Category: marketing

The words " business proposal " are expected by any sales representative, marketing or public relations person. Even if writing a business proposal doesn't represent a very pleasant activity, marketing reprezentatives are happy to do it as they see a potential business opportunity.

The best business proposal is made by having direct contact with the client. However, there are situation in which direct contact with the client is not possible. In this case, some suggestions are required.

Things you need to take into consideration before sending a business proposal :

1. Start by writing a business proposal by creating a short and convincing summary of the document in question

2. concentrate more on the results rather than process and methods. A client will buy tools and methods only when they are convinced that you can obtain the results they want.

3. Be generous with your ideas and show your inventivity.

4. The length of the business proposal doesn't matter much. What matters is quality! Business proposals are accepted based on their quality.. not quantity.

5. The contens of the business plan needs to reffer to the client and solving the client's problem.

6. Check and recheck if all information written in the business plan are valid and to the point.

7. Pay attention to the smallest details, stay away from stereotypes, use good quality paper and make sure you send your business plan on time.

8. After you write the business plan, wait on day and pay more attention to it, read it again and again until you are satisfied.

9. Write a real business plan based on what you actually can offer to the potential client. This will help avoid having unsatisfied clients and unpaid bills!

Writing a business plan is necessary. A well written business plan can play a decisive role in winning a project, while a bad written business plan can lead to failure, even when everything concerning your sales activities went excellent.

Often the real profits lie in back-end sales.

Once you have a customer, you simply offer additional products, add-ons, upgrades, a super-deluxe version of the original product purchase with all the bells and whistles. The customer is already ?sold? on the product or service, based on your sales material or presentation.

The back-end offer should supply the answer to ?what?s next?? It should be related in some way to the original product, and the most successful back-end products are higher-priced accessories that makes it easier of better for the buyer than simply having the original.

A back end product should further enhance the product that the buyer intended to purchase. Whatever the original product does, a good back-end product will make it faster, better, more detailed, more complete or easier to use and benefit from ? in essence it is far more helpful to the prospect in satisfying his wants, than is the original, more basic product.

Keys to Success

The success of back-end products can be attributed to having a captive, highly targeted audience who is definitely interested in achieving a specific result or solving a specific problem. The add-on product makes it easier to solve the prospect?s problem, quickly.

Another factor is to further sell the customer while he is still in the buying mode and while he is feeling good about solving a problem or moving closer towards a goal.

Examples

To come with examples of back-end products simply ask ?What product or service could I also offer that would be a natural match for what my customer is buying now? A self-publisher could offer a booklet on a specific topic. As a back-end, he could offer the same topic covered in greater detail and presented in a multi-media format complete with audio cassettes, videos, manual and CD.

Opportunities for back-end or additional add-on products are easy to find. A shoe store can offer shoe buying customers, laces, polish, protectants or, other accessories, based on the type of shoe sold. Ever visit a theatre to watch a movie and not order popcorn, chips, soft drink, or some other refreshment? Those items are all back-end products. First you bought your tickets, then you went to the snack bar.

My local video store now offers ?tape protection? as an extra option. It?s basically insurance against returning a damaged video. Since most videos rented out these days are new releases, tapes being returned in damaged condition are a rarity. Yet, many people gladly pay the extra twenty-five cents to ?feel? secure. A clever new profit center for the video-rental industry.

How?

Always be mindful of products, services or ideas that your customers will willingly pay for. Anything that can make it easier or hassle-free for the customer, could be a good candidate as an add-on product. Convenience is a wonderful thing and many will willingly pay you for it.

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In the average sales organization, successful sales reps get promoted to managers. These "new" sales managers are suddenly tasked with leadership and training. In these situations, there is one common liability. The salesperson's biggest strength now becomes the sales manager's biggest weakness in leading a team. Typically, top sales reps don't diagnose and document their sales routines and processes; rather, they ?just do it?, as the sneaker commercial so aptly says. So, when they are asked to advance the same superior results in a large group, they can not do it. Why? Because these individuals are exceptional "drivers." Most of their past success was due to their personalities and individual abilities, which are not transferable to the masses.

Sadly, most superior sales performers, when promoted to leadership positions, are unable to truly lead. They have trouble analyzing and teaching their personal sales processes in such a way that their sales teams can properly digest. Solo reps who move into the management sphere tend to manage people versus coaching critical competencies and behaviors, which hurts the bottom line. To be effective, sales leaders must understand and know how to integrate knowledge of sales systems and processes to their staff. They need the majority of their salespeople to accept it, own it and benefit from it.

