Monday, January 26, 2009

Use Amenity Selling To Increase Your Sales!



In the hotel industry, they talk about amenity selling because amenities can set a hotel apart from its competition’s price point, because a hotel’s core product (the bed and shower) functions the same as most everyone else’s. But, when you sell your core product with amenities wrapped around it, the opportunity for rate variation and “apples to oranges” comparison selling exists within the marketplace. Amenity selling is a perceived value, not concrete, that can lead to greater revenue opportunities from your client base.

For example, a majority of hotel customers can quickly compare room rates at one hotel to the room rates at another hotel, but a hotel’s customers’ estimation varies greatly on the dollar amount that they will pay for items like turn-down service, indoor pool, Wi-Fi, free breakfast, express check in/out, frequent stay clubs, tennis courts, theme decorations, amusement/water parks, ocean/beachfront views, twenty-four-hour restaurant, spa, golf course, casino, shopping outlets, location of the hotel, bars, etc. These are all examples of amenities that wrap around the core product (the bed and shower) that raise room rates and cause variation within the same product line and competitive set.

What about roadside assistance plans from the auto makers, another amenity? What about the fast food industry, have they not sold us on an amenity we call the drive thru? What about the emerging use of accepting debit cards as payment in businesses (flexible payment options) around someone’s core product line? What about the laundry detergent bottles that have a “no-mess bottle?” Just one more example in a long list of products that sell amenities around their core product line.

Look all around and you can see that most businesses have an amenity to sell in one form and fashion, but have you really put great thought into amenity selling for your marketing campaigns to increase your pricing points and acquire more customers? Probably not, but why? Examine your business unit’s amenities that are in place now, and what could be added, so that you could wrap them around your core product line to create rate variations within your marketplace and gain greater market share, thus growing your bottom line.


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Monday, January 12, 2009

Happy 2009, NOW WHAT?




First, stop making the first thought of your days in 2009, negative.

How many times do you set your alarm clock and think, “I do not want to wake up that early,” or “How early do I have to get up?” But if this is the last thought in your mind before bedtime, that idea festers and plays over and over in your mind throughout the night. When you wake up, you hit that snooze button and say, “Surely it is not tomorrow already.” From now on this year, you need to set the alarm clock and say to yourself, “I cannot wait for tomorrow to come, so that I can make a difference in my life and career.” When that alarm clock sounds, jump out of bed and walk around for at least two minutes so you do not get back into bed. This will start off your day charging and thinking in your mind about all of the opportunities you have to make a difference.

Second, stop putting your concerns first.

What is the worst that could happen if you always say, “What do I get for me?” If you do, there will never be much of “me” in the end at work.

We are all connected to one another, and each of us relies on hundreds, if not thousands, of people daily to live the way we do at this very moment. How did you get to work? Did you drive? Think for a moment. How many people did it take to dig up the raw materials necessary to make your car? How many people did it take to assemble your car? How many people did it take to produce the gas/energy supply for your car? And how many people did it take to build the road that you drove on to get to work? The list goes on, but you can see the connection forming. Start to see that “me” should mean “us.” From that, when you look at any project or a task to complete at work, ask yourself instead, “What do we get for us?” first, and then you can start to move your success dial for “me.” WE WIN AS ONE in 2009!


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