sales tips & articles

Product bundling is combining two or more complimentary products or services together that creates differentiation and offers greater value to the customer. The key to packaging your products and services is to ensure that the package price is less than buying all the individual items separately.

A bundle of products is sometimes referred to as a package deal and a well known example of this is the fast food industry 'meal deal' where you can buy burger, fries and coke for a cheaper price than purchasing all items individually.

Product bundling has many advantages apart from selling more products such as the cost savings and efficiencies in your business by selling multiple products in the one transaction, increased perceived value and customer loyalty.

Providing a bundled solution increases the perceived value of your offer and creates customer loyalty because the need to go elsewhere for other products is reduced.

Typically a bundled offer will include a product or service that has a high value but doesn’t get repeat purchased that often. When you bundle this with products or services that need to be repeat purchased you are turning what would have been a one-off purchase (or even a one-off customer) into repeat business.

Additionally, when you add-on complimentary products or services the price reduction is seen to be in the add-on products which means you can maintain the pricing point of the main product. For example:

• Selling computers and offering a start-up ‘start-up’ package that includes software, training and installation. Add-on items that are relatively cheap to provide but greatly increase the value of the offer.

• A Consultant offering their services for a fixed fee per month (say $1000) and includes an additional service for a total fee of ($1500). To get both of these services the normal price might be $1800 per month.
• Offering free delivery for orders over a certain amount
• Selling beauty products and bundling a cleanser, moisturiser and an eye cream.
• A travel agent selling a holiday offering a reduction on travel insurance for all bookings over a certain amount.
• Offering web design with an additional offer of HTML newsletters and ongoing monthly email subscription for a reduced price
• A lawn mowing service that offers tree trimming or rubbish removal for a small additional fee

Think about your business; what high value products can be paired with a lower value product to increase the value of the sale but also increase the value offered to the client.

This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and virtual sales management.
 

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When it comes time to provide pricing it is important that you provide enough information to allow your prospects to make an ‘informed decision’.

To make an informed decision it is important to provide information not just on the proposed solution but the value and benefits they can expect by dealing with your company. Don’t assume that if you have already mentioned them or discussed them, they will remember because they won’t.

When you provide this information decision makers can weigh up the value received vs. the cost. If you only provide the solution and the cost then the decision will be made purely on the cost.

The value and benefits you include also helps to explain why you are more expensive than a competitor.

Presenting in personal will also shorten the time it takes to get a decision and will greatly improve your success rate

When you provide this information decision makers can weigh up the value received vs. the cost. If you only provide the solution and the cost then the decision will be made purely on the cost.

The value and benefits you include also helps to explain why you are more expensive than a competitor.

When writing your proposal it is important to include the following information:

• Current Situation or Executive Summary - bullet points or in paragraph form this is your understanding of the problem, the need and the goal. This should be tied in with the needs that you uncovered earlier on in the process.

• The Solution – you’re proposed solution to the problem, the need and the goal.

• The Benefits – what value and benefit can they expect by using your business. Don’t list all your benefits; only include those that are relevant to the prospects needs.

• The Price – it is recommended that you provide more than one alternative with your pricing. This provides choices and helps your customers to ‘buy’ the solution they feel is the best fit for them. The alternatives you suggest could be more or less quantity, annual fee rather than pay by the month or a discount for buying 2 services rather than 1.

Important Note:

Building relationships and establishing trust is an important component to winning new business and it is difficult to do this over the phone. Presenting your proposal in person provides an opportunity to continue building the relationship and develop trust between you and the decision maker.

Presenting in personal will also shorten the time it takes to get a decision and will greatly improve your success rate

This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and virtual sales management.


 

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Did you know that the majority of sales leads and enquiries do not get followed up more than once (which could be why your business has a low conversion rate*)?

To improve your sales or that of your sales team, develop a system to regularly check where each one is at and when they were last contacted. If you hold sales meetings, doing it at the beginning or end of each month is perfect.

Here are some statistics that I'm sure you will find most interesting:

• 48% of sales people never follow-up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people only make 3 contacts and stop
• Only 10% of sales people make more than 3 contacts
• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

To ramp up some sales in the next couple of months, go through all the leads you have received over the last 3-6 months and either you or your sales people pick up the phone and call them. You will be surprised how many people haven't done anything, simply because no one has bothered to follow up and they have simply been too busy to do anything about it.