Going one step further, it is crucial for sales leaders to have experience in identifying and measuring critical core competencies and essential performance metrics. Sales leaders should understand that there are a finite number of scenarios in any selling process. If you identify, train to and measure each one of them, you are on your way to excellence. True sales leaders shine a light on the most critical competencies, enabling the highest percentage of their sales force to routinely win. Sales leaders train to each one of these competencies, but they do so by priority. They understand that training to multiple missions at once will achieve minimal results.

The importance of sales training comes into play for sales leaders, who must consider results-oriented training as a process versus an isolated event. They don't just talk about it at sales meetings, or attend seminars that superficially touch on it; instead, they extract the most important critical competency, such as creating new opportunities, and peel back every element that comprises it. They break apart the elements into single scenarios and attach powerful routines to each scenario. Sales leaders, like great business leaders, spend time developing systematic approaches to essential competencies. And they do it so that their people can outperform the standard.

Sales training campaigns should be setup to improve the ratios of success in each core competency. Operational effectiveness equals better competency routines. Better than whose, you ask? Your competitors', of course. With the right systems in place, good sales leaders understand their essential competency ratios and performance numbers, and are able to relate them to revenue objectives. It is important to set realistic goals that are in line with performance ratios, then set "benchmarks" for each competency and train specifically to those benchmarks.

Jim Tressel, head football coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes, gave a preseason interview the year after winning the 2002 National Football Championship. He said, "We decided to identify a number of important performance benchmarks, and effect training to meet them each week. For instance, we found that over the last 15 years, when we gained at least 200 rushing yards in a game, we won the game 98% of the time. So we are training to routines that will help us get better at the competency of running the football on the ground in order to reach that particular benchmark more often."

Sales leaders believe that sales reps will be accountable to results, provided that leadership:
(1) Identifies the important competencies required for success; (2) Supplies targeted training with appropriate structures for learning and application; and,
(3) Measures the degree of improvement.

Sales leaders are dedicated to transforming "C" players into "B" players, and "B" players into "A" players. They hold themselves accountable to develop or invest in relevant training systems, learning structures and support tools. They want most of their people to routinely meet or exceed company revenue goals, as well as personal career objectives. They know that they must provide the setting and the tools that foster this kind of achievement.

While their seat-of-the-pants skill sets are excellent, the natural sales rep, when thrust into the role of sales manager, must learn how to convert these skills into transferable processes and routines that focus on essential competencies. Thereafter, it comes down to how effectively they can train, motivate and support their staff towards maximizing core competencies, which ultimately increases the odds of exceeding revenue targets.

In this article, we will be answering some design problems that are often neglected by logo designers. Like what is active design and passive logo design and what is negative space?

Why should we use space of the and how to make a work on a dark background?

So, lets start...

Active not passive:

By active, we mean alert and attentive. That means, the logo needs to be depicting a progressive and futuristic approach. For example, take the design of twitter. In the of twitter, you can see a bird that is flying towards the right upwards... In an elaborative sense, the bird is showing will to achieve height and speed to move forward. Its wings are drawn upward and the bird is using the downward thrust to push itself forward and upward.

In context, the twitter is showing the hard work of the company to achieve heights and move forward.

Logo designers when drawing a should know the impact of the on public and especially on clients. The depictions described above are suitable only for the western companies where text is read from left to right. In eastern countries, the same will have a negative effect, because text is written from right to left and the bird in twitter will be flying in the opposite direction. So, typography should be used depending on the direction of the logo.

Use of space around logo:

The use of space around a logo design is also called the flush or breeze of a logo. It means anything written with the design needs to be written in a way so that that thing does not affect the . The white space is kept with consideration around the so that all things are put aside this white space and give the its personal space.

Use of negative space:

You can use negative space of a logo design to your own interest. For example, many logo designs are made with shape on some background. Nevertheless, if you make a shape in the background by using the negative space of the first shape, than that will look better.

Work on dark background:

Make your logo in a way so that it can be used with dark background as well as light background. Using negative space for that instance is a good idea. This will also enable the clients to understand the when its drawn on a dark background as well as people will be able to get it when it's photocopied. A good logo design is that design that can be seen in any position by the designers.

The article is by education logo design and company logo maker.

