Nothing warms the cockles of a salesperson more than getting a new client. Often you are able to secure that new client because you have a quality core good or service that is provided at a competitive price.
While you may not make a great deal off that initial offering, there will no doubt be the chance to build on your initial rapport with your new client and engage in the task many sales people know as “up-selling.”
That is where the concept of the Profit Tunnel comes into play.The Profit Tunnel is your pathway to building a relationship with your customer that begins with the purchase of initial goods or services. Once that initial relationship is established, you build on that relationship by evaluating the needs of your client and identify other goods or services that will also benefit your customer.
As you are able to acquaint, interest, and finally sell additional and often higher priced items to your customer, your profit margin will increase. The Profit Tunnel model works very well whether you are working with a brick and mortar business or going strictly with an online presence.
In both instances, the task involves winning the confidence of the prospect, identifying entry level products or services that will be of interest to the prospect, selling the prospect on the goods or services, and then continuing to offer additional products or enhancements that will make life even easier for that former prospect that is now your customer.
When it comes to winning the confidence of a prospect, nothing speaks louder than a good deal. Persons who are responsible for securing goods and services for their employer love to save the company money.
It enhances his or her reputation with the officers and owners. At the same time, no one wants to end up with a low cost service that ends up being a dud. This means the good or service needs to perform well along with being cost efficient.
Your job is to match low cost quality goods or services with the business type of your prospect. Once you demonstrate how one of your low cost offerings will consistently outperform the competition and save money for the prospect’s employer, you will be poised to help roll out your low cost offering throughout the organization, making your profit in volume distribution initially.
Once your offering is functioning throughout the organization, you may find that not only do you have the ear of your initial contact, but now you have the ability to interact with persons throughout the organization that may be interested in other offerings that you can supply.
Providing additional goods or services that are in a similar price range will be another way you will increase the profit margin. This is sometimes referred to as lateral selling.
Simply put, you are not really pushing items with a higher price tag, or even enhancements to services you have already sold which would increase the profits. You are simply broadening your current situation to include more of the same, from a charge perspective.
There is nothing wrong with lateral selling. In fact, it can be quite profitable. However, in time it reaches a point where there is no more room for more of the same and you need to move on to the next level.
Now safely ensconced with several low cost offerings, you can begin to look at other needs of your customer. Chances are you have goods or services that may be used on a less frequent basis, but carry a higher price tag.
With your low cost items working just fine for your client, you will easily be able to gain attention for these mid priced offerings.As part of your presentation, it is important to demonstrate not only what you have to offer today, but also be prepared to present the attributes of the offering in such a way that your client can begin to brainstorm possibly uses within the organization.
You may want to have one or two ideas ready, just to prime the thinking process, if necessary. But the more your client can come up with possible uses, the greater his ownership of using the mid ticket item will become, and the closer you will be to another sale.
Be prepared to have to wait until the timing is right to spring your mid ticket item on your client. If the item is only going to be used a few times a year, the interest level may not be there until the time is growing near for the next relevant event.
By all means introduce the item but if your client wants to put off the discussion until closer to time, lock in a date and time to renew the discussions.The dream of selling high ticket good or services is often the goal of the salesperson. After all, who would not love to be able to sell five thousand dollar items in one afternoon, rather than spend the entire week selling hundred dollar items in order to make the same commission?
Of course, you want to be on the alert for any chance to introduce and sell a high ticket item.You have a couple of things going for you at this point in your relationship with your client.
First, there is the matter of the proven track record of the low ticket and mid ticket offerings they have already tried and found to be great for their business operations. Nothing breeds confidence in a supplier the way that an ongoing record of excellence will.
Second, you have demonstrated a continual desire to bring their attention to goods or services that have relevance to the business. You are not laying your entire product line out on the table and asking them to figure out what they need. You are someone who does the legwork first and then brings items to their attention. That you care enough to understand their business and do some legwork on their behalf says a lot about your integrity.
What his means for you is that when you call your contact about arranging a demonstration of a high ticket item, you are already more than halfway to making a sale. The attitude will not be “prove this is worth my time,” but “let’s find out how we can use this.”
When you go into a live or virtual demonstration with your client working with that type of mindset, your chances of closing the sale are very high indeed.The Profit Tunnel helps you understand that your relationship with your client works on several levels and in several phases.
Building upon the sterling reputation you establish with low ticket sales and rolling it into the sale of more profitable sales will not only ensure you a great commission, but also will provide you with a working relationship that will last for many years.