Would you Like Fries with that...? by Results Rules OK Ltd

Results Rules OK...

Would you Like Fries With that..? … grow your business without spending a penny on marketing … A simple 4 Step Plan…

E Book #4 David Holland MBA The Results Guy… August 2011

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Contents 1. Introduction 2. To up sell or cross sell, that is the question. 3. About Results Rules OK â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the marketing bit...

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1. Introduction I enjoy shopping; in fact I enjoy the experience of buying almost as much as I enjoy selling, being on stage and working with clients. Why…? Because it gives me so much material to work with when I write my books, articles and workshops, it also reassures me to a certain extent that the market for what I do is much larger than I first believed. Here is a sweeping statement to get us started; customer service on average is poor. There are some highlights and I’m sure we can all recall particular individuals or situations where we had a great experience, but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule. There are a few companies that give great customer service on a consistent basis – Apple Store and Nordstrom’s for example, but they tend to be the exception to the rule. Because the standards we have come to expect, particularly in Europe, are so low, it is not difficult for any business to stand out from the crowd and become a beacon of excellence, shining against an increasingly murky backdrop. Now, if the customers are not being served well, how well do you think business owners are being served by their businesses..? The purpose of a business is to provide the owners and shareholders with an income or a return on their investment. It is the shareholders that employ the Directors and it is the responsibility of the Directors to deliver the results the shareholders want. If you were just a shareholder in your business, would you be happy with the results your Directors are delivering for you – or would you fire them and find someone else to run it for you…? The challenge is of course, that in most small to medium size companies, the shareholders and the directors are the same people – they may even live together and in some cases, given the time, sleep together too.  Separating the two roles is challenging – one of the roles I play with client is that of a “shareholder” – I look at the business as if I own it and challenge the “directors” to achieve more than they have been so that they look after their alter ego – themselves as shareholders – much better in future. So what is one of the easiest ways to keep your shareholders happy? Simple, increase dividends, which means make more profit – here are a few ideas to help you out… ©Results Rules OK Ltd 2011

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2. To Upsell or Cross Sell – that is the question... I am not allowed to do this anymore, but used to be a frequent customer of McDonalds. Being on the road so much in the UK and the USA meant that lunch was a 10 minute break in a layby and any food had to be fast and convenient – if it wasn’t McDonalds it would be a Taco Bell in the USA or a Ginsters Pasty in the UK. If I was on the West Coast of the US, it would be In-N-Out Burger – but that’s another story… I have been to McDonalds in Moscow, Los Angeles, London, and Paris – in fact in about 18 countries. Imagine walking into McDonalds and asking for a Cheeseburger – what does your server ask you…? Probably one or both of these – or a few more… a. b. c. d.

Would you like fries with that? Would you like to go large or supersize? Would you like a meal (menu here in France)? What drink would you like?

You have just been “upped and crossed” An “up sell” is where you attempt to sell the customer the next one up in the range, the “cross sell” is where you offer a complimentary product from within your range as an additional purchase. In fact McDonalds have recognised the power of these statements so well that they have ready-made bundles so that customers can up sell themselves – the Meal Deal and the Happy Meal. Even with these bundles you have the opportunity to Max them out with even bigger portions of fries and soda’s. Too few companies do this and they are missing out on a huge amount of sales and profits as a result. How can you do this in your business…? When we lived in Las Vegas I bought myself a small SUV – a Ford Expedition – which in US terms is a mid-size compact, but in European terms is a similar to an aircraft carrier. When we moved to France, we bought the Expedition with us – we affectionately call her the Truck. After about six months, the Truck needed a service and whilst in the USA this simply meant a trip to Terribles Auto Lube on a Saturday morning, in France it meant booking in two weeks in advance and leaving the Truck with the garage for two days.

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As I pulled the Truck in to the workshop, all the mechanics stood and stared, some of them had not seen a V8 Triton before and they huddled round to take a look at this crazy Englishman and his even crazier car. The Truck needed a new set of spark plugs, a relatively straight forward job but one that has to be handled with care as the Triton has a tendency to spit out plugs that aren’t expertly fitted. To get at the Plugs the top of the engine has to be removed along the coils on top of each spark plug – quite an amount of disassembly is required. I know this because I had to have the same work carried out at Terribles in Las Vegas a couple of years before. So why am I telling you all this…? Because there is a key difference between Terribles – real name click on the LINK to take a look at the USA and the Ford dealer in Metz, France. In the USA when I took the Truck for a service they knew exactly what the service schedule was and if I asked for an oil change, they would know that given the mileage it also needed an air filter, fuel filter and transmission fluid change. So I was offered that service too… The oil for the Triton has to be a 5 W 20 grade to try and squeeze every bit of efficiency off the big lazy 5.4 L engine – however there are different grades of oil. Did I want the basic, the semi synthetic or the fully synthetic..? When I had the plugs changed, and as the top of the engine had to be taken apart to get at them, it meant that other routine jobs could be carried out at the same time – much more economically ( i.e. cheaper…) than if I came back to have them done separately. When I took the Truck to the Ford dealer in Metz, I was given a quote for changing the eight spark plugs and that was it. I knew that there were at least three other jobs that could be done whilst the engine was being taken apart, and that it would make sense for them to be done at the same time, but I had to ask and suggest them to the dealer – not the other way round. Ford Metz were missing out on sales and profit, in exactly the same way as most businesses do, because they do not think it is OK to sell to customers, or if they do, there is insufficient training, guidance and systems in place to make it actually work. So how do we increase your profits without spending a penny on marketing? We sell more products and services to your existing customers – we increase the average order value and therefore increase the average profit value of each customer. Your shareholders will love this… ©Results Rules OK Ltd 2011

