5 Ideas to Increase Your Average $ Sale

May 10 - by Darren

Do you know what your average $ sale is?

This is a key figure to know in your business and you can dramatically impact your revenue and profitability by increasing your average $ sale per customer.  In your business you may find that some customers spend $250.00 and others spend $50.00, your average $ sale is simply the average $ spend from all your customers in a given period of time.  To calculate your average $ sale total up what’s in the till and then divide this number by the total number of transactions or simply add up the total of your invoices for the month and then divide by the number of invoices.  Once you know this figure you can then set a goal around increasing it.

A great of example of a business increasing their average $ sale is McDonalds – have you heard…..would you like fries with that?

Or, another example could be a switched on retailer selling shoes, would you like some new socks to go with your new shoes? Would you like shoe polish to help look after your new shoes?

Don’t miss this opportunity to increase your average $ sale, just think about how much it cost you to get that customer in the door.

Here’s 5 cost effective average $ sale increasing strategies that you can implement today:

1. Increase Your Prices:

Aim for a minimum of 10% and with this strategy the general rule of thumb is that when you increase prices by 10-15% ninety percent of your customers won’t even notice and the 10% that do are the ones that complain anyway.  Get over your fear and just do it.

2. Upsell/Downsell:

Upselling can be used well when you have a base model and a more advanced model.  2 IPhones for example, one with 8 gig of memory and the other with 16 gig of memory, you want to highlight the benefits of the more superior/advanced model and help the customer see the benefits in the price difference.  You could also try starting with the premium product 1st, then work downwards to the lower spec/priced models.  Always tune into your customer, establish what’s important to them and what their budget is.  If you believe based on their needs that the premium product will be better for them in the long run, help them see this.  Do not to oversell, as your customer may be on a tight budget and no one likes to be pushed into anything.

3. Use Product Menu’s:

With this strategy you have a little menu that you run through when the customers is purchasing a specific product, let’s say they are buying a new mountain bike, your little menu could be something like:

Do they need:

• A Helmet
• Shorts
• Gloves
• Jersey
• Water Bottle etc

Make sure you run through the menu with every customer, have the menu’s pre-printed and available to use by you and your team.  Don’t miss this opportunity, the customer may leave your shop and realise that they have forget something and then for convenience sake go somewhere else to purchase.

4. Train Your Team:

Training your sales team is one of the best investments that you can make, ensure that they know your products, it’s features and more importantly the benefits associated with those features.  Ensure your team understands upselling, downselling and add-on selling.  Enure they all know about current offers and promotions.  Get together with your sales team on a weekly basis, brainstorm, set sales goals and put a reward system in place for hitting targets.  Constantly train your team!

Right now…does your sales team know your daily/weekly break even sales figure?  If they don’t ensure that they do quickly and communicate the impacts of not breaking even.

5. Know Who Your Best Customers Are:

Pareto’s 80/20 rule is used in business and life a lot, Pareto was an Italian Economist.  It has been stated that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers/clients.  That means that a large amount of your revenue $$$$$$ comes from a small group of people – do you know who they are? If you don’t then find out quickly and treat them well by providing consistent exceptional service, find out what they are interested in and send them a gift of appreciation, honour their continued business with a VIP/rewards scheme.  Could your best customer be hanging out with friends that have similar interests and likes? Quite possibly, and you will not know unless you ask, why not ask your best customers to refer a friend and then reward them well for it?  When rewarding your best customer always think of your customer life time value, its never the one off purchase, consider what they will be worth to you in the long term!