Whether you’re struggling to meet sales goals for the end of the month, or thinking ahead about increasing sales within the next year, take a break from marketing and sales techniques and look at your business’s cash flow.
You don’t have to add a lot of time or inventory to drum up some quick sales from your current customers. Try these tried-and-true pricing methods to encourage clients to increase their spend with you.
Bundling
If you have a wide array of products or services, this should be a fairly easy thing to do. Notice how with dishware you can either buy individually or the entire set? Or at fast-food restaurants, you can order combo meals or a la carte? Even Time Warner Cable has bundled promotions to get you to buy all their services.
When you buy an Easter basket, is it easier to just purchase a bundled basket with all the cute toys already inside, or is it easier to hand-select everything to put inside yourself? Customers will buy more if you make the buying process easier. Try finding fun, easy and unique ways to bundle your products or services together that make sense and help solve a problem.
Payment Plans
Studies have shown that businesses who began offering payment plans to their customers saw an increase of sales of around 20-30%.
You can implement this for your business in a number of ways, like offering financing by working with a financial institution, or for smaller businesses, you can offer your services over a span of time. For instance, you can offer your landscaping service at a monthly retainer instead of a one-shot project sort of deal.
Not only can you grow your business’s revenue with offering payment plans, but you can create a more stable source of income, giving you more time to find and close deals. Also, by increasing the amount of time your client does business with you, you now have the chance to build a great customer relationship and gaining trust (as we have said before), will generate more business for you in the future.
Raise Prices
This may sound like a given, or even a really cheap tactic, however, just hear this out.
Many small businesses that we’ve worked with haven’t changed their prices in years, while the rest of the economy changes their prices based on inflation. Higher gas prices, living costs — people are accustomed to higher price changes (granted if they are warranted, of course).
Also, let’s think about this. If you attracted a client who set out to look for a deal, chances are, they are always going to continue looking for a deal. All the work you put into obtaining that new client, and you’ll find that they’ll only continue giving you business if you give more deals. And what if another company with a better price comes along? Au revoir.
Look around at your competitors — are you the cheapest? Why is that? Do you really want to be the least expensive?
Get customers who are looking for quality. And to do that, you must make sure your prices are comparable, and back up your prices with quality services. It’s one thing to simply raise your prices, but you have to give out something else in return. Starbucks may not be the cheapest coffee around, but you get exceptional customer service, consistent delivery of product, and brand transparency. People are willing to pay more if you can find out what they really want from you.
To get more ideas on how changing up your pricing and payment strategies can increase revenue for your business, contact us today for a free consultation.