MindStorm is New York’s favorite corporate strategy consulting firm
specializing in rapid growth. We created a series of articles to help
business owners skyrocket profits. In previous articles we discussed the
MindStorm growth formula. The information below should be added to the
tools and strategies you have to dramatically grow your business. Enjoy!
We know that there are only three main ways to grow your business and everything else is just an extension of those three ways. The most difficult and most expensive out of the three is to get more customers- yet this is where most people focus their efforts. In the last article we discussed 2 powerful ways to increase the frequency of your customer’s purchases. Those methods were the most common approaches and yet very effective. Today we will discuss some of the more creative ways to increase the frequency your customers make purchases…
1. Automatic Refills / Shipments- This is a very powerful and yet easy strategy to implement. Your customers benefit from having your products. Running out can be a real inconvenience at times. At the point of sale let your customers know that you will put them on a automatic refill plan in which they can cancel or freeze at any time. Now they no longer will run out of your product and you don’t have to hope they re-order. This one simple step can double or triple your current orders.
2. Purchase full year up front- Sales force.com drastically reduced the amount of customers they had leaving them by simply changing from a month-to-month service to a prepaid annual service. This dramatically increases cash flow by getting all the money up front and by doing this you increase every customer’s purchase frequency to at least 12 (months). For the customers that they potentially lose because they do not want to pay for (or cannot afford to pay for) the whole year- well through “special managers approval” they can do quarterly payments.
3. 5 Month Delivery- A organic food company pitched me on the benefits of purchasing foods from them. They promised a higher quality of meats, lower prices, and they’ll even replace any steaks that my dog eats or that would fall on the floor. They only sell it in 5 month supplies to save on the monthly delivery. They justified this by saying “this allows us to keep our costs lower so we can give you the absolute best pricing”. Either way.. I had 5 months of food delivered to me. They also split the cost of a chest freezer to be able to facilitate this type of sale. I would have cancelled this service after the first month but now they got me to buy 5X’s that amount by structuring the sale this way.
4. Educate customers- Take the time to educate your clients on why they should use your services more often. Do not leave it up to them to know. Give recommendations on exactly how often and provide actual research on how using your product/service more often can be healthier for you, more hygienic, or how it would improve the quality of the customer’s life.
5. Reminder System- Works great for hair salons, dentists, and other businesses that take care of the things that we tend to forget. For example, people will actually appreciate a note in the mail that says “Just a reminder—it’s been three months since your last car service. You really should come back within two weeks. Florists or gift service companies can use the idea too. By getting a list of their customers’ family’s birthdays, they can make lots more sales. Every time a special occasion occurs, they can call and say “I notice it’s your mom’s birthday. Would you like me to send her a $45 bouquet?”
6. Accept Trade-ins- If your product is regularly updated and improved, it’s worth accepting trade-ins on the old models. You can sell the trade-in models at a top margin and make a great profit.
7. Offer Credit (or Increase Credit Line)- This will allow your customers to make purchases today that they might not have been able to make because of cash flow restraints.
8. Regularly phone your customers- You can call just to keep in touch or ask how their experience with your company has been. While on the phone be sure to let them know about any new product lines that they might be interested in or any promotions that are happening.
9. Create a drawing, offer an exciting prize- All new purchase receive from X catalog receive an entry in our drawing. Make the prize rare, exciting, and make sure the customer knows that they have a reasonable chance of winning. This will get people saying that eventually they’ll have to buy the product anyway, why not stock up now to potentially win a prize.
10. Labels and Stickers- Especially good when you service a particular piece of equipment, such as the customer’s boiler, sprinkler system, or computer. Just put a sticker on it which says, Problems? 24 Hour Service.
MindStorm is a New York based Corporate strategy consulting firm specializing in helping companies achieve rapid growth. We have over 60 different creative ways to increase purchase frequency from customers. If you’d like more ideas feel free to speak with a business consultant- free of charge. We would love to give you strategies specific to your business.
Source : Click Here
We know that there are only three main ways to grow your business and everything else is just an extension of those three ways. The most difficult and most expensive out of the three is to get more customers- yet this is where most people focus their efforts. In the last article we discussed 2 powerful ways to increase the frequency of your customer’s purchases. Those methods were the most common approaches and yet very effective. Today we will discuss some of the more creative ways to increase the frequency your customers make purchases…
1. Automatic Refills / Shipments- This is a very powerful and yet easy strategy to implement. Your customers benefit from having your products. Running out can be a real inconvenience at times. At the point of sale let your customers know that you will put them on a automatic refill plan in which they can cancel or freeze at any time. Now they no longer will run out of your product and you don’t have to hope they re-order. This one simple step can double or triple your current orders.
2. Purchase full year up front- Sales force.com drastically reduced the amount of customers they had leaving them by simply changing from a month-to-month service to a prepaid annual service. This dramatically increases cash flow by getting all the money up front and by doing this you increase every customer’s purchase frequency to at least 12 (months). For the customers that they potentially lose because they do not want to pay for (or cannot afford to pay for) the whole year- well through “special managers approval” they can do quarterly payments.
3. 5 Month Delivery- A organic food company pitched me on the benefits of purchasing foods from them. They promised a higher quality of meats, lower prices, and they’ll even replace any steaks that my dog eats or that would fall on the floor. They only sell it in 5 month supplies to save on the monthly delivery. They justified this by saying “this allows us to keep our costs lower so we can give you the absolute best pricing”. Either way.. I had 5 months of food delivered to me. They also split the cost of a chest freezer to be able to facilitate this type of sale. I would have cancelled this service after the first month but now they got me to buy 5X’s that amount by structuring the sale this way.
4. Educate customers- Take the time to educate your clients on why they should use your services more often. Do not leave it up to them to know. Give recommendations on exactly how often and provide actual research on how using your product/service more often can be healthier for you, more hygienic, or how it would improve the quality of the customer’s life.
5. Reminder System- Works great for hair salons, dentists, and other businesses that take care of the things that we tend to forget. For example, people will actually appreciate a note in the mail that says “Just a reminder—it’s been three months since your last car service. You really should come back within two weeks. Florists or gift service companies can use the idea too. By getting a list of their customers’ family’s birthdays, they can make lots more sales. Every time a special occasion occurs, they can call and say “I notice it’s your mom’s birthday. Would you like me to send her a $45 bouquet?”
6. Accept Trade-ins- If your product is regularly updated and improved, it’s worth accepting trade-ins on the old models. You can sell the trade-in models at a top margin and make a great profit.
7. Offer Credit (or Increase Credit Line)- This will allow your customers to make purchases today that they might not have been able to make because of cash flow restraints.
8. Regularly phone your customers- You can call just to keep in touch or ask how their experience with your company has been. While on the phone be sure to let them know about any new product lines that they might be interested in or any promotions that are happening.
9. Create a drawing, offer an exciting prize- All new purchase receive from X catalog receive an entry in our drawing. Make the prize rare, exciting, and make sure the customer knows that they have a reasonable chance of winning. This will get people saying that eventually they’ll have to buy the product anyway, why not stock up now to potentially win a prize.
10. Labels and Stickers- Especially good when you service a particular piece of equipment, such as the customer’s boiler, sprinkler system, or computer. Just put a sticker on it which says, Problems? 24 Hour Service.
MindStorm is a New York based Corporate strategy consulting firm specializing in helping companies achieve rapid growth. We have over 60 different creative ways to increase purchase frequency from customers. If you’d like more ideas feel free to speak with a business consultant- free of charge. We would love to give you strategies specific to your business.
Source : Click Here
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