Sell Complementary Products
One of dozens of strategies listed and linked to here:
How to Make More Money
from Your Business
By Steve Gillman
One way to quickly increase sales and profits is to sell complementary
products as a part of your business. Selling new things is normal
for store owners, but it is often overlooked by service businesses
and companies which sell single large products. Let's look at
a few examples of what can be done in these businesses.
What products could a carpet cleaner sell? They already do
"upselling" of stain resistant treatments and such,
but what about entirely new products? The first thing that comes
to my mind (I used to clean carpets as an employee), is rugs.
A good cleaner will tell clients that to prolong the life of
their carpet it really helps to have a rug at every entrance
to catch dirt that is brought in from outside. So why stop at
educating them when you can save them a trip to the store as
well? Sell some nice rugs.
If you are a real estate agent with a good eye for interior
decorating, you can sell a "staging" service for home
sellers, to make their empty house look more presentable and
get a higher price. A landscaping/lawn service might sell plants
in addition to caring for them. Hair stylists already know that
they can boost sales by recommending--and selling--good hair-care
products.
You generally don't want to sell irrelevant products, because
this can "turn off" your customer and the results will
usually be poor anyhow. Why would a patient want to buy Christmas
ornaments from his dentist? He probably wouldn't. But he would
be very likely to buy toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss
before leaving the office.
What kind of complementary products could a flower shop sell?
Well, if you think about what the customers are trying to do,
you start to get ideas. People buy flowers as gifts for others,
and especially for romantic interests. Jewelry, then, might sell
well, if you kept it to some simple but elegant pieces displayed
on the counter. Flowers are bought to decorate a home or to cheer
up the environment where they'll be displayed. What else could
meet these goals? Paintings, and especially paintings of flowers.
So when you are looking for the right complementary products
to sell alongside your existing products or services, consider
what customers are trying to accomplish in coming to you in the
first place. Then try out a few things. If you start small, there
is little risk, and you might find a way to generate additional
profits for years to come.
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