Repackaging for Increased Profits

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There are two things in which people lack confidence that are exaggerated during contractions: (1) the abil- ity to make good decisions; and (2) the ability to create more money. While you can?t handle every fear and inse- curity your buyer has, it may be worth your while to look for ways to repackage your merchandise when things slow down. This allows you to accommodate smaller clients and reduced budgets and increase your value proposition.

For instance, when competitors start moving in on my territory or a downturn occurs, I immediately assess my product line for ways to repackage and proactively accommodate the change in people?s thinking and budgets.

Despite new limits on my clients? resources, I want to express that it still makes sense for them to continue to do business with me. Advance and conquer; don?t retreat and contract. Find creative ways to keep flowing with the changes in the market. For instance, I might rebundle a $500 product into ten $50 purchases or repackage the payment plan into three installments of $170 each. When you?re committed to introducing people to your products, maintaining your client base, making progress, and keep- ing people connected to what you do, you will come up with innovative solutions. Just keep creating, move for- ward, and keep your eyes open for all kinds of solutions. Your competitors are liable to surrender market to you if you continue to outwit them.

Another example: My company runs a school in Orlando to which clients send their management teams for four days of training. When I?m looking for ways to repackage our products, I think of clients who may be wary about the cost of flights and hotels. So before my clients can even verbalize concern, I consider ways to handle possible future objections. In this case, we were prompted to promote our school as an inclusion to our seminar and other products. We merely increased the price of our seminars, and included the cost of the school, flights, and hotel. Remember, during tight times it is not true that people invest money in the lowest-priced solution but are much more careful about what solutions they invest in. This form of bundling or repackaging intro- duced our school to people who might not have otherwise attended. These attendees then return to their companies and

recommend our program to others in the organization and we experience a surge in business when others are crying.

We then tried to figure out how to present our prod- uct in a way that resolved all the cost issues in the cus- tomer?s mind and would actually provide them with greater solutions and increased value. We realize dur- ing times of economic contraction clients are much more selective in how they invest their resources in the new economic reality. This desire to address our customers? current financial budget concerns prompted us to design an incredible and revolutionary never-before-used sales training virtual technology product that can be found at www.virtualsalestraining.com. This new virtual and inter- active tool born out of the creative commitment to resolve customer budget concerns allows our existing customers and new customers to access me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With just the click of a button, I am able to run daily sales meetings for the company, provide complete training for the entire organization, provide full testing and certi- fication, provide total accountability to management, and literally be a personal coach for every salesperson and man- ager in the organization no matter how big. And I am able to do that without anyone spending money on travel and hotels or more importantly never missing a client oppor- tunity. The moment we introduced our virtual program it exploded into the market with incredible results. We not only reactivated our current clients with a whole new prod- uct offer but we have since attained clients that we were never able to attract in the past.

While this program doesn?t replace our school by any means or live engagements, it does supplement our core products and even drives more people to our schools, semi- nars, and other offerings. All the client needs in order to take advantage of this initiative is a computer. Clients can train their staff to handle every sales situation as well as access expert advice on increasing production in real time anytime they choose. Entire sales organizations are going online to use our Quick Close technology, which allows me to assist them in closing a deal while they are actually involved in the transaction. The user identifies a problem or situation and I pop up on his or her computer and give advice on how I?d approach a similar situation. A virtually ?live? training session?with no boarding pass necessary!

The problem the client was faced with during the eco- nomic contraction of finding training with reduced budgets, forced us to look at new solutions and create an entirely new product line! This action of repackaging opened us up to creating a revolutionary product line, one that not only expanded our business but literally is changing the way people train, motivate, and improve sales performance. Without the quandary the contraction introduced, we may have rested on our laurels?and never even imagined designing this product. Remember, repackaging to solve problems didn?t just satisfy our existing clients; it allowed us to attract brand new customers and reenergized the company during a time when energy is everything!

Let?s say, for example, that you sell advertising and that you have a customer who currently can?t afford for you to

write a $5,000 direct-mail package. However, he can afford to pay you $500 to critique a package he writes himself. Or maybe you?re a consultant with a client who can no longer justify spending $100 an hour for your services. You might design an alternative offering that provides your client with teleconferences and/or videoconferencing instead. Maybe now is the time to get your client?s staff to work on newslet- ters to your clients. Maybe it?s time to write your first book that you have wanted to write for years. Even if you don?t get it on the bookshelves, you can get it to your clients to show them you are still in the game and still expanding. If your clients aren?t spending money with you now because of monetary restrictions, repackaging to provide them with new solutions will keep you connected to them, reenergize the troops, give you new reasons to stay in contact?and when you come up with the right solution it will bring in much-needed revenue.

Freelancers, consultants, and other service providers can repurpose their expertise and services in a variety of formats: hourly and/or telephone consultations, critiques, newsletters, special reports, booklets, audio tapes, instruc- tion manuals, books, seminars, blogs, advice columns, etc. Manufacturers and other product sellers can offer compact models, economy sizes, no-frills versions, special discounts, payment plans, and smaller minimum orders. For exam- ple, automobile giant General Motors is now introducing a 60-day money back guarantee?something the company never even considered to be an option before. The goal is to eliminate fear of decision making or loss from the

customer?s mind-set in order to encourage more buyers. Those of you who have seen your core product?s sales drop off may want to increase your focus on servicing already- sold products. Service sales typically increase when overall sales diminish during difficult financial times since people often decide that it?s more economically sound to fix or improve what they already own rather than replace it.

These alternative reassembled products or services may not provide as complete a solution as your earlier offers did. You shouldn?t see them as a compromise, but rather a way to continue to accommodate your clients. Again, arrogance has no place during periods of contraction; the market is changing, and you must change along with it. Failing to offer an adjusted version of your merchandise might well mean a potential loss to a competitor who is willing to do so. If you don?t offer it, someone else probably will, at which point, you will have compromised everything by refusing to be flexible to economic fluctuations.

Finding new, smaller clients who might be inter- ested in your revised products is another option?and a much better solution than losing the business entirely. When the big companies are not giving you large orders at high prices, selling these alternatives to the less affluent or budget-minded segment of the market can put lots of extra dollars in your pocket, maintain much-needed cash flow, and keep you in front of your audience. And real- ize that repackaging doesn?t always mean smaller sales. In fact, one of our product lines actually doubled in gross revenue because we repackaged it in a way that included

services of very little cost to us. However, it doubled the value proposition and the product?s closing effectiveness during a time when our competitors were getting their heads handed to them.

Once you have repackaged, you may discover com- pletely fresh product lines to get excited about, along with a new story to bring to your clients. This excitement is critical to advancing in any economic climate, especially during times of contraction. Take the time to creatively repackage. I assure you that this will elicit new products, solutions, and opportunities that you would not have other- wise discovered.

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Date: 2016-06-12; view: 117