So You Haven't Hit Your Sales Target Again? Do This Before You Discount

If you’re struggling to hit your sales target again and you’re tempted to start discounting your products, stop right there!

There are better ways to boost your sales and attract more of the right customers without slashing your prices and losing your hard-earned profits. 

In this blog post I’m going to be giving you strategies to overcome this so that you can start finally building the business you deserve!

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 Understanding the Problem

I want to start this episode by acknowledging the frustration that comes with not hitting your sales targets.

I get it!

When I was going through the worst years of my small business I would get so disheartened and start beating myself up over it and think think that lowering my prices is the quickest fix to attract more customers and start making sales.

If you are feeling like this, I just want you to know that you aren’t alone and there is something that you can do about it so before you begin to feel like I used to stick with me and we will go through this together.

We all know that discounting without a well thought through plan can lead to devaluing your brand encouraging customers to just wait for your next sales promotion and seriously hurt your bottom line in the long run… leading to you not being able to pay yourself the wage you deserve yet again and struggling to pay all of your overheads.  

So, what can you do instead?

Let’s explore some powerful strategies to increase sales without resorting to discounting...

Enhancing Customer Perception of Value

The first step is to enhance the perceived value of your products and of your business as a whole...

When your customers and future customers can clearly see the value that you offer they will be more likely to want to get to know, like and trust you… and ALL 3 are important if you want to keep creating consistent sales and have customers retuning for the long run.

Here are a few ways to do that:

• Improve Your Product Presentation: If you have an online store, High-quality images as well as those that you have taken yourself or that customers have taken are super important. When you include imagery that draws customers in to your world and shows them how the product is being used by someone that they relate to this can be a game changer over and above the boring, generic images that can come from suppliers.

Detailed descriptions that don’t just list features, but are actually designed to help show the value of the products and why they need it in their lives,

And interesting stories about your products behind the reason why you chose them, why you decided to make them think about your perfect customer and tell them through story telling that you are passionate about helping them solve a problem, frustration or irritation to make them feel amazing!

All of those can significantly boost your products appeal. So showcase the craftsmanship, materials, and unique features that set you and your products apart.

If you’re in a brick and mortar or at a market include QR codes that can give customers all of the information above and deeper understanding of what you do and why.

Ensure that the web-pages they are sent to let's them get to the product quickly and easily and for massive bonus points include a pop up that appears on the page you are directing them to that encourages them to give you their name and email address in exchange for a free gift with purchase if they buy on the day they sign up! This will further motivate customers to make a purchase immediately and be sure to include specific terms and conditions for any promotion that you run!

Next up

• Bundle Products: I believe that an essential way to build trust and make more sales is to give value… and value doesn’t mean cheap!

It means that whatever your customer is paying, they feel like it is great value for money!

So, I encourage you to Create attractive bundles that add value by speaking to the problems, frustrations or irritations your perfect customer has. Show them just how much you know about them and care about helping them.

For instance, if you sell skincare products, bundle a cleanser, toner, and moisturiser together at a slightly reduced price compared to buying each item separately.

This increases the perceived value and encourages larger purchases…. And even better if you can include products that aren’t particularly selling as well as you’d hoped, you are introducing these products to your customers, shifting extra products and enabling your customers to expand their product repotoire of yours so that they can come back and buy more from you in the future.

And then we have

• Highlight Customer Reviews and Testimonials: Social proof is more powerful than you could ever realise!

When you understand that your customers will sell your products better than you ever will be able to you will start to display your amazing customer reviews and testimonials prominently on your product pages and around your store.

This builds trust and demonstrates the value others see in your products showing your future customers that others already like, know and trust you will help them to do the same more quickly.

Now, lets move on to Leveraging Scarcity and Urgency

Scarcity and urgency can drive customers to make a purchase without you having to discount, you can do this by…

• Limited Edition Products: Introducing limited edition versions of your products. This creates a sense of exclusivity and urgency as customers rush to buy before they’re gone. In your marketing messaging let your customers know that they are limited, there are just X amount left, or only available to purchase until X date. All of these things get people moving quickly as nobody wants to feel like they are missing out.

• Flash Sales and Time-Limited Offers: Instead of simply taking money (and profits) off 1 product and hoping it will entice customers to buy…

I suggest trying to encourage customers to buy more for a better price. And if you don’t like the idea of packages and bundled, here is another way to look at it… buy 1 get 1 free, buy 1 get 1 half price, buy 2 get third free.

ALL of these are allowing you to stop losing as much money on products because you are still making the full amount of profit on some of your stock, instead of reducing every product and potentially making less sales.

Again if you are doing this, there has to be a very clear start and end date within your promotion so there are no broad discounts, only offer short-term promotions on specific products that show customers that they’re getting great value.

This will also weed out the buyers that are only bargain hunters and are more likely to cause you more stress in the long run too!

Next up we are going to look at Customer Engagement

Engagement is key to building a loyal customer base, your customers want to be a part of a community, to feel like they belong to their tribe that is there to look after their needs, so you need to make sure that you engage with your customers on a regular basis and show them just why it’s a great decision of their to belong to your community

• Email Marketing: Send regular personalised emails to your customers with product recommendations based on their purchase history. Offer exclusive previews and early access to new products…

My absolute favourite thing is a weekly newsletter and I have created a few podcast episodes around this which I would highly recommend taking a listen to if you want to start using email marketing to encourage more sales from your customers.

• Social Media Contests and Giveaways: Use social media to engage by running polls, asking questions, getting feedback. Make your customers feel like their opinion matters and that it counts to something that is shaping your business.

By getting your customers involved they will feel a deeper connection with your business, trust you more because you are showing that you trust them and when new future customers see just how much your customers opinion matters to you, they will trust you more quickly too!

3. Loyalty Programs: Loyalty programs are massively under used by many product businesses and it’s about time that you start Rewarding your customers for repeat purchases. Points-based systems, VIP access to new collections, or invitations to workshops & events for members can keep customers coming back and feel excited about what you have to offer.

And then finally we move on to…

Optimising Your Website to actually convert

Your website is your online storefront and how most of you make your sales, so it is essential that you make sure it’s optimised for maximum conversions:

• Simplify the Checkout Process: Reduce friction in the checkout process. Make it as easy as possible for customers to complete their purchase with minimal clicks and straight-forward navigation.

Do you include things like apple pay or 1 click checkout from the product page?

It has been proven that the more clicks and steps that your customer has to take to buy your product, the more likely they are to abandon their cart, so work with your web developed to reduce this friction as much as possible.

• Offer Multiple Payment Options: Provide a variety of payment methods to cater to different customer preferences. This can include credit cards, PayPal, and even buy-now-pay-later options.

There has been a huge rise in the by now pay later options and I have seen many product businesses have success with this as it has seen higher average orders being made.

So, if you haven’t taken a look in to these other platforms that can help customers make payment, I’d suggest in doing so.

• Retarget Abandoned Carts: If customers do leave products in their cart, you must Implement retargeting strategies to recover your abandoned carts. This should consist of more than just 1 standard email that gets sent out too…

There is a 3 step process that every product business should be using when it comes to successfully rescuing abandoned carts… and I go in to detail on this on the podcast episodes “how to make an extra 3k in sales” so listen to it here!

  
To wrap things up, 

Remember that discounting without a plan should be a last resort for your business. By enhancing the perceived value of your products, leveraging scarcity and urgency, engaging your customers authentically, and optimising your website for conversions, you can boost your sales and hit those targets without sacrificing your profits to one-hit wonders and encourage customers to return again and again.

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