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FREE – A powerful sales technique

FREE – A powerful sales technique

5 Rules of using free:
1. Never give away your profit makers.
One of the mistakes I made during my 30 years as a retailer (retail store owner & operator) was to hastily put together a free drawing marketing promotion. It also turned out to be one of the best lessons I stumbled upon. I ran a promotion for one of the two worst reasons - my competition was running a promotion*.

I hurriedly decided to have a drawing for an item I sold. A 19” color TV. Every customer purchasing an item from my electronics store was given the opportunity to put in one entry for every one hundred dollars in purchases. I will never forget it. On Friday evening Mrs. Yost purchased a 25” table model color TV and entered 3 entrees to the contest. Saturday afternoon we pulled Mrs. Yost’s entry. She had won our 19” color TV. When she arrived at 5:00 PM to receive her prize we were ready with still video cameras ready to record her reaction for use in our future marketing and advertising campaigns. As she accepted her prize she was all smiles and said the words that taught me the lesson of the century. And I quote, because I will never forget her words, “Thank you Bob. I was going to come in and buy my mother a new TV for her birthday next week. Now I don’t have to.”

* The other bad reason sellers run promotions is:
• The advertising media tells you to because your competition is doing so.
The only reason to conduct a marketing promotion is to sell the products and services you make a profit from the
sale of.

2. The free item must be related to your business in some direct way.
To use something you are giving away "Free” to induce your customer’s to act to purchase your products or services, the item you are giving “Free" must be related to the product or service you are selling. It must enhance the items you sell for profit and make those items more valuable to the customer.

Example: Free doughnuts do not make an air conditioner more valuable to the customers. But a free winter
cover does.

3. The customer must do something of value for your business to get the free item.
For example:
• Come in or contact your business at a special time - preferable to use free items to get them in your store on slow days or make contact with you in slow sales periods.
• Purchase a profitable item to receive the free item.
• Introduce you to a friend, relative or colleague whom you can sell products and services too.
• Visit your store or purchase your products and services a specific number of times within a certain time period.

4. Be creative. Use your imagination.
Look around, you may be surprised what you can use as a free gift for your customers. When I was in the retail business, tire sales and appliances, I had a debtor, the owner of an ice cream dairy store, who owed me $1500. When I realized, after a year, that I was not going to get paid, at least not in money, I offered to take ice cream as payment. At that time a quart of ice cream sold for a bit over a dollar. Now what was I going to do with 1400 plus quarts of ice cream? Use it as a promotion to increase sales.

Here is what I did. I set a freezer right next to the front door of the store. Whenever a customer, who did not make a purchase, was leaving the store we gave them a quart of ice cream. It was summertime and I knew they were planning to go to other stores to compare our prices and products. But when they were given a quart of ice cream, where do you think they went? Right, they went home. We always asked them where they lived and their telephone number. We gave them time to get home and called them. Sure enough, they were home putting the free ice cream in their freezer. Now we went to work on continuing the sale. We would discuss more benefits they would receive from us over our competition. We did not make every sale, but we closed quiet a few on a regular basis.

What do you have to give away that will increase your sales?

5. Use the 4 Step Formula to Make the word Free work to increase your sales.

1. The word Free +
2. Limited time +
3. At least one customer benefit to be derived from what is free =
4. MEANINGFUL OFFER THAT INDUCES THE CUSTOMER TO RESPOND.

Examples: “Free heavy duty vinyl cover, today only, to protect your air
conditioner throughout the winter months with the purchase of
any air conditioner.”

“Free deluxe paintbrush, to make your painting job easier and
nicer, with the purchase of 2 gallons of ABC outdoor paint
today only!”





FREE A powerful sales technique - To learn more about this author, visit Bob Janet's Website.

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Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website

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Bob Janet
(Visit Bob's Website) ooks and CD’s at http://www.BobJanet.comBob Janet uses 40 plus years of face-to-face selling and marketing experiences as owner / operator of wholesale, retail, manufacturing and service businesses, combined with his unique content loaded, fun-entertaining audience involved keynotes and seminars to help owners, sales professionals and sales support staff increase sales and profits by gaining and retaining their most profitable customers. When everyone else tells you what to do to increase your sales and profits...Bob Janet shows you how!! See all Bob's sales growth programs and top selling sales / marketing books and CD's www.BobJanet.com Bob Janet Bob@BobJanet.com 800-286-1203 www.BobJanet.com

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