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9 Quick No Cost ways to increase sales and profits

Guest post by: Bob Janet

Article Overview: 1.The Power of the Three Foot Rule 2.Listen Aggressively 3. Tell your customer all you do for them 4.Do not judge a book by it’s cover 5. Don’t waste your customer’s time 6. Use the word all 7. Follow-up call to B-Backs 8. Telephone every customer 12 hours after the sale 9. How saying Thank you will increase Sales

9 Quick No Cost ways to increase sales and profits

1.The Power of the Three Foot Rule
When you are out of your office (store) look around you. There are customers / prospects everywhere. The problem is that they do not know you or that you can solve their needs and problems. When you tell them this your sales will increase.

The Three Foot Rule of Marketing: Everyone within three feet of you must know who you are and how you can solve their problems. Increase your sales immediately by telling everyone who you are and how you can solve their problems with your 30 second sales speech.

2.Listen Aggressively
According to various studies the average salesperson spends eighty percent of each day engaged in verbal communications. About half of that time is spent listening, but less than twenty-five percent is effective listening.
An effective listener will increase sales and profits:
 By gaining a better understanding of what the customer's problems are.
 By listening for closing statements the customer makes. A closing statement is anything the customer says positive about your product or service or any questions they ask that have a positive answer.

Examples: A. “I like that.”
B. “My husband will enjoy the ………”
C. “That will help me ………..”
D. “ Do you have it in blue?”
E. “When can you deliver?”

3. Tell your customer all you do for them
“The more you tell the more you sell” - Salesman’s Creed
Do not think for one second your customer knows all you do for them.
You may be losing sales because your customers do not know:
 All the methods of payment you accept
 Your flexibility of hours
 Added value you give
 Added care you take to deliver on time
 What makes your products and service uniquely different from the competition’s

Yes, you must blow your own horn. It’s okay, as long as you deliver what you promise. When I was in the retail business I gained many sales from my competitors, because they did not tell the customers in detail about their repair service. Although our service was basically the same as theirs we gained sales, because we told our customers and prospects about our extended hours of operation, loaner policy, and 100% satisfaction guarantee.


4.Do not judge a book by it’s cover
As I entered the furniture store I noticed I was the only customer. A large gentleman, dressed in a white shirt and tie, asked me, “Can I help you?” I said, “No, just looking.” There was another salesperson reading a newspaper and another talking on the phone. I believe, from what I could overhear, she was in a heated argument with her child.

Within a few seconds an old beat-up 1956 Ford pickup pulled up to the front of the store. A young fellow and a young lady, I guessed to be in their late teens or very early Twenties, dressed in slightly tattered clothing entered the store. The salesman who spoke to me took one look at them, and one look at their truck, and walked away from the front of the store before he had to talk to them. The salesman reading the paper glanced up for a split second and resumed his reading, and the saleswoman on the phone never gave them more than a faint look.

They walked around the store making a list of furniture on an old yellowed piece of paper with a pencil that had been sharpened with a knife. They eventually approached me and asked if I could help them. They assumed I worked in the store since I was wearing a tie. and as you know if you wear a tie in most retail stores people assume you work there. I told them I was also a customer and upon talking with them found out they had been married that morning and their family and friends had given them a total of $3,000 as a wedding gift. instead of presents, a reception or honeymoon.

They were in the store to buy furniture for their very first home together. After they had looked around for a bit they again approached me and said, “No one seems to want to wait on us.” I said, “It does appear that way doesn’t it? Perhaps we should go elsewhere.” And with that we all left together and went to another furniture store a quarter of a block down the street where they were welcomed and waited on. In less than one hour they had spent their entire $3,000.

Never judge a book by its cover is the saying, and I encourage you to never judge a person by their looks. You do not know what is beneath the surface.

5. Don’t waste your customer’s time
Today's customers are busy. Between driving kids to and from school, soccer practice,
basketball practice and games, boy and girl scout meetings and various other social activities, in addition to making a living and a life, it's safe to say most folks today are a little
rushed. That's why today's customer eats regularly at fast food chains and uses ATM machines, self-services, pay-at-the-pump gas stations and many more time saving facilities. With all of this harried and hurried activity and a never-ending quest to save time, your customers are sending you some important messages.
Make it Quick

I do not have time to waste. In print and broadcasting media you only have 3 seconds to catch their attention with your headline, and when greeting the customer personally or via
the telephone your opening statement must grab their attention, interest and curiosity.
Help Me Understand the Benefits You Offer
Listen to me; listen to what I want the product or service to do. Listen to my problems I want solved. Tell me - and tell me quickly and clearly - the benefits I will obtain from buying your product or service. Tell me why I cannot live without your product or service.
Make it Easy for Me to Buy

Be flexible with options for me to pay cash, finance, or use a credit card or lay-a-way. Have flexible delivery schedules to accommodate my schedule.
Don’t Let Me Down

Do what you say you will do. Deliver on time, and make the paper work easy. Be easy to get in touch with. Give me the good service you promise. Listen to your customers. Plan your customer services around what they are telling you and what their lifestyle tells you. Make it easy and enjoyable for your customers to buy from you. When your customers know you respect their time, they will give more of it (and more business) to you.