Selecting the right B2B telemarketing company is a critical decision. Quality varies amongst vendors so it?s important to ask some key questions to the B2B telemarketing companies you are considering.

This short article looks at 5 key questions you should ask any B2B telemarketing company to understand if they are a good fit for your business.

1) What is their sector experience?
2) What level can they call into?
3) Where do they source their data?
4) What?s their track record?
5) Do they have a results-focused fee structure?

These questions will uncover whether the B2B telemarketing company is right for your business; let?s look at them in turn:

1) What is their sector experience?
B2B telemarketing requires an understanding of both the industry sectors being called and the client sectors being worked with. For example, if a B2B telemarketing company has previously worked on campaigns into the financial services sector they will have a good understanding of the language, organisational structures and ?jargon? within that sectors. This is the subtle sector specific understanding that you want your B2B telemarketing company to demonstrate.

Equally, if the B2B telemarketing company has previously worked with companies in your sector, they will have a realistic understanding of the metrics, challenges and objections associated with your specific industry.

2) What level can they call into?
As well as an understanding of the industry and client sectors relevant to your B2B telemarketing campaign, you need to determine whether the B2B telemarketing company you are considering can engage at the right level of decision maker for your requirements.

Calling managers within mid-sector companies presents a different challenge to calling CEO?s within FTSE 100 businesses or MD?s of SME?s.

Ask your B2B telemarketing company how they would engage with your specific audience; how they would get their attention and how they would develop a dialogue with them. Understanding this will element will help you decide whether the B2B telemarketing company is right for you.

3) Where do they source their data?
The success of any B2B telemarketing campaign owes a large part to the quality of the data used. Any B2B telemarketing company you consider should be able to source and acquire good data to ensure they deliver results on your B2B telemarketing campaign.

Ask them where they source the data from, how is it researched and what is the licence for the data. If your B2B telemarketing company is unable to answer these questions, look elsewhere.

4) What?s their track record?
Asking your B2B telemarketing company to provide references is an essential part of the evaluation process. B2B telemarketing is a highly fragmented industry with companies that come and go overnight. Being able to demonstrate a track record and provide references for B2B clients, ideally in a similar sector to you, is essential.

Again, if the B2B telemarketing company cannot do this it generally means that they cannot consistently deliver results.

5) Do they have a results-focused fee structure?
Finally, you should ask whether the B2B telemarketing company has a fee structure that is linked to results. Any B2B telemarketing company that can consistently deliver results should be prepared to place part of their fee on the line and link it to performance.

This could be a fee per deliverable (such as a meeting or qualified lead) or a performance fee for hitting specific targets. Either way, you should ensure that your B2B telemarketing company has this results-focused approach.

By asking these questions when you are considering B2B telemarketing companies you can best determine if they are the right fit for your business and whether they will be able to deliver results on your specific B2B telemarketing campaign.

David Regler is Managing Director of Maine Associates Ltd, a B2B telemarketing company specialising in appointment setting, lead generation and B2B telemarketing services.

Mannequins have been successfully utilized in the retail world for centuries. The word mannequin literally means little man. Well, these little men have been on display dating back past the 1700's, where wire-framed mannequins were used to displays costumes and other clothing items. Mannequins have been created out of all kinds of material, like wood, wax, wire, plaster, and even fabric. Regardless of which material is being used, the mannequin is here to stay as a retail store display.

Several types of mannequins are available to display specific types of merchandise. There are mannequins in men's, ladies and children's forms and even display forms of hands, necks, heads, legs and headless torsos. A good display in any store will always show the merchandise well - the overall effect depends entirely on how well the mannequin is put to use.

The merchandise itself is much more important than the mannequins, but you need to know how to set up the mannequins in a creative manner to get the best effect. Every department in your store should treat the mannequins to fit a specific type of merchandise. The selected mannequins, along with the pose, the style of hair and the color of the skin should reflect the merchandise or garment to be displayed.

For instance, if your store has a sportswear section, the mannequins will naturally be displayed in active poses. The skin tones of the mannequins should also reflect the active lifestyles of athletes. The wigs for the mannequins should be short - cropped or with ponytails. On the other hand, mannequins in the formalwear department, that display evening gowns and formal apparel, should have more conservative poses.

Creative Mannequin Positioning

The positioning of mannequins, whether for a window or a floor display, should be done in a very artistic and creative manner. Use your imagination, something out of the norm can catch people's eye and make them take notice. In many cases, you will be limited by certain factors, such as the area where the mannequin will be placed, the lighting and props, the garments or merchandise that should be displayed, and the overall theme of the display. But you can still be both effective and creative.

