A key part of marketing is what you actually offer for sale to your customers.
If you examined the services you offer how would they look?
Taking a car as an example you always find a base model and then you can get optional extras to suit your needs and desires.
Some consumers are happy with just the base model and others are happy to pay for the optional extras.
This allows consumer the choice and provides flexibility in pricing.
At the moment you probably go the extra mile for your customers and add the extras in at no charge. What if you could actually charge for them and grow your sales?
To see if this is an opportunity for your business you need to consider the following:
Break the services down
Look at your services and pull them apart to see what you do actually offer as well as what you actually deliver. This is really stepping out the process of your services, piece by piece.
For example if you are a graphic designer or web designer one step of your process is producing initial concepts for your customers. For some this may be three concepts, for others it may be one concept.
Work out your costs
For each step of your process, place a cost of your time on average. I know some of you will say it depends on the brief, however if you can’t work out an average time then how can you know if you are working profitably?
Involve your customers
Get feedback from your key customers on what you currently offer as well as seeing what other options you could offer.
For example if you are a graphic designer do you charge to follow the project through to the printer for a price or is this something that in the past you did for free.
You might also have a look at the reasons why you did not gain business from potential customers as this can provide further insight as to what to include as the base model and extras.
Package it up
Once you have done this you will find that you do have a base model that will appeal to your key customer segments. You are also in the position to know what should be the optional extras which you can offer to your customers.
Don’t forget you can use this approach to conduct promotional offers with different extras packaged together at certain times of the year to increase sales.
Is this an opportunity to explore for your business?
