When it comes to generating more sales for your business, there are nearly an endless supply of strategies and tactics available to try.
For example, you could cold call potential prospects, but this shifts the power balance and makes you look needy, not to mention, isn’t a whole lot of fun. Or you could slash your prices, but this devalues what you have to offer, and destroys your profit margins. Or you could run frequent sales every week, or every month, but this teaches your customers and clients to wait for the next sale rather than to act now.
So as you can see, not all strategies are created equal. Which is why on today’s post, we’re going to cover 3 tips to increase your sales, without discounting, or damaging your business and brand.
How would you like more sales, more revenue, and more profits for your business?
It’s a rhetorical question, but I’m sure you’ve heard it before.
The problem is that the advice that often follows is near-sighted and designed to boost short term sales with no consideration to long term revenue, and the significantly more valuable and important, lifetime customer value that’s generated by creating loyal and repeat customers and brand ambassadors.
So let’s get right to them. Here are 3 ways you can boost sales and provide a cash injection to your business without damaging your brand or reputation in the industry.
1. Events (Scarcity)
The first way to provide a rapid cash injection and influx of sales is to create an event around your product, service, or business.
Events capitalize on the powerful psychological trigger of scarcity by allowing you to ethically and honestly put a real deadline on whatever promotion you’re offering. And when you create an event, it gives you more creative liberty to promote, advertise, and spread the word.
Rather than boring or abused tactics like “50% off this weekend only” try to pair your event with something relevant and meaningful to your business, market, or industry.
As an example, you can piggy back off national holidays but this tactic is overused as well, so get creative and think outside the box and look for any events specific to your market and customers.
2. Upgrades (Exclusivity)
Discounting works.
But the repeated, and sometimes abused discounting of products and services does nothing to help build long term value and respect in your market.
Aside from the fact that we subconsciously associate price with value, it also teaches your customers to wait for the next sale rather than act now.
This is why rather than discounting, I suggest upgrading.
Upgrading works in the exact opposite way discounting does. So rather than offering a 20% discount, you would provide an additional product, service, or benefit worth say, 20% more.
This can be tied in with the event you’re running which will help include the scarcity aspect, and can also lead to a feeling of exclusivity if the upgrade is only available to a select few, or to those who purchase a select product, or at a select time.
Again, get creative and if your competitors are all running discounts, it might be time to start upgrading.
3. Rewards (Reciprocity)
Running right alongside events and upgrades are rewards which are offered for no other reason than to say thanks!
And to promote new sales of course.
Unlike an upgrade which is offered upon purchase a reward is offered with no requirement or stated expectation of purchase.
Aside from generating goodwill, this strategy also naturally instills an element of reciprocity in the receiver where they feel out of balance until the favor is returned.
An example for a restaurant may be a free appetizer or beverage with no purchase requirement and can be rewarded to frequent or loyal customers, or even tested on new cold traffic… depending on your target market of course.
The key here is to track, measure, and monitor and ensure that your reward campaign is ROI positive over the next 30, 60, or 90 days.
Long Term Brand Value Vs Short Term Sales
The takeaway point is this: Long term brand value shouldn’t be jeopardized just to make a few more short term sales, especially when you can use the strategies of events, upgrades and rewards to boost your sales, improve your brand perception, and bring even more value in the marketplace and all without discounting or damaging your business, brand, or reputation.
