Dissecting the Convenience Item - Why Customers Pay More
A convenience item is a product or service that is available at the right place and right time for a customer. These are items that are often sold at a premium price compared to what a customer could purchase the item for if they bought it in advance, at another location, or in a larger quantity. The end result is that customers are willing to pay more for an item when a business offers the item at a time and/or location that is convenient for them – meaning the value proposition is convenience rather than price.
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How to Increase Sales Through Product Bundling
Product bundling is simple - it is the process of grouping together multiple products and selling them at a packaged rate.
Whether it is McDonalds, your cable provider, or your insurance agent, product bundling is a common marketing strategy that is used to increase sales for the business while also providing a value to the customer. As customers, we are used to purchasing bundles and bundling is a strategy that has proven to work so much, that many industries would never consider selling without bundles.
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How to Gain a Competitive Advantage Through Product Bundling
In my article How to Increase Sales Through Product Bundling, I explained the benefits of product bundling and gave five ways to increase sales by bundling products. But bundling products is not just a hack that will help you sell more.
Product bundling will help you create a competitive advantage.
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How to Use Coupons to Make More Money
The key to effectively using coupons is to understand why they work and then to strategically implement a coupon program. Without being strategic, you could just be arbitrarily cutting into your margins without understanding the effectiveness of the coupon. Basically, if you just hand out coupons on every sale you make without having a reason for doing so and without raising your profits, the result is decreased margins and subsequent profits - just like you reduced your prices.
Therefore, it is important to have a strategy behind your coupon program. Here are six ways you can strategically use coupons to make more money.
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Trading Time for Money Will Cost You Big
Do you ever get tired of trading your time for money? If you are like many of the small business owners I talk to, then you certainly do. You know that the product you are offering is worth more than what you are getting, but you just can't imagine charging more.
That is okay. You have been basing your prices on the cost of the product to you instead of the value that the customer ultimately receives. If this resonates with you, then you may want to consider shifting your buisness model to a "value-based" model rather than a cost-based model.
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When Is The Last Time You Refreshed Your Product Lineup?
I just stopped in at a Panera for lunch after not visiting there for several months. When I got to the front of the line, I remembered that I always struggle to order from their menu.
At first, I thought my ordering challenges were probably just me. But then I heard
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What Makes a Business Healthy
When we look at a small business, we can usually tell pretty quickly whether or not a business is healthy. We can tell if the business is mature and strong, right? The parking lot is always full, they always have what we need, and the staff make you feel welcome and leave a desire to return. On the other hand, we can also tell if the business is weak and dying. We have all seen it.
I remember going into a local hardware store for the first time after moving to a new town. Within moments of being in the store, I was asking myself
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How a Business Coach Can Help Your Business
If you are the one on top - the business owner - the buck stops with you. If you want to make money this month, you push harder and make it happen. If you are tired or just not feeling it, you can sit on your butt. It is completely up to you.
The winds of motivation are constantly changing and this is where a business coach can help you stay on course. Here are a few ways to find a business coach without necessarily breaking the bank...
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3 Easy Ways to Make Products Sticky
When I first started working in the financial industry over a decade ago, the bank that I worked for talked about making their products “sticky” for their customers. They explained that the more products we sold, the stickier our company would be for them and the harder it would be for them to leave. Stickiness was their main customer retention strategy.
I now fully understand what they mean and why they focused on "stickiness." In fact, I still bank with that organization even though I haven’t worked there in nearly a decade.
But why? Because the services I have with them truly are sticky - it would be a major headache to switch banks.
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The Three Most Important Things For Business Growth
As a business owner, I can assume you want to grow your business.
Whether this means to increase revenue, add employees, or just see a higher sales volume than what you have done in the past, you would like to do better than what you have done in the past. This is part of being an entrepreneur - we aren’t satisfied with not growing.
But what if you could only work on three things for the entire year to help grow your business? What would those things be?
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Six Leaderships Lessons Learned From Driving In Bad Weather
As I do fairly significant amounts of driving for my day job, my least favorite times of the year are the winter months. Snow, sleet, and ice are words I despise as I head out on trips that take up to 7 or 8 hours - with good road conditions.
Unfortunately, I don’t have too many options when the weather is bad because my schedule is often set over a year in advance. So good weather or not, I still have to make it to my destination.
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Location Isn't Everything. Or Is It?
A few years ago I was working in a part of town that had significant amounts of road construction. Traffic slowed everywhere and some businesses were extremely difficult to access. As a driver, it was an area that you wanted to avoid at all costs.
But this caused a problem for the local retail stores that thrived on visitors to their brick and mortar stores.
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