Page 172 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

SELL MORE TO EXISTING CUSTOMERS. Your existing customers are likely to
respond to sales, promotions, or additional offers of any kind. By reaching out to
them more frequently, you’ll almost certainly bring in additional income. You’ll
want to be careful about not pushing them too much, but the key is balance: Your
customers want to hear from you. They have given you money in exchange for
something they value. Make it easy for them to do so again and again.

Tweaking Your Way to the Bank: All the Details

When I talked with business owners about the kind of tweaks they worked on,
many said things such as “The most important thing is to keep taking action.”
Others mentioned setting aside half an hour every morning to work strictly on
business improvements before diving in to the actual running of the business. All
of this sounds good, but it also begs the question: If you decide to take action,
what does action look like? How do you spend your daily half hour on business
improvements?

Here are some common examples of action-based tweaking.

CREATE A HALL OF FAME. Shine a spotlight on your best customers; let them
tell their own stories about how they’ve been helped through your business. It
helps to provide a variety of stories, as people will relate to different
perspectives and backgrounds. This provides “social proof” that your product or
service works for all kinds of people.

INSTITUTE A NEW UPSELL. Adding a good upsell offer—or several—is probably
the easiest and most powerful strategy you can use to ramp up your average
order size. Some business owners are initially apprehensive about upsells, not
wanting to apply a high-pressure or “sleazy” technique. But a good upsell isn’t
sleazy at all; it’s contextually appropriate and inspires appreciation from
customers. “Wow, thanks for the offer!” is a common response. Think about
going to a restaurant where you hadn’t planned on eating dessert, but the waiter’s
recommendation of the chocolate bread pudding is so compelling that you have
to try it … and it’s delicious. You were successfully upsold, and you were happy
about it.