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Step 1 – analyse your product / service range. You will find that you have a core product or service and a number of ancillary or complimentary products that support the core. You can tell what your core products and services are because they are the ones you probably sell most of. An Accountant for example will have the production of statutory accounts for business clients as a core product; they may also have the production and submission of tax returns for company directors as a core product. Complimentary products could include management accounts, registered office or company secretary services, company formations, will writing and tax advice. Make a list of the services and products you offer and categorise them simply as core and complimentary for now. I will use my business as an example of how your list could look...

Core Products and Services

Complimentary Products and Services

1:1 Coaching Program Group Coaching Program Workshops Speaking Engagements

Books EBooks Webinar Personality Profiling Free Seminar Non Exec Director Services Social Media Marketing Services International Development Events Legal Services Accounting Services International Banking

Step 2 – look at your Core Products and Services. We need to build a range for each of them so that you can offer more than one of each. In a clothing store you would have different ranges for example, a web designer could have different styles of websites from simple template driven ones through to bespoke ecommerce sites, or a restaurant would have the Table d’hote, A la Carte, and dish of the day offers. Ranging your products and services is the first step in building your ability to upsell – without a range you have nothing visible to upsell to…

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So for example, I offer 1:1 Coaching Programs as a core product, however, I have arrange of programs top choose from; – bespoke program for the ambitious business owner who is ready to invest time and resources required to build their income from passive sources – serious applicants only… – our premier program, weekly Coaching, monthly meetings, full email support and quarterly planning events combined for the larger company – or those who want to become larger... – weekly Coaching, email support and planning events, for the mid-size company that wants to go to the next level – our most popular program… – for the smaller business that has just got started, and is ready to go from start-up phase to growth and profit phase – in a planned and structured way… Notice a couple of things about the range of Core Products – and you should consider the same for your business; First, there are three main products with a fourth “bespoke” program so that if anyone has a special or unique situation – and who doesn’t..? This means that I have a product to suit just about any business situation and my Clients can choose which one suits them the best. Second, the “main range” has just three options – Now, given the choice of three options – which one do you think most people go for..? That’s right – the middle one. Rarely do they go for the cheapest, and they may not want to go for the most expensive – they will go for the middle one. It’s called Goldilocks Selling, not too hot, not too cold – but just right. Notice too that I have stated that the middle program is our most popular – it is and because other people like it new clients will too. This is called social proof, people on average don’t want to be early adopters, and we want to know that what we are buying is proven before we jump in. No one wants to be the first patient of a laser eye surgeon – I want to be number 1000 following 999 successful previous procedures.

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Now we have a range of products to choose from it will make the initial sale and potential for up selling more straight forwards and you can also offer the complimentary products as a cross sell too. The rule is – offer the core product first and then offer the complimentary products afterwards. If you buy a £500 suit you are more likely to buy a £25.00 shirt rather than the other way round for example. You will also need to name your core products so that they can be discussed in easily recognised terms both with clients and within your company and in all your marketing. Step 3 – look for ways to bundle your core products with your complimentary ones. When you go to a bar and you want a cocktail – do you ask for all the products separately in individual glasses so that you can mix them together yourself? Of course not – I hope – you simply ask for the Mojito, Screwdriver or a Screaming Orgasm (if you must..) by name and you know what you are going to get. Same in any business, people like bundles, they like the fact that they can name a product and not worry about the components that go to make it up. It is why we don’t buy cars in kit form – we allow Ford to do it for us and call the different Bundles convenient names like Focus, Fiesta etc. Before you do any bundling, look at the margins you make out of your existing range of complimentary services and decide whether you need to keep them or find others that suit the core products better. This exercise is a great way of selecting strategic partners and building alliances – I work with a Lawyer, and Accountant and a Bank. I am able to offer their services to my clients as an added value benefit and of course they are able offer mine to their clients. I even have alliance partners that speak at my events, sell my books and vice versa – what we are really looking for here is a way of gaining competitive advantage in your market through differentiation. We all operate in what I would call saturated markets – there are plenty of competitors out there that fundamentally do what we do. It is up to us to offer services that can be differentiated from everyone else and this approach is a great way of doing that. For example, I would bundle my books with my workshops. If you come to one of my events you can buy a copy of my book on the day – signed by me of course. I could bundle my Group Coaching Programs with my webinar series and I may offer Personality Profiling to all my 1:1 Clients, for example. ©Results Rules OK Ltd 2011

