From the Winter 2005 issue of our newsletter, Let’s Grow. For a FREE subscription, CLICK HERE.
Overlooked Opportunities for
Extra Sales
Many companies are so focused on getting new customers or getting out another catalog mailing that they overlook other opportunities right in front of them. Here are a few possibilities for generating extra income from your customers:
- Web Site Upsells. Offer fertilizer, books, or other general interest items during checkout. Cross-reference good plant combinations. Feature an auger on your bulb page. Most web sites neglect a myriad of opportunities to ask for additional sales.
- Inbound Upsells. When customers call to order, offer a relatively inexpensive, easy-to-describe popular product. Usually, somewhere between 5% and 20% of callers will say “yes”.
- Fulfillment Literature. Ask for more sales in every package you send out. Prepare a simple postcard or brochure featuring your most popular products, overstocked products, or offering a bonus with a future order.
- Order Acknowledgements. If you send order acknowledgements by e-mail or snail mail, you have another opportunity to ask for an additional sale. The incremental cost is zero.
- End-of-Season Sale. Nearly every company finds their inventory out of balance at one time or another. Send a postcard or e-mail offering a special sale on your overstocked items. You can feature these on a special “private sale” page on your web site that customers access with a log-in code you provide.