We all want more sales, and I know how to do it for you. Yes it’s me, it’s Jon, with the Marketing for Owners podcast. So, what’s this little trick, Jon? Be patient, I’m coming to it. Do you offer a product or service?
I’m assuming you’re putting your hand up and saying, “Yes I do.” So, I have an idea for you to increase those customers. Now, let me give you an example. Most of us have one level of service, or one product-level of service. How about if we had more than one?
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How about if we had three? So what does that do? Well, let me explain. If you have one level of service, the customer has a choice of saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. However, if you have three levels of service, and you are discussing the three levels of service, the customer’s brain is instantly confused, and the customer, believe it or not, this does work, the customer is thinking which one do they have.
The decision has moved from a simple ‘Yes or No’ to a ‘Which one’, or if you want to take it to extreme, they’ve now got a choice of four: they’ve got three levels of service, or a ‘No’. It’s harder to decide, and it has been proven again, and again, and again, to improve sales.
Weekend Challenge
So, here is your weekend challenge. This one’s quite simple, and this will make you think, and it will make you more money. So, get your pad, get your pen, let’s start writing.
1. Your Main Service You Offer: First of all, you offer a service — so, if you’re a plumber for instance, you install heating systems, radiators, bathrooms, et cetera. That’s one single thing that you do. You can offer levels of service beyond the installation. Oh yes, repeat customers, that’s what happens.
Let me give you a better example. I’m going to work on mine — in my business, Fire Safety, we sell fire extinguishers, so we’ll use that.
So the first thing I want you to do, is to write down your main service or what it is, or your main product, and anything that gets included with it. So, for instance, when we service fire extinguishers — that is our main service, we visit the premises, the customer pays for a service, and if they need replacements or refills they pay for those, that’s it.
2. Your Maximum Perfect Service: The next thing I want you to do, is to write down the absolute maximum perfect service that a customer could ever wish for — the Rolls Royce of your service.
Don’t worry about what it will cost, what they have to pay, just write down everything that would be included in the very, very best — it’s what would the Queen have as her service. So, in our fire extinguisher example, that maximum would include a free fire extinguisher — we’ll include it in the price, obviously.
It would include the fire extinguisher. It would include the delivery, the installation, the commissioning. It would then include free refills, free replacements, and a free audit, everything. It would all be included — I said free, all included within the price. That would be the maximum. So write that down.
For yours, just figure out something that would be wonderful, your customers would think, “If you included all that, wow.” Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you include all that.
3. Your Basic Level of Service: The next one, is write down the very, very basic level. So, again, back to the fire extinguishers. The absolute basic level is you buy a fire extinguisher, you pay for delivery, job done. That’s it, we’re out of there. The customer can find their own maintenance, they can install it themselves, et cetera, et cetera.
4. Pricing Your Services: Now, what I want you to do is, write down the price of your current service. Then, calculate what would be the price of that maximum one. So you have to work it out, I know it’s difficult, but you’re the expert, you can work this out.
Don’t worry if it looks outrageous, something no one would ever pay for. Now, work out the price of the minimum service. Look at those, and here is your final thing — you have suddenly created three levels of service.
5. Name Your Services: So next, I want you to give them a name — and yes, you can call them Platinum, Gold, Silver. You can call it Ultimate, Standard, Basic. Give them three names, so name your services.
In your current service prices — so, say, for example, servicing a fire extinguisher was, I don’t know, $10, and the Basic was a certain price. So, up that level, up the prices of the Basic to just below the Standard. Up the level of the Standard to just above, and then you have the top one.
Now I dare you, the next time you go and talk to a customer, and they ask about prices, you instead of saying what the price is, you discuss the three levels of service. Offer it to them, including the outrageous price that includes absolutely everything, ’cause of course you’re going to discuss the benefits to them of each one. And just see if people will take on your extra service. If for every 20 customers, one of them takes the big one, you never know.
See? Now, you can further go into this, and you can come up with a level in-between your middle one, and your top one. When you do that, your middle one — remember, is your current level of service, you move that to be the Basic, the middle one is the slightly better, the top one is the Ultimate.
And then, you’re going to try move people from the Basic to the middle one. Yes, now that starts to increase the sales, now that start to increase the profits. It’s all good, as will be this weekend. I know you’re going to enjoy the sunshine. Make the most of it, spend time with your family, get out and get yourself some fresh air. Listen to the birds chirping in the background. Enjoy, and I’ll see you soon.
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How many service levels do you have?
