Increasing Sales Can Have More Than One Meaning

I recently completed a strategic marketing plan for a company whose main objective was to increase sales. Most people look at this and say "I must increase the number of customers to get more sales" and yes, that would be one way to increase sales. However, you should not overlook your current customer base, and increasing the dollar amount per sale.

A great time to initiate programs to increase the dollar amount per sale is the holiday season. This is the time of year when people are shopping, and better yet, they are buying multiple gifts. Seize the opportunity to capture more of your customers' holiday dollars by putting in place a holiday incentive. So many people offer free shipping, but that is not going to be the deciding factor in purchasing most products, or multiples of the product. Think along the lines of a volume discount. This will incent people to start thinking about who else on their list they can buy the product for. It's hard to walk away if you know you can buy one for say $40, but buy two for $70 and receive a $5 discount/item.

I'm currently helping with a school fundraiser and we sell our raffle tickets for $10/each or 5 for $40. More times than not, we sell the tickets in groups of 5. Again, it's hard to resist the deal...basically buy 4 and get one free. Did we lose? No, because ultimately we sell more tickets than we would have otherwise and we have increased our sales.

Holiday season is fast approaching! Better put together your sales strategy, and while you are doing it, don't forget to look at all the angles, including your current customer base.

Happy selling!






Continuum Marketing www.continuummarketing.com 469.826.4048