Getting Into The Strategy Groove

Subject line: Getting Into The Strategy Groove.

People are creatures of habit and human nature is what it is. 

That knowledge can be used to convert visitors into customers. 

If you pay close attention to when people are triggered to open their wallets, then you can use the same dynamics to develop a strategy to have it work for your sales efforts. Understanding triggers that produce sales is one effective way to develop strategies that can work over a large cross-section of people. 

In each Article in the series we will discuss a variety of different techniques to mine your traffic for sales, explaining what works, the psychological impact of the strategy, and even the how to implement for the best timing and results. The first strategy we will discuss exploits people's tendencies to develop habits and uses that to create sales that get bigger and bigger as they become more involved with you.

Strategy - Upsell

For a habit to work for you, it has to produce the close of a sales call to action. For instance, if you've ever been to the deli, you'll see how this strategy works to make additional sales. You go and you order ½ lb of lunch meat, it doesn't matter which. Odds are, that they will cut up more than you need, never less, and then when they weigh it they'll ask: 

"Is that okay or do you want me to take off some?" 

Since you already committed to the order of ½ lb of lunch meat, you'll seem cheap trying to get out of the extra so most of the time you let it go and pay for the extra. Not only that, but when they hand you the lunch meat they ask: 

"Is there anything else I can get for you?" 

And, since you've already purchased one item, you are more inclined to purchase another. 

This strategy works because you already committed to a purchase, no matter how small, and asking for something on top is taking advantage of the groove you've already slipped into. It may not seem like a lot of extra money going in your pocket, but if you do this to every single sales prospect you encounter, the multiple effect can line your pockets quite nicely.

This strategy works okay with retail sales, but it is dynamite with direct sales on the Internet. The key is to get your visitor to commit to a small sale first and then before they check out, ask them if they want something extra. You will be surprised how fast your orders tend to grow after that.