Ancillary Sales: Increase Profits Without Increasing Your Price

Being an entrepreneur is an exciting life! It's full of ups and downs. You're making key decisions every day, trying to do the right thing for the customer while keeping a roof over your head and food on the table!

So if there is an easy way to increase profits (and it doesn't involve increasing your prices) wouldn't it make sense to take advantage of it? There are a number of strategies to do just that.

Let's look at 3 ways you can make more money without charging more!

Ancillary sales.

Ancillary sales are one of the most overlooked ways to make huge profits. Ancillary sales are add-on products that you can buy in addition to the purchase you're making already. Often, the product is offered at a discount to help enhance the use of the main product you're buying.

The offline world has been doing this forever. Consider the world of moving trucks! When you have to move and you rent a truck, have you ever noticed all the ancillary sales they try to make? Aside from renting you a big, empty truck, they also sell bubble-wrap, packing tape, boxes, and they rent blankets and dollies to move your stuff. All of these things enhance your use of the main product and because it all has a long shelf life (and the rental items are to be returned) it is highly profitable.

What can you offer as an ancillary product or service?

If you offer a product, look around at your competition and see what they're offering. Pay attention when you're shopping to see what ancillary products are offered. In the offline world, you'll find plenty of ancillary products at fast food restaurants, car dealerships, and rental agencies. A couple companies that do a great job of selling ancillary products online are godaddy.com and dell.com. In both cases, they're offering ancillary products over and over again.

Brainstorm to think of ways to enhance your product.

Upselling

This is probably the first thing you should consider doing when you first open your business. All it involves is creating more than one tier of product or service. Offer your customers the basic, advanced, or deluxe version of whatever you are selling. Then, as they're going through the sales process, periodically offer the upgraded version for a slightly higher amount.

Want to learn more about upselling? Take yourself out to lunch to a fast food restaurant and see if they offer you the bigger version of the meal for just a few cents more. Take note of how they ask and how you are expected to respond. Even if you say no, remember that their asking sways a good ten to twenty percent of their customers who would have just bought the basic version of the meal. Now, add up the profit you'd make if ten to twenty percent of your customer switched from your basic to advanced product and soon you'll be asking people if they want to supersize whatever you're offering!

Ask for more business

Once you've made a sale, ask for more business. This doesn't mean you need to turn around and ask them to buy something else right away, but keep your customers in the loop and periodically let them know about a great new sale you have... or a special you're offering only a select number of people (who also happen to be your customers already!).

Another way to ask for more business is to offer a referral special. If a new client comes in and provides you with the customer number of a previous client, perhaps you can provide some kind of discount to the previous client for future purchases, or you can provide a significant rebate to them for the referral.

Three great ways to increase your profits without increasing your price. And what makes these strategies especially good is that it doesn't take a lot of work on your part! That's money in your pocket!