When is the last time you looked at a report of your revenue line items? How many product and service lines are active in your business, how much do they generate in income, and how much does it cost to generate that income per line item? Think about it: are you selling the right solutions?
Many clients I meet know their products or services, but they don’t know how each of them contributes to the business as a whole. As such, they spend ad dollars, human resources, and other energy selling each of those products or services, when all of those client solutions aren’t even making a return on that investment.
Is this true for you?
Yes, you probably understand the concept of a loss leader (selling merchandise at a discount to draw in customers), but when you are not doing that strategically, you might just be selling something because you have always sold something, not because it adds profit to your bottom line.
You have to look at each line item and make a go/no go decision on whether it is earning enough money to keep promoting and selling that product. Just because you like that training course, doesn’t mean that it makes sense for your company to sell that training course. If your clients are not coming to you in droves because of that course and buying more products and services because of it, recognize that it has to be making sufficient return to keep offering it.
Look at your own product line. If you find products that are not holding their own, it is an opportunity to release them from your sales inventory and reinvest that energy and those resources into your more profitable products and services. This one move can help boost your sales significantly. Energy flows where attention goes. Tweetable Quote: Focus your energy where your profitability lies and you will make more money.
When does it make sense to have multiple items to sell, even when they are not huge winners? When they build your tribe by creating a sales funnel. If you can drive new clients into your fold, and have those clients move swiftly into higher-priced programs or service plans, it may make sense to offer products with a lower return.
In my upcoming book, From Bootstrap to Big Time, and in my Carder’s Playbook (available now), I share several tools for getting clear about your sales numbers and other key indicators and what you can do to improve them. Check out the Playbook and learn what your sales numbers tell you so you can say “Yes!” to the question: Are you selling the right solutions?
In the comments below, tell me why you feel you are selling the right solutions and how your numbers support you.
I am Your Partner in Prosperity!
PS To gain clarity on what your numbers are telling you, take a quick assessment, and tap into Carder’s Playbook.
Susie Carder is a dynamic speaker, best-selling author, and successful profit coach who helps top business leaders to create businesses that allow them to live their dreams and achieve financial abundance. Using her Predictable Success MethodTM, Susie helps entrepreneurs to develop the business systems that lead them to substantial revenue, profit growth, and investment opportunities. Strategize with Susie at SusieCarder.com.