First, take a look at the spot where the mannequin will be placed. The display could be a window or floor display. The window could have an open back or a closed back. The mannequins you select should blend in with the surroundings, and above all they should be eye-catching. Place the mannequins in such a way that they are viewed from the most favorable and attractive angles. After all, the entire purpose of having a window display mannequin is to attract more customers to enter your store from the street and to buy some of your merchandise.

If you are considering placing your mannequins in a group, then they should be placed in such a way that they seem like they are interacting with one another. In the 'ladies' section of your store, you could use a combination of male as well as female mannequins; in the 'children's' section, you could place a whole family of mannequins consisting of a mother, father and the children.

Finally, it isn't wise to leave your mannequins standing in the same position for too long. Try to rotate them and dress them up in different clothes regularly. Avoid mixing window mannequins with the floor ones. It is always a good idea to clean your mannequins regularly so that they always look fresh.

Mannequins are responsible for showing off your merchandise. It is the mannequin that is doing just as much selling as any salesman on the floor. A wise store owner always carefully chooses how their merchandise is displayed, and without a doubt properly using mannequins will surely help.

Strategic planning for contact centers has become increasingly important in today's complex environment. End-user customers are expecting faster, friendlier service from knowledgeable service representatives that efficiently resolve the customer's needs. In contrast, pressure to reduce costs has created a vacuous exodus from the domestic U.S. footprint and attempts to repatriate those lost jobs are confronted with arduous challenge of budget restrictions associated with cost savings generated through offshore labor arbitrage. Couple this dynamic with an extremely fluid technology environment wherein it is capital intensive to maintain or achieve a competitive position. Throw in the reality that today's labor market is uniquely comprised of five generations and you have the making for a "perfect storm" scenario.

Covation is inimitably positioned to address these complex matters. If you are looking to launch a new call center or reengineering your current operating environment, a sound blueprint augmented with a clear and concise forward-looking vision are critical components inherent to your ultimate success. As such, strategic planning for new/expanding call centers and/or center consolidations are now of paramount importance in crafting a construct that drives cost effective, high quality service.

Mergers & Acquisitions - We have expertise in both the buy side and sell side, with a particular concentration in both the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) space and Financial Services. Collectively, we have represented companies as large as $20 billion global media conglomerates down to the $10 million team looking to structure a management buyout. Our primary value add, after selling dozens of companies as founders/executives/principals, is the real world know how gained only through starting, growing, and ultimately selling a business combined with the years of transaction experience in the advisory role.

Business Process Optimization:

Our Business Process Optimization Practice delivers thought leadership through our proprietary evaluation methodology and in-depth analytics that will ensure your operations achieve measurable and sustainable improvement. This global performance solutions practice is committed to enhancing the end-to-end service delivery model to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and increase revenue for clients. We enjoy a breadth of experience in business process mapping/management, process improvement/control, and enterprise transformation, which collectively yield an optimized performance management ecosystem.

Our experience in business process optimization will result in shorter process cycle times, embedded quality improvement, efficient document/information/work/call flow, reduced labor costs, enhanced revenue generation, verification/validation of cycle and work task completion, improved customer service, and expanded capacity/utilization all derived from a set of various proven Kaizen-oriented methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma, Balanced Scorecards, and TQM.

Corporate Finance & Advisory - Simply put, we help companies strategize and fund the growth of their business. Collectively, our partners have raised over $500 million privately in equity, mezzanine, and senior securities in industries as diverse as enterprise software, healthcare, commercial banking, manufacturing, real estate, and just about anywhere in between. We focus on companies that are generally "under the radar" for big Wall Street firms. Our niche is in funding strong management teams that are generally looking to inject between $5 million to $50 million in financing. We have access to both the individual and the institutional investor, which makes our ability to match the proper funding solution for our clients a key differentiator.

Cross-Channel Analytics & Collaboration:

Over the past few years, our clients have necessarily established new channels to communicate with their customers. Cross-channel analytics and collaboration is truly a differentiating element of our global consulting practice. Our cross-channel analytics and collaboration practice incorporates the latest in reporting and collaboration methodologies across related or disparate data points to identify otherwise indiscernible trends and issues that are impacting positively and/or negatively the end-user customer experience. Moreover, we incorporate both content and contextual correlation analyses.

