There are tons of things that can be easily and cheaply done to increase the value of your business.
What is probably the single biggest thing you aren’t doing that is leaving a huge pile of cash on the table?
Well, just lately I have been in a variety of businesses who I have given good piles of cash to. Some of these businesses are smart enough to collect my name and address.
When they do that – I ask hopefully – are you going to write to me? Generally they say no – we just collect the data and do nothing at all with it. ‘Oh’ I say. And I look down to check out the paperwork that has been given to me.
Perhaps there is an invitation to join ‘the herd’ of that business online? Or a special offer for the next time I come back? Or something to give to a friend to invite them into that business? Or perhaps the service person is not done yet – and they are about to ‘bump’ me to an upgrade of some kind? (Because I ALWAYS take the bump – just because it happens so rarely in Townsville that I want to reward them! Even if it is a SUCKY version.)
Nope. Nope. Nope. None of the above.
Each of the activities listed above are tactics. They are almost free to implement, and can multiply profits – PRONTO.
There is no business in existence that does not have SOMETHING that can be done to either increase the value of the sale just completed, or to enroll me longer term into the “community” of that business.
Here is an example.
I recently purchased a top of the line dishwasher with the longest warrant I could get from a Townsville White Goods Retailer. It was a SMEG, stainless steel, shiny thing with more knobs and doodads than I will ever use. The salesperson did a great job of installing criteria for me [as I had no idea what to look for in a dishwasher except that I wanted a great warranty].
To play the game I asked her for a better price after giving the usual grimace as I held out my credit card. Yep – she took about 5% off, and then I stalled and got delivery for half price and they would take the old one away for me. Great!
Then she added my details to their computer system. I asked my hopeful questions – her answer? Nope. We wont do anything with your details. We used to – about 5 years ago. But we stopped for no reason.
By now we had fairly strong rapport – so I dug a little deeper. “You guys are paid on a commission aren’t you” I asked. “Is it hard to hit your targets?” Well it can be difficult she said. We have to get a lot of boxes ticked for several weeks in a row – but it is pretty fair.
So this business has a clear measuring system to optimize their salespeople – to keep the upsells and bumps working – but has completely missed the possibly more important point.
More soon.