Results Revolution » Strategic Plan

How to Hold a Great Sale (And Still Make a Profit)

Marianna Chapman — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:49:34 +0000

January.

For retailers, it’s cold not just outside, but indoors when it comes to moving the stock off the shelves. After the Christmas-buying sprees, most shoppers are back at home cooling their heels while retailers try to entice them back out to buy. The one stand-by many local store owners turn to is holding big sales, and they’re finding that in a tough economy it’s necessary to offer deeper and deeper discounts to get folks back and willing to buy. It’s great to have warm bodies in your store again, but it’s not great if your sale ends up making you no profit due to all that deep discounting.

So what’s the method of success that allows you to get the customers back and still make a profit? Is there a way to get both?

There are several methods you can employ to attract business and still maintain a profit margin. See which one of these (or more than one) will work best in your restaurant, retail store, or service-based business and give it a go.

Know Your Bottom Line, and Sell Just Above

This is the method to use with that inventory that needs to move out the door, not with that great new batch of products that just came in for Spring. Calculate your bottom dollar on these items: how low can you go and still make something, even if it’s a small something? Then make your strategy to sell many of these items, each bringing in that small amount of profit, and you’ll end up with a good amount of profit when all is said and done. Plus you’ll have cleared your store of excess, aging inventory.

Create a Loss-Leader

Grocery stores use the loss-leader method just about every week; their circulars advertise a deal that’s “too good to pass up” for their shoppers. In many cases, the grocery stores are taking a loss on this item, but they know that just getting the customers in the store is worth that small loss. How many times have you gone to the grocery store and bought just one item? Most of us don’t shop for groceries that way, and why not? Because in the process of locating and purchasing the loss-leader item, we’re unable to ignore the displays of other great merchandise – some also discounted, some not – that we have to walk past and around to find our goal. Use the same strategy in your store; advertise a huge discount on a popular item, set up a great display for it, and put it smack in the middle of many other great displays with enticing offers of their own.

Offer Package Deals

Another angle on the loss-leader strategy is to offer package deals and discounts; this method allows you to package your items of choice together, being sure that one of them is a cheaper item for you to purchase, which gives you greater wiggle room for a discount. You can offer a greater discount on a combined package, knowing that your combined investment in all the package items is still well below the discounted package price. You might even use a “buy one of these, get one of these other things” free method to sell a costlier item without a discount while taking the “loss” on your cheaper, freebie item. It’s the same method beauty product companies’ use when they offer a “special gift” with a purchase.

Add Value that Doesn’t Cost You Cash

What can you offer your customers that doesn’t come with any cash cost to you? Look beyond the basic inventory, and think about subscriptions, memberships, special discount or dining clubs, consultations, or other perks that offer a huge incentive for customers thinking about a purchase. The value is still there for the customer, who would otherwise have to pay to get the subscription or membership or consultation; but the value-added item isn’t costing you cash that you can’t afford to lose. Use these value-added items to upsell; offer them as freebies or part of a package, which allows you to give your customers an increased value for the same cost without decreasing your profit margin.

What method sounds best for your business?

Image by Alan Cleaver2000.

Be Findable by Local Shoppers… or Die.

Marianna Chapman — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:09:03 +0000

One easy way locally owned business can get themselves on the map (literally) is by soliciting customer reviews for your business on geographically based review sites. Review sites are usually very large conglomerates with individual mini-sites for each geographic location. Often they’re divided by state or region, and then subdivided by city or township within that region. The bottom line in this uber-web-based world in which we live is simply this: If your business can’t be found through a quick web search – you’re business is going to die.

Use Geo-Based Review Sites to Grow Your Business

What’s great about these websites is that they allow brand-new customers to find you – and want to try your business out – when they may have known nothing about you before. These new customers are online searching for your type of business in your area; if you’ve set up your profile and garnered some reviews on any of these sites, they’re likely to run across your business. Suddenly they not only know you exist, what you do, and where you’re located, they also get to find out what your customers think about you by reading the reviews.

So how do you get into this action? It’s pretty simple.

Step 1: Focus on the major review sites.

The most important local review site is the home of the “red pin” – Google Places, formerly known as Google Local. Other review sites include the following:

There are more, but if you get set up on at least a few of these major websites, your information will get picked up by the other sites as well.

Step 2: “Claim” your business and/or set up your profile.

Once you’re at the website, search for your business. You may find it already listed; if so, you’ll see an option to claim the business or add updated information. Fill in all the information you can: physical address, phone number, email address, Internet information (email, website, blog, Facebook, Twitter), store hours, specialties, owner’s name, history. Some sites will give you more room than others. Some will also allow you to post pictures; I highly recommend that you post a few photos of the outside of the store, inside of the store and a sampling of available products.

If you don’t find your business, you’ll simply have to start the profile or information from scratch. Follow the same principle as above by including as much information as possible on each site. Remember, the more information you have, the more you will show up in search results and the easier it will be for people to find you.

Step 3: Ask for reviews.

The most important part of a business profile on one of these review sites is, of course, the customer reviews. So start asking for reviews. When your best customers come in to your business, make it a point to personally ask them to go online and submit a brief review to ONE of the review sites. Don’t ask them to submit reviews to more than one; that’s simply too much and too complicated, and most customers (even the ones who love you) won’t respond. All you have to do is say something like, “We’ve just set up our profile at CitySearch.com, and we’re trying to get some reviews up. If you have a moment when you get home, would you mind sharing about your experiences here? You’re one of our best customers, and we’d really appreciate new customers getting a chance to hear from you.”

