7. Give customer a no-cost trial of product. Tell them you won't bill them for 30 days.

I realized I had stopped using my imagination. That's what you have to do. Not just when you hit bump on your easy street, but constantly. You must always be on guard. You have to be thinking -- what would turn you on to buy?

There are a lot of things you can offer, but there's one thing we can never forget - customer is boss. They control our income. So they must always be our first consideration. We can never just sit back and assume they will come and keep coming. We have to bring them and give them a reason to buy.

Make offer that's too good to refuse. If you don't give them a good reason to buy, bumps on easy street could throw your program into a ditch that will be too deep to get out.

Always remember first rule of sales and that is: You gotta give before you get.

--May you always walk in sunshine,

--Hal Archer

(c) 2002 Hal Archer. All rights reserved. Article reprint permission is granted provided entire article including resource information below remains intact and unaltered.

Hal Archer has built successful businesses, both on-line and off-line. His 30 years of direct marketing experience can help you. Visit his great site at: http://www.archnetsuccess.com

5. Add-ons. In supermarkets and department stores, these are impulse items near checkout counters, and in shops with personal service, it's sales person asking, "Would you like a tie to match?" Again, I haven't seen this implemented on Web, but it seems as if it could be programmed into shopping process.

6. Customer mailings. At a lot of stores, you can sign up to get notice by postcard of upcoming sales. The online counterpart is pretty common, as with e-mails about cheap flights for coming weekend.

7. Loyalty programs. Here, a department store promises 10 percent off today if you sign up for our store charge card. A supermarket offers a free Thanksgiving turkey if you spend more than $X,000 all year. Bonuses for buying frequently work well online too, because they can easily be automated.

8. Ads. You'll often see inserts in local paper announcing week's specials at supermarkets. Online, equivalent would be banner ads or ads in ezines announcing promotional prices for a limited time.

David Weltman of Future Now puts it this way: "Merchandising is making sure awareness of your product or service breaks preoccupation of your shopper and becomes part of his or her buying process." I'd amend that slightly, because good merchandising doesn't always interrupt shopper's absorption. Put right item in right place in your store or Web site and it smoothly becomes part of shopper's experience. Ka-CHING!