6. Use the word all
When you use the word “All” you give the impression that your business offers more than
your competitors.
All (ôl) adj: being or representing the entire or total number, amount, or quantity. Deal all the cards sounds bigger than deal the cards.
The word “all” will change any ho-hum ad or statement into a dramatic sales statement merely by its presence.


Today's marketer must make every effort to see to it that his or her advertising:
•Attracts the prospect's attention
•Gets read
•Gets acted upon

No business can sell everything at the lowest price, but a savvy business owner will give prospects the impression that every item and service they sell is at the lowest price available and that they offer everything the customer needs. One way to give this impression is to use the word “all”.
For example, recently in my local paper an advertisement proclaimed: “18 cubic foot refrigerators on sale for only $299 - reg. $499.” This was a terrific price. But the wording of the ad left something to be desired, because it gave the impression that there was only one of these terrific values or only one model.

Wouldn't the ad have been a lot more exciting and attention grabbing and effective if it had said: “ALL 18 cubic foot refrigerators on sale for only $299 - reg. $499.” Of course it would have, but the dealer can't sell all his 18 cubic foot refrigerators at $299, or he would lose money. Maybe the leader refrigerator has wire shelves and all the others have glass shelves. Then the appropriate ad would read: “ALL 18 cubic foot wire shelved refrigerators only $299.” It doesn't matter what the difference is - it just matters that there is a difference so it singles out which model of appliances are on sale while bringing in a swarm of business.

The word “ALL” even improves the sound of a free giveaway. Recently the local minor league baseball team advertised “Free Hats to the first 300 fans attending tomorrow's game.” See how much better the offer sounds with the word all inserted: “Free hats for all of the first 300 fans attending tomorrow's game.” Even stating the hours for a special sale looks bigger and better with the use of the word “ALL”. Recently I saw this in an ad: “Special Sale Hours: Tonight 9:00 PM. until 10:00 AM. tomorrow.” Use of the word “ALL” turns it into a perception of a much longer time and more of a special event: “Special Sale Hours: Open all night! 9:00 PM to 10:00 AM tomorrow.” Look at your advertising statements and see how you can use the word “ALL” to give your offer the perception of being bigger and better. You only have eight seconds to get your prospect’s attention; state your best offer, and make it look as spectacular as possible.
Use the word “All”.

7. Follow-up call to B-Backs
The easiest technique to use to get a B-Back customer (a customer you have talked with and they have said, “I will be back”. “I will let you know.” “I have to think about it.”) to make a purchase is to make a follow-up telephone call after the sales presentation. First of all, your competition is usually not doing it, and secondly, people like to make purchases from those they feel care about them.

8. Telephone every customer 12 hours after the sale
A follow-up call is a phone call made to the purchaser of your goods and services within 12 hours of the sale. The reasons for making such a call:
1. Your customer will feel you care about them, thus helping to build a relationship.
2. You find out if the customer is satisfied with your service, your products and your
treatment of them. If they are not fully satisfied the follow-up call gives you the
opportunity to find out and fix the problem. It is much better for you to call the
customer and find out the problem than to have them call you complaining or
worse. Plus, when you call and correct the problem, they will tell their friends
what a great person you are to do business with, not the negatives of the problem
they were having.
3. When you call you have the opportunity to sell them add-on products and services.
Goods that enhance the products or services you have already sold them.
4. The opportunity is never better to sell a customer additional products as when they
have just told you they are completely satisfied with the purchase they have just
made. You can mention to them that other items you sell are on sale or going on
sale and you want to give them the first opportunity to purchase them at the lower
price. Also, if you happened to hear or see them becoming interested in other
items you sell while they were buying the item you are calling about, the follow-
up call gives you a great opportunity to sell these other items.
5. Follow-up calls are great opportunities for you to ask for referrals and
testimonials. Again, the best time to ask a satisfied customer for anything is when
they are telling you they are satisfied.

9. How saying Thank you will increase Sales
Quick quiz: What is the first thing your mother taught you to say after Ma Ma and
Da Da. Of course, Thank you! Always send a Thank You note 24 hours after the sale.
I first started sending thank you notes to my customers in the mid 80's during a period when business was slow. I got the idea from a sales representative who told me of other retailers who had been successful in gaining repeat customers with the use of thank you cards. We decided to test the technique for six months by sending a thank you card to every customer who purchased an item in excess of fifty dollars. Within two weeks the practice of sending thank you notes became company policy. Here’s why: Customers immediately began phoning thanking us for the thank you cards. Customers began sending us thank you cards for the thank you cards we sent them. And sales increased.

You cannot say thank you enough. Every time someone does the slightest thing for you say thank you. Say it not just at that particular moment, everyone does that, but when they are not expecting it. Recently I attended a small networking group where during a presentation another member passed out a guide to estate taxes. This act was totally unrelated to the rest of the meeting and never mentioned. When I arrived back at my office I mailed him a nice thank you card. A few days later he called. “Thank you for the thank you card,” he said. “No one else even mentioned it. Why don't we meet for lunch?” My simple act of saying thank you (via the card) gained me a client.

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Article Tags: closing statements, creed, effective listener, flexibility, foot rule, marketing, own horn, profits, prospects, retail business, salesperson, three feet, verbal communications



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