16 Quick Retail Promotional Ideas To Increase Your Sales Without Discounting
By Kris Mills
1. Send out a FREE sample of your product with a special
"two for one" offer - this enables your customer to get a
first hand experience of your product in action AND the
"two for one" offer maximizes your average transaction value.
2. FREE lessons on make-up, sewing, hair styling, skin
care, gardening, building a pergola/deck/retaining wall
.. the list is endless By seeing how to get the best use
out of your products they're likely to buy a range of
accessories and essential items to help them achieve
the results they're looking for.
3. Open day ... this is ideal for gardening centers or
hardware stores where they can offer workshops and
demonstrations on tasks that are specific to the needs
of their customers … landscape design, installing a
sprinkler, home handyman tasks, building etc. This is
similar to the 'FREE lessons' idea above.
4. Hold joint promotions with other businesses. You can
offer their products as FREE gifts when customers
purchase at your shop and vice-versa.
5. Free gift with purchase - you could offer a FREE
T-shirt valued at $25 with every $50 purchase. The
value to the customer is $25 but your hard cost is a
fraction of that amount so it's perceived to be more
beneficial than a discount is (in the eyes of your
customer) and it's much healthier on your bottom line
than offering a $25 discount.
6. Buy one get one FREE. (same benefits as above).
7. FREE mystery gift up to the value of $500 with every
purchase over $xx.
8. FREE gift for cash payments over $xx ... instead of
paying the Banks merchant fees you're rewarding your
customers instead. It's costing you no more however it's
encouraging your customers to buy from you and
therefore will increase your sales volume.
9. Buy now, pay in 12 months time ... encourages customers
to spend more than they ordinarily would have if they were
paying the whole amount now.
10. Package your products together. Cosmetics companies
are famous for this. Package some of your poorer selling
products together with your most popular lines and promote
them as some sort of package. Packaged products make
customers feel that they're getting a good deal for buying in
bulk, it maximizes your average transaction value, and it
helps you move slow selling items.
11. Bounce backs - it's a fact that a customer is most
warm to your products and services right at the time of
purchase so make a special offer to them right when
they buy - something that compliments the product
they've just bought.
12. Package your knowledge - create introductory
reports and newsletters and package them in with
their product purchase.
13. Cross-selling checklist - this is a great way to maximize the average transaction value of each sale.
Either run through a checklist with the customer
(eg. The "building a pergola" checklist listing all the items
they'll need) OR create it into a special "how to" guide
that includes instructions and enables them to check off
all the items they need. This does the customer a favor
because it ensures that they don't forget an important item
and it bumps up your sales figures too.
14. FREE after sales service - cleaning or maintenance
of purchased product.
15. FREE hotline service - where they can call and
ask specific advice relating to getting the best use of
their product.
16. FREE design (valued at $200) - this service
quite often involves your time only so it has a high
perceived value but a low hard cost.
Related Articles:
How
to Master the Art of Salesmanship
Mastering the "art of selling" is simply knowing how
to present whatever it is that you're selling, to the
buyer in such a manner that they feel buying it from you
will solve their problems or fulfill their dreams.
How To Achieve Excellence In Sales
To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge. You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents. This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising.
Branding for Profits
Poor brand may represent negative impression about your
product or be the result of an absence of that impression. It is much more advantageous to offer
a new brand to the market, than try to do something with bad
image. Since we are dealing with psychology, it is clear
that good image and reputation is very hard to build, but it
is even harder to restore.
Copyright Words that Sell 2000-2002
Kris Mills of Words that Sell
( http://www.wordsthatsell.com.au )is a top selling
copywriter and respected author of numerous publications. For more copywriting and direct marketing
tips, visit http://www.synergie.com.au/explosion.htm
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