Use offers and discounts for business growth

When have you been enticed by offers or discounts?

It happens to us every day. There are always special offers or buy 2 get one free or simply free items that are given away.

Are you doing this with your business? If not, you should be. Below are some of the most popular ways of getting more sales and business growth by using offers and discounts in your business strategy.

Think life sales value of a customer

When putting your offers together, don't simply price it up as a stand alone offer as this may present it as not cost effective.

Think about the life value of a customer - how much repeat business you'll get over, say, the next 12 months. How you'll be able to up-sell additional services on the back of the initial offer you propose.

Costing your offers for maximum sales

Sometimes it's best just to give something away.

People just love free stuff. Supermarkets do it all the time with their buy two get one free - but very rarely do people just buy this offer - they go in and buy loads of things. This is just an enticement to get them into the shop.

When calculating the price of an offer, include all the additional business as well. For example - let's look at a free ice cream desert with every main meal in a restaurant.

Now the cost of the ice cream is fairly minimal - OK, there is additional washing up involved but the offer is made to get people in and taking the main meals.

If the profit on a main meal is $10 and the cost of the ice cream is $2 then each take up of the offer is making an additional $8 - this is $8 you would never have made. Additionally, you get people into your restaurant to try your services, those people tell others and of course your diners will also order other items like starters and coffees.

Examples of offers to be made

Here are some offers you can make - don't be too afraid to offer items for free - test the waters and see how it goes.

Free seminars

You must have seen these advertised for property investment schemes. This is a great way to get extremely hot leads into a closed environment. You get to tell them loads of interesting information about your success and they just want in. You can sell items on the day or via follow up - but best of all, you have the contact information of hot leads.

Associated item free if you buy ....

Like the example above - if you buy something you get something else for free. The free item must be associated with the first - ie: don't give away a car wash with a free meal !

Buy 2 get one free - buy 5 get one free etc...

Or buy one get one free. As mentioned before, people just love free stuff. With buy 2 get one free you are selling 3 items (whereas normally you may have just sold one of the items). So just ensure the overall profit is OK for you. These offers are designed to pull people in and sell them more whilst they are in your establishment.

These offers also work well with holidays, coffee shops (with a collectors card), internet cafes -- almost any business. See how it will work with yours.

A simple 10% off sale...NOW !

Everyone has these but sales are only good if you build in urgency - ie: people must shop now. So ensure your sale is for a limited time - it could be just a weekend - like the "blue cross sales"

Free tasting etc

If you have a bricks and mortar business, then you need people inside your store - what better way than to have an event. Wine shops have wine tasting, cafes have coffee tasting, delis have cheese tasting etc. When people come in and taste or sample your wares, ensure you have some special offers for that day only that people should take advantage of.

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