10 Ways To Get Your Share of the Mature Written by Joanne Fritz, Ph.D.
Every 7.7 seconds someone in United States turns 50. The 50+ population controls more than $7 trillion in wealth and is responsible for 50% of all discretionary spending. It purchases 41% of all new cars, buys 80% of all luxury travel, and is 30% more likely to purchase products online than younger users. Yet, internet marketers often miss this rich potential market. Perhaps they don't think older people are on web. However, older adults are often more "wired" than we think. Many seniors are coaxed into going online by their children or grandchildren. But, once they have logged on, many become eager Internet users. Plus, internet use is high among those over 50 who work and have college degrees. Indeed, this group is more likely than younger Americans to be online on a typical day. Wired seniors say it has helped them connect better to loved ones and makes it easier to get information. So, how do you reach them? First, recognize that over 50 crowd are not all alike. They are more diverse than any other market segment, spanning those at peak of their careers, to active, independent seniors, to elderly in need of care. Here are some clues to communicating with and ultimately selling to new mature market. 1. Do not talk down to, or treat them as children, or remind them of their age. Most do not consider themselves "old." 2. Although there is disagreement about using words like "senior citizen," reserve such terms for World
| | UPSELLING BASICSWritten by Carol Woods
One of quickest ways to increase your sales is through upselling, or selling additional products to customers at time they are placing an order. An excellent example of that is found at fast food restaurants: when you order a burger, you will often be asked "Do you want fries with that?" It's a great way to increase your revenues, since customers are basically in a "buying from you" frame of mind at that time. This can work for products or services, although services should be "productized", meaning you offer a specific scope of services for a set price.Here are basic steps to a good upselling program: 1.Know value of your products 2.Figure out what others have bought 3.Develop new options (products, installation, maintenance plan) 4.Script your plan Ready to get started? Get out your pencil and let's go! 1. Know value of your products ----------------------------------------- In this case, value means two things: value or profitability of product to you, business owner; and value or usefulness of product to your customer. Start with yourself. Look at each of your products, and calculate cash in your pocket for selling each of them. This is just amount you sell product or service for, less your costs for buying or providing it. Be sure to include all costs - for example, if you buy product from another company you will need to include shipping costs to get product to your location. Create a table so you can clearly see profitability of each product: on a piece of paper put following items as column headings, and then fill your table out: Product Name Selling Price Cost to Buy/Provide Cash in (Selling price minus your cost to buy or provide) % Cash in (Cash in divided by Cost to buy or provide) Next, look at value of each product to your customer. There are items which are useful by themselves, and items which are useful when purchased with another product. You will have greatest success if you offer products which are less expensive than original purchase but are in some way related to it. For example, if you sell a printer, an excellent upsell would be to offer a set of extra printer cartridges to be shipped to them along with printer. Add a column to your table: Related to In this column, put a "P" for primary products and an "A" for add-on products. Next to each "A" put name of primary products it can be sold with.
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