SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Upselling – increasing the value of a sale
• The Nibble – adding on a small extra purchase at the end
• Various Options – give different priced options to choose from
• Bundles – create combined packages to increase the price
• Cross Sell – offer other products and services
• Consumables – include products and services which need to be repeatedly purchased
• Subscriptions – tie down clients to a regular purchase scheme
• Loyalty – create loyalty schemes
• Incentives – devise sales incentive schemes
• Referral – reward client referral

FULL ARTICLE

LOYALTY
It is always much easier and less costly to promote and develop loyalty and to increase sales via existing clients, rather than to seek new ones. If you have already managed to capture a clientele, then do everything to ensure that they devote as much of their relevant spend on similar products and services at your establishment, rather than at your competitors’. This is why loyalty schemes are so useful and effective. Find ways of rewarding repeat trade from the same customers and encourage them to spend more with you. If your particular type of business is not conducive to a supermarket type of loyalty scheme, then perhaps you could offer regular clients a small gift and tell them that this is being offered purely to reward their repeated custom. This is the same principal as the free drink offered to regular diners in the restaurant trade.

INCENTIVES
Client and sales incentives come in many types and forms. The principle here is to reward the type of sales you most desire and therefore encouraging customers to make that particular purchase. You may still apply this plan along with other schemes such as loyalty and others. You may for example inform your clientele that an award will be given to the biggest client of the month, or that all purchasers of a certain type will automatically enter into a grand raffle. You may organise outings, meals, activities and events for your best clients. You can reward customers who purchase from you on lean days or timings. You may also allocate double the points on their loyalty scheme on certain desired purchases. Think of what you really want to achieve and how to motivate your clients to help you achieve it.

REFERRAL
We all boast that many of our clients come to us through personal referral, and that is the way it should be for every business. This is a clear indicator that you offer a good and decent service. It therefore makes a lot of sense to motivate your current customers further to pass on the good word. Your loyal customers are usually proud to recommend you. They often feel as if they too form a small part of your business through their regular custom. It is only fair and gracious therefore for you to reward them for sending you new business. One of the easiest ways is to hand them coupons or vouchers with their name indicated on them, which they in turn can pass on to third parties. When these are presented to you, a predetermined reward is given to the original customer. There are many other different ways this principle may be successfully applied. Paying out a straight commission on sales or a set fee per new client are other very obvious ways of playing it. If the rewards are considerably high, then you could virtually ‘recruit’ some of your more enterprising customers to act as pseudo sales people for you.

CONCLUSION
It is totally impossible to run any form of business for which none of these ten strategies will not apply. Even if you manage to employ only two or three of them you will definitely find it beneficial to your business in the form of increased sales. In today’s commercial world, long gone are the days when certain businesses were too elevated and exalted for such schemes. Today everyone wants a good deal, no matter the level of business and service or product offered. So if you are still stuck in the past it is about time that you move with the times.