What Sales Tactics Should You Apply Immediately?
If you already sell products on the internet, and you experience some decent conversions, there are a few simple tactics you can apply to double or sometimes triple your sales.
In this business, increasing your conversion rate even from 1.0% to 1.1% can mean you can bid higher on keywords for more traffic, raise your prices for more profits, or outsource more product creation, article marketing, and video marketing. Anything you can apply that takes less an hour of work, one-time, that nets you can extra $1000 or $2000 per month, has to be worthwhile.
The first and easiest thing you can add to your business is the cross-sell.
Think of Your Selling Process...
You show people a sales letter; they pay, and go to a thank you page. On that thank you page, they download your product or sign up for your membership area. But does the selling stop there ? Take a second to find your biggest competitor. Does he have an affiliate program? If he does, try adding an affiliate link on that thank you page.
Sell people on the affiliate product, saying, "You just bought this product, but if you really want to take advantage of everything it has to offer, you will also purchase this product for the following reasons..." Due to Robert Cialdini's Consistency Principle, people will want to repeat their previous actions. If they just paid you for something, they already have their wallets out and are open to buying from you again.
The next thing you can add to your bottom line is the mailing list.
On your thank you page, allow people to opt-in to a mailing list for updates. When you come out with a new version of your product, or a new product altogether, e-mail these people about it for some repeat sales. Also setup landing pages for AdWords or add opt-in boxes to your blogs to create pre-sell lists and get prospects who are not yet customers, to buy from you.
Finally, the one easy change that will have the biggest impact on your profits is the upsell and one time offer.
When someone clicks on your order button to buy, you could send them to a page that sells them on the deluxe package. You give them a choice between buying the regular version, or the bigger and badder higher priced product.
Let's say you sell a $47 product with a $297 upsell. The $47 product converts at 2% but the $297 upsell converts at 1%. For every 100 visitors, you make $94 on the regular product and $297 on the upsell... you have just increased your profits from $94 to $391... that's more than four times what you made originally!
If you want that extra boost in sales, consider those three tatics: the cross-sell, building a list, and the upsell or one-time-offer.
Filed in: Copywriting
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- Net Biz In Buzz » ‘What Sales Tactics Should You Apply Immediately?’ by Robert Plank | September 22, 2009
Ok, ok… these are known things. But I like to read your posts.
I’d like to add something to your first tactic. A tactic that can increase sales volume. And if you think deeply about this tactic… there are many ways to become creative with this and make sure it’s even more effective.
Alright, here it goes:
When I don’t have an upsell for a niche product I create(which is rare) I look for a bunch of product owners who sell products that compliment mine. Then I approach them, asking them to do a “OTO” swap. I offer their product as an OTO… and they do the same for me.
When just 1 agrees, you could look at a whole bunch of extra sales. And it costs nothing to do this.
When I do this, I even go as far as creating a new salesletter so it looks like a follow-up on my own.
One thing to make sure of when you do this:
This product owner actually generates enough traffic and sales. In clickbank this is very easy to estimate, though.
Ok… so as always, great post. Al though I knew it. And I hope my comment was valuable for some who read it 🙂
Hi Robert,
Great post as always…
Adding an oto is great way to boost your profits, and don’t forget to add a downsell for the customers with a tight budget, sometimes I even implement an exit pop to offer a downsell for those who take no action, a last ditch effort to turn your visitors into buyers…
This can boost your sales and conversions with no extra effort…
Tom theToolmans 2 cents worth…
I will forward this post to my list… I look forward to your next post Robert, keep up the good work!
Tom “theToolman” CEO
Internet Marketing Tools
http://thetoolman.net/
http://yourtwitterville.com/
–
Very true Robert, and I’d like to add one thing (which I learned from either you or Jason).
If you don’t have an upsell, simply offer some kind of personal coaching or support. This could be as easy as coaching by e-mail, or perhaps a telephone consultation where you go through the information in the product with the customer and apply it to their situation. Both quick and easy to implement and they’re possible to fit in with most information products which require action.
Thanks, Robert!
And thanks also to all of you who commented with
other great ideas.
THIS is why I enjoy coming here.
Great info, intellectual stimulation,
and sound advice!
Thanks again.
Robert your advice is dead on!
I will Tweet this to my Tweeps.
What I have been doing is offering a free report and not only selling the ebook but following up with the services a person would need to really maximize their online real estate.
Wow Robert! Thanks for your advice! it’s really great advice..
What does OTO stand for?
Rick
Thanks for the great post, Robert, and thanks also to those commenters who added additional advice.
Love the cross-sell and the up-sell especially.
And also the “service” add-on, and the OTO swap idea.
Also looking at your sidebar right now, which happens to be right next to where I’m typing right now and where you list all your products.
No idea why I haven’t noticed it before, but THAT is brilliant and something I need to implement right away, padding things quite a bit with affiliate links since I don’t have very many products yet 😉
Thanks!!!
Good reminder on landing pages… that’s an upcoming task to master. Still working on products though.
Rick,
OTO stands for one time offer. Right before (or after they buy) you offer an upsell that will only be shown once.
Ahhhh done it, didn’t know the abbrev.
Thanks
Rick
Nice post. OTO’s are usually well-received and generate more income per sale. I like the idea of upselling the customer on phone consulting or email consulting packages.