* Your sales conversion rate is how many enquiries you receive vs. how many you convert into customers over a specified time frame. To calculate your sales conversion rate follow this simple formula

Total No. of Sales/ Total No. of Enquiries x 100 = Sales Conversion

e.g. 80 sales / 120 enquiries x 100 = 66.67%

For for every 3 enquiries you will be successful in 1 sale, so you need to have 3 times the amount of your budget (or number of required sales) in your pipeline at any one point in time.

This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach, Strategist and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and mentoring.
 

If you liked this article, subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine. You will learn...

* Easy ways to increase your sales and grow your business
* Simple strategies to sell yourself, even if your not in sales
* How to generate sales easier and quicker!

Enter your details at the top of the page or click here

For many people just the thought of ‘asking for the business‘ or closing the sale, brings about paralyzing fear of rejection and feelings of being too pushy. So what happens? It gets avoided at all costs and that doesn’t help anyone.

The problem with letting fear get in the way is that sales drag on way to long and they often get lost as a result of not following-up. Remember if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Interestingly, it’s very rare for someone to be annoyed with you for following-up, if they have been meaning to call you, you’re doing them a favour by saving them time. If they haven’t made a decision, that’s OK just ask them when you should call them back (so your not bothering them unnecessarily in between).

Closing is many things, it’s not just about winning the sale; closing is moving the sale through the process and getting agreement at each step, for example:

• Agreeing to a next appointment
• Agreeing to prepare a proposal
• Agreeing to a demonstration 
• Agreeing to the next step 
• Agreeing to get started

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, the more work you do in the early stages of the sale to understand their ‘needs’ and their buying reasons, the easier and quicker the sale will be. Here are some tips and techniques that you can follow to make the process easier

1. Spend more time asking questions that uncover needs and any problems, challenges or frustrations they may be experiencing. Businesses pay money to fulfil needs and solve problems. If you have a clear understanding of the problem or the need you can match your solution to it.

2. If you can’t uncover any of these reasons, I would suggest there is no reason for your prospect to buy it and the sale will be difficult to close.

3. Ensure that both you and your prospect understand and agree on their needs or problems and the value they will receive when you help them solve it.

4. When your prospects clearly understand “whats in it for them” it’s makes their decision easier and quite often they want to buy from you.

5. Tailor your presentation around their needs and “whats in it for them” Great presentations communicate this clearly and gets your prospect into ‘buying mode’

6. Rcognize when people are ready to buy. They might indicate or show they're ready by asking questions about the product or the buying process: "How long will it take for delivery?", "How does that work?" or "Where to from here?". Other signs include positive body language and comments such as "we could use it like this?" or "that’s a good idea."

When it comes time to ask for the business there are 3 different techniques you can use. I find the ‘assumptive’ close tends to work best for me but it’s important to find a technique that works for you.

The direct close
This is the most direct because you actually ask for the order. For example “should we get the product ready for tomorrow?” or “Would you like to place an order”

The indirect close
This is where you summarise and re-state the benefits and then ask for a decision. For example “having spoken to some of our clients and heard about the benefits they have been enjoying as a result of our service, are you ready to place an order”

The assumptive close
This is the one I use all the time and it assumes that the customer has made the decision to buy your product. Instead of asking them for an order, you ask them to complete the first step to get the service started or goods delivered. For example “if you need to have delivery next week, I need the order from you no later than tomorrow” or “when would you like us to get started”

If the client is unwilling to move ahead, perhaps you haven’t addressed all of their concerns or perhaps they have a misunderstanding about your product or service or fail to see the benefits of what you offer.

If your stuck read my article on “handling objections” or “what do to when the sale stalls” to get some helpful hints.

This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach, Strategist and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and mentoring.


If you liked this article, subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine. You will learn...

* Easy ways to increase your sales and grow your business
* Simple strategies to sell yourself, even if your not in sales
* How to generate sales easier and quicker!

Enter your details at the top of the page or click here

* quotes were supplied by K. Rosen at allbusiness.com