closer to their goal? While you are helping your client reach
his objective, it is the fact that he FEELS like he is getting
there that is so important.
Create a High-Value Bundle
If one product or service can solve a problem, imagine how well
three, four, or five products could work. When you bundle
together several related products or services, customers respond.
Look for items that work together to cover every angle of a
problem on the job, at home, or in the customer's personal life.
A computer site might bundle software that prevents crashes, a
second program that makes memory work more efficiently, and a
virus protection program.
Billed as "fix crashes, avoid future problems, and make your
computer run faster," the bundle could be priced low and placed
on the opening web page and in print advertising.
Show the value the customer gets when she buys the items in a
bundle rather than separately. Add up the total savings and
promote them. Point out how the customer could use the money she
saves.
NPR recently reported that studies have found that customers
don't necessarily want the lowest price, they just want a fair
price. Some retail chains feel they don't get results unless
they offer at least a 50% price cut. Most businesses get sales
with much smaller price reductions. Our customers are usually
delighted if we can lower prices ten percent.
Perks and Time Limits
You can sweeten the offer by adding attractive perks. These are
usually things you can buy or provide cheaply but have a high
perceived value to customers.
We created a bonus where we write a classified ad and place it
on a major site that gets millions of visitors. Customers love
the service and it doesn't cost us much. Our professional
writers create a classified ad quickly and we place them at low
cost. The perk is an easy and effective way to round out the
bundle and close lots of sales.
Give your high-value bundle a time limit. Customers are busy
with thousands of advertising messages competing for their
dollars. Unless you can give them a good reason to buy NOW, many
will put off the purchase and forget about it.
Advertise that your bundle is only available for 24 hours, a
week, a month, or until the end of the year. You may want to
offer the same bundle over the long haul,but change the bonus
items for time to time.
By combining these three principles you can create a quick and
lasting boost in sales. Customer psychology, high-value bundles,
and time limits work together to build excitement and traffic
for your store, service, or web site.