Posted on: 07 December, 2001
Author: Ron Sathoff and Kevin Nunley
Are your sales coming up a little short these day? Retailsales, Internet commerce, and business-to-business suppliersare all having problems matching their stellar performancesof previous years.When e... Are your sales coming up a little short these day? Retailsales, Internet commerce, and business-to-business suppliersare all having problems matching their stellar performancesof previous years.When economic times get tight, just about every business'sales slump.Get a quick and lasting boost in sales by making yourcustomers an offer they can't refuse. Customers will buy IFyou give them a really good reason to. Of course, the tightertheir budgets, the better the reason has to be.Use PsychologyFirst, try to understand your customer's thoughts and desires.Most people have goals they are striving to reach. They may betrying to cut costs, spend less time on tasks, be moreattractive, or simply find more excitement in life.When your customer falls short of her goal--as almost all ofus do from time to time--she may look for a purchase tomove her further toward where she wants to be.As an example, Sandra is frustrated with the growing complexityof her business. Last week she bounced a check and forgot toinvoice a customer. The simple bookkeeping system shecreated when she started the business isn't able to keep upnow that her business has grown.On a trip to her neighborhood office supply store, Sandrasees an affordable accounting program. It promises to makequick work of all the things that are frustrating her. AsSandra picks up the box and heads to the checkout, shealready FEELS like her life is more organized.Psychologists call this important principle "reactionformation." It is a powerful motivation that influences a greatdeal of what we buy.Think about the goals your customers probably have. Howcan your product, service, or idea help them feel like they aregetting closer to their goal? While you are helping yourclient reach his objective, it is the fact that he FEELS like heis getting there that is so important.Create a High-Value BundleIf one product or service can solve a problem, imagine howwell three, four, or five products could work. When youbundle together several related products or services,customers respond.Look for items that work together to cover every angle of aproblem on the job, at home, or in the customer's personallife.A computer site might bundle software that prevents crashes,a second program that makes memory work more efficiently,and a virus protection program.Billed as "fix crashes, avoid future problems, and make yourcomputer run faster," the bundle could be priced low andplaced on the opening web page and in print advertising.Show the value the customer gets when she buys the items ina bundle rather than separately. Add up the total savings andpromote them. Point out how the customer could use themoney she saves.NPR recently reported that studies have found that customersdon't necessarily want the lowest price, they just want a fairprice. Some retail chains feel they don't get results unless theyoffer at least a 50% price cut. Most businesses get sales withmuch smaller price reductions. Our customers are usuallydelighted if we can lower prices ten percent.Perks and Time LimitsYou can sweeten the offer by adding attractive perks. Theseare usually things you can buy or provide cheaply but have ahigh perceived value to customers.We created a bonus where we write a classified ad and placeit on a major site that gets millions of visitors. Customerslove the service and it doesn't cost us much. Ourprofessional writers create a classified ad quickly and weplace them at low cost. The perk is an easy and effective wayto round out the bundle and close lots of sales.Give your high-value bundle a time limit. Customers arebusy with thousands of advertising messages competing fortheir dollars. Unless you can give them a good reason to buyNOW, many will put off the purchase and forget about it.Advertise that your bundle is only available for 24 hours, aweek, a month, or until the end of the year. You may want tooffer the same bundle over the long haul,but change thebonus items for time to time.By combining these three principles you can create a quickand lasting boost in sales. Customer psychology, high-valuebundles, and time limits work together to build excitementand traffic for your store, service, or web site. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com