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Step 4 – training and communication. Now you have defined your products and services into Core and Complimentary with appropriate Bundles or Party Bags you have to train your team how to position them and sell them – introducing incentives as appropriate. Only yesterday, we had lunch out in Metz and decided to have a salad – I told you I’m not allowed to go to McDonalds any more – and as the waiter explained the menu he was very keen to promote the Ham and Melon salad. This was not on the menu but was a special for the day and included all sorts of enticing ingredients – which basically means whatever would be out of date soon. So they had bundled together a few ingredients, called it the Moselle Salad and, arranged to offer it to everyone in the restaurant. The waiter told me that for every salad he sold he got 1 Euro bonus – training and incentive. Your team need to understand the basic principles of selling, what to offer first and why, how to upsell or even down sell when appropriate and when to offer cross selling options too.

Increased Profits

Contingency Selling

E Books

Profiling ©Results Rules OK Ltd 2011

Books

Webinar

SM Mktg

Seminar

Alliances www.resultsrulesok.com

Non Exec

Int’l Event

Your products and services can be plotted on a chart – I have used my range as an example. The Core products and services are arranged on the vertical axis, and the Complimentary Products are arranged along the horizontal axis. Ideally they should be arranged in order of preference and benefit to your business so that as you progress along each axis you are making more profit for your business. With this you can explain to your team which products and services are core to the success of the business; my books for example are fundamental to the business but they are not a core product, they are designed to support my core activities. The objective of course is to have every customer buy your top core product, along with every complimentary product that you have. This may be possible for a few customers, however, maybe not for all of them, it does mean that you can now measure and manage the customer buying experience within your business and offer not only incentives to your team for the sales activity, but incentives to your clients to buy more from you in the form of offers and exclusivity deals. You will see the arrow labelled “Contingency Selling” – and this is another key benefit of using this approach with customers. Whilst selling a core product may enable you to a sell a complimentary one at the same time – the system can work the other way round too – but the difference is that it tends to take longer. For example, if someone buys one of my books – I know that they are more likely to attend a Seminar and consequently more likely to become a 1:1 Client – it works with EBooks too so brace yourself…  Your complimentary product range can be used as a cross selling technique and also as a lead generator – one that will gently introduce people to your business and gradually involve them such that at some point they will become “full” clients.

For help with building your remarkable business, buy David’s book, Your Business Rules OK by clicking HERE, download tools and templates from our website, come along to one of our events, or email David at davidholland@resultsrulesok.com

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3. About Results Rules OK Results Rules OK was created with a simple and clear 2020 vision;

To enable everyone to enjoy learning, achieving, doing and being more... This is achieved through the delivery of World Class Business Coaching, Training, and Development Programs designed for business owners and entrepreneurs just like you… We recognise that all businesses are different, as are the people that build, own and run them so we have a range of products and programs that will help, inspire and support you – whatever stage of development your business is at… You can register for our newsletter, check out David’s latest blog and even download documents and templates from our website at www.resultsrulesok.com If you’d like to come along to an event – either to join one of our Webinars or participate in a Workshop or Seminar – click on the LINK to find our full schedule of events. David is offers a limited number of FREE Business Strategy Sessions for qualifying businesses, to arrange a meeting or discussion with David, simply got to our Home Page, scroll down and press the “Book Free Session with David” button... Our USP is our people, our delivery, the results our Clients achieve and our philosophy of Fun in Life and in Business. We are a growing profitable business, and we believe in making contributions to charity and causes that are aligned with our values. David’s unique experience, background and passion for adding value to the business and personal lives of others have enabled him to become not only a top Business Coach, but an accomplished Speaker and Author. Having worked in 21 countries so far, his presentations and key note presentations are compelling, informative and fun and his books reflect his knowledge and personality…

David’s first two books are available now… Buying David’s books in Hardback, Paperback or in Kindle format is easy – just click on the LINK… To check David’s schedule and arrange for him to speak at your next event, or arrange a bespoke program or workshop for your team – just drop us an email at info@resultsrulesok.com

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If you have got this far then maybe we should talk…!

Results Rules OK Ltd 55, Newhall Street, Birmingham, B3 3RB. England Tel - +44 (0)121 416 0023

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