For example, what if a customer, who normally spent $100 with you, now spent $150?  You've just increased your business by 50%.  And what if you could get this customer to do this again and again?

That's what we're going to talk about over the next couple of weeks.

I'm going to focus on these two ways to grow your business.  Right now I'm going to talk about how to increase the transaction value, each time your customer or client buys from you.

Every time someone makes a purchase from you, you have an opportunity to increase the size of that purchase.

Before I get into the ways you can do that, let me talk about the reason you must do that.

Believe it or not, the reason you must do that is for a benevolent reason, and not a self-serving reason.  It's not just to add to your profit.

It's all about helping your customer or client get a greater outcome, greater benefit, better result, or advantage out of the transaction they're doing with your company.

It has always been my opinion, that you have a responsibility and an obligation to help advise and introduce every customer and client you ever deal with, to all the alternatives they have available and to help them understand and examine what their objective and purpose is for buying your product or service in the first place. 

You must help them recognize that they have alternatives, superior choices, that they could be making that could produce for them a greater result, a greater benefit, a greater advantage, more protection, and more enjoyment than the level they will receive from the purchase they originally intended to make.

FIRST APPROACH:   Use up-sells and cross-sells.  Whenever a customer or client makes a purchasing decision, they are committed and already mentally expecting to receive and enjoy the benefit and advantage your product or service provides.

At this point, it is very easy.  You have their trust and confidence. In fact, in many cases, it's a higher service on your part to offer that customer or client another product or service that provides them with superior benefits or results over the original product they inquired about.

In other words, they may have been content coming in to buy the standard basic product, and yet after interviewing and examining and understanding what their intended use of that product is, you realize that the basic standard product can't possibly give the customer the performance outcome they seek or have as their objective.

What you now do is recommend a higher quality or more sophisticated version of the product that you know will give them greater performance and results.

Now look, they don't have to buy it.  But you do have the obligation to tell them the differences in performance and the outcome they can expect to receive, and to make them an offer that gives them an incentive to consider upgrading.

This concept is called the "up-sell", or "up-selling".

Basically, you are graduating the customer to a larger or superior alternative.

A "cross-sell" introduces the customer or client to an additional product or service that will add or increase the result they get from your basic product or service.

Believe me, your customers will appreciate you for making them aware of this additional value.

Here's a real life example of what I mean.

Sometime ago, I was in the market for a new computer.  When I went to the computer store, the salesman listened to me and gave me a lot of suggestions.

When we got to the printer I wanted, he mentioned to me that this printer wouldn't give me the performance I wanted.

But by adding a high speed, higher performing laser printer, this quality computer will perform many times better for me.

What this meant to me was that this salesman felt an obligation and responsibility to sell me a system that best fit my needs.  He did that in the form of a cross-sell when he explained to me the advantages and the improvement in performance that the printer could add to the overall value of the computer that I was buying.

Your customers will appreciate you for doing this, and their lives or businesses will be better for it.

Why?

Because when they choose a superior product or service, it's axiomatic that they get a superior outcome or performance.   And when they get greater results, they are happier.

So your goal in these transactions, when you're using either an up-sell or a cross-sell, is to always offer alternatives to your customers or clients--alternatives that perform better in their interest.  Not yours.

What makes these transactions more appealing is when you also offer them a financial incentive to buy.

In other words, you not only offer them Service B, which is more valuable to them than Service A, but you also offer it at a price that is so attractive that  they would be foolish not to seriously consider selecting the superior alternative.

So, whenever you use an up-sell or cross-sell you're doing it because it benefits them.

Well that's it for this week.  Next week I'll go over some ways to use up-sells or cross-sells in your business or practice.

Till then, keep those referrals of these tips coming in.