Then hand each customer a card with the information printed on it, so they won’t forget when they get back home.

That’s it! The whole process is simple and can really make a huge difference in helping new customers find you, so get it started now and see what results you’re getting in a few months.

Image: dbking.

Set Your 2011 Business Goals

Marianna Chapman — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:46:45 +0000

Editor’s Note: This is a post in the “How to Create a 2011 Local Business Marketing Plan”* series. Some of it will be shared here on [resultsrevolution.com]. The rest will be shared via my free newsletter. Get the newsletter to get the full planning series.

Do you have your business goals for 2011 etched in stone yet?

If not, it’s time to take all of those notes out of your notebook and do something with them. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, sign-up for our e-mail newsletter and forward me your confirmation – I’ll send you the back issues of our planning series so you can catch up).

How to define your goals for 2011.

1. Of all of the notes in your notebook over the past few weeks, go through and circle the things that stand out as MOST IMPORTANT. It’s time to pick priorities and create focus. It’s time to hone in on some themes that will describe your 2011.

2. Group the CIRCLED ITEMS into categories. Usually the things that we deem priorities usually could be grouped together in themes or categories. Maybe several of your items have to do with financial issues – sales growth, financial responsibility, decreasing debt, cash flow management, payroll issues, your own earnings, etc. If so, put all of those items together under a category called FINANCIAL. And so on for the rest of the circled items.

3. Usually folks end up with only 3-4 categories at the end of this exercise. If you have more, go back and circle the 2-3 categories that if they fall short will cause the failure of your business. Which are make or break – and which are just desires. At this point you should have no more than 3-4 CATEGORIES from which you will now define your 2011 business goals. Just let go of everything else. The fact of the matter is that if you will focus on the few items most critical to your business health that other things will fall into place more easily later. But you have to do things in order – and you can’t do it all. Success takes time – believe it or not – and a year doesn’t last as long as it did when we were five years old.

4. Create a list of THREE – FOUR goals you want to accomplish in 2011. If we stick to the financial analogy, you’ll look at your list of items in the framework of a single category. For example, look at all of the notes you now have lumped into the financial category. What single metric would accomplish them all – or at least most of them? Would a 15% increase in retail sales allow you to in turn accomplish your debt retirement, personal earnings, and cash flow management issues? Maybe – maybe not. But the idea here is to boil those themes into a single S.M.A.R.T. goal. S.M.A.R.T. standing for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-sensitive.

An example in this financial theme would be “Increase retail sales for 2011 10% over 2010.” Only you will know if this is attainable and realistic – but I will help you figure that out by introducing a simple method for accomplishing goals in the next edition of our e-mail newsletter. So sign up now, if you haven’t already.

Supplement Your Goals

Goals are good, and in my mind, necessary. They shouldn’t be like resolutions for a business – because resolutions don’t make it very far. Goals are meant to give you a target to aim at – a way to know you won. You can look back on your year, measure your success and celebrate your wins.

However, goals are usually so specific that without a supporting player they can even be distracting. That’s why I like what Chris Brogan does with his “three words” concept. These are, as I understand, guiding principles for a year that work with goals but provide more than that – a higher level purpose for each year. Read Chris’ excellent post because it explains this concept just fine, so there’s no reason for me to repeat it – and his 2011 post is FULL to the brim of other business people who said their three words out loud and got included in that post. It’ll give you some ideas, hopefully.

Stay tuned for my three words. I’m pretty excited about them.

Photo credit: TheFasterDanish

Creating a Local Business Marketing Plan for 2011.

Marianna Chapman — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to do a series on local business marketing planning for local or small enterprises. This is the sort of planning that you should be thinking about right now as the year winds down and another gets ready to launch:

1. What will you do differently in 2011?
2. What are your goals for 2011?
3. What is your unique strategy to connect with customers in 2011?
4. What media will you use to communicate with customers, vendors, prospects, employees, etc. in 2011?
5. What products/services, etc. will you offer in 2011? What will be different or the same from 2010?

And many more questions just like these? How do you answer those questions strategically – and literally – for your business, so that you get your new year off to a blazing start? It all boils down to your local business marketing plan for 2011. That’s what we’ll be unpacking in the next few weeks.

Why is this important?

A local business marketing plan is important because many of you would otherwise march into 2011 without a single strategic weapon in place. Things happen just like you plan them – and if you don’t plan or you plan to fail – you’ll get just that. Local business must PLAN for success – create a road map that will win – not unlike a military going into battle. Yes, sometimes things don’t work out precisely as planned – but at least you have the order of the plan that you can change and aren’t just marching blindly into battle. Your chances of success are increased exponentially with the careful attention to planning that you give – and the success will be sweet at the end when you win – and win big for your local business!

Here’s how this will work:

Some of the content will be available here on the blog. A LOT of it will be in written “lesson” format via our e-mail newsletter. Let’s just say that 2/3 of the content will arrive in your inbox. Once I’ve finished the series, I’ll compile it all into an e-book and teach a webinar on the topic of local business marketing plans around the first week of the year.

The first e-mail lesson will go out next Tuesday, so go ahead and sign-up for the e-mail newsletter now, so you don’t miss a thing. (Motivating hint: the first lesson is something you can accomplish in ten minutes even in the midst of the holiday bustle to position yourself for a successful planning session later when things slow down a bit.)

Photo Credit: West Point Public Affairs

Results Revolution » Strategic Plan

How to Hold a Great Sale (And Still Make a Profit)

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Be Findable by Local Shoppers… or Die.

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Set Your 2011 Business Goals

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Creating a Local Business Marketing Plan for 2011.

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