Our cross-channel analytics and collaborative capability creates a holistic view of the customer experience across multiple customer touch points. Covation utilizes the latest in technology for retail or web interaction analytics in addition to speech analytics, text mining/text response, call flow analytics, and desktop/agent analytics. Our agent-level processes further incorporate detailed phone interactions, email messages and online chat sessions to accurate, logical, and actionable workflow or knowledgebase adjustments - the resultant outcome of which is to improve customer satisfaction, increase operational efficiency, and optimize marketing and sales effectiveness.

Leveraging insight from all customer interactions gathered across all touch points, our analytics will drive workflow improvements that impact website optimization (including but not limited to social media customer care), customer segmentation, and customer experience feedback/realization, which will often lead to modified KPI relevance and strategy and the creation of value-added predictive analytics across key reporting metrics.

End-User Customer Experience Enhancement:

It has been our observation that your customers are increasingly becoming more demanding with regards to how they are treated regardless of the type of touch point - phone, in person / in store, e-mail, or on the web via self-service or chat. Supporting a multi-channel environment has become table stakes for the modern-day call center service delivery model. Notwithstanding, it adds significant complexity to an already bewildering labyrinth of ongoing, multifaceted customer transactions and interactions already taking place and at an accelerated pace never seen heretofore in our economy - the result of which is a serious challenge to drive a consistent and compelling end-user customer experience across multiple touch points and communication channels.

Covation has the requisite knowledge and skillsets to evaluate and develop enhanced customer experience strategies for our clientele. We work closely with our client to optimize the end-user experience and to ensure that it becomes routinely executed across the service delivery lifecycle - consistently. We participate in the development of gap/needs analyses, use cases, and product/service requirements to determine the optimal design methodology and approach.

Ah, those magic words ? ?Attract Clients?. Virtually every professional I know loves the idea of attracting clients, and would be even happier if there was a ?magic formula? for accomplishing it. Well, actually there is a formula that works like magic for attracting clients to you. And I?m going to reveal it ? right here, right now. (OK, to be more specific, it?ll be at the end of the article. But no cheating! You need to read through the article for the formula to make sense.)

First of all, this isn?t about simply ?getting? clients. It?s about attracting them to you. It is the concept of building a business without chasing prospects, dogging down purchased leads, or operating a ?quote mill? ? turning out quote after quote hoping to have the lowest price. Unfortunately, many professionals are either trained or take it upon themselves to uncover prospects ?at arm?s length?. It seems that either intentionally or inadvertently, companies often train their team to build their business by pursuing prospects. Although many companies and managers praise the benefits of ?attracting? clients, when it comes time to meet production quotas, all the methods which ?pursue? clients are the ones encouraged. By the time ?meeting production quotas? become an issue, drastic measures are called for.

The solution, of course, is to avoid being in that place of ?catch-up? to begin with. By learning how to attract clients and by applying those methods consistently, you side-step the need to pursue clients altogether. Virtually every professional who has a sizable, growing business ? characterized by high retention and a steady flow of client referrals ? does it by attracting clients rather than pursuing them.

There are two key components to successfully attracting clients. The first key is to understand that people will be attracted to you by WHO YOU ARE, rather than by WHAT YOU DO. While there will be a small group of people who will do business with you strictly based on your depth of knowledge, most people ? in fact, the majority of people ? will do business with you because of who you are. Having good knowledge of your products, services, and industry is important. And having strong technical skills is useful and important as well. It?s just that being knowledgeable and skillful isn?t sufficient.
Let me offer some proof. I?m willing to bet that we?ve all known one or more professionals who were an absolute fountain of knowledge regarding product and service info. And yet, they went out of business due to lack of clients. In contrast, I?m also willing to bet that we?ve also known professionals who really weren?t all that sharp when it came to understanding the details. And yet, these professionals built and sustained large businesses. The reason, of course, is that clients were attracted to them for who they were, more so than what they knew.

So, how do we maximize ?Who We Are?? We maximize and amplify who we are by continually improving our communication skills, our social skills, and our integrity. In short, ?who we are? is defined by our people skills. When we have good people skills, we:
? Communicate clearly and cleanly
? Are relatable
? Do what we say we?re going to do
? Are professional in attitude and manner
? Have a positive attitude
? Take an interest in others
? Treat people with respect

How do we improve in these areas? The easiest way to start is by simply being more mindful of each of those people skills. Just by drawing our attention to each aspect of good people skills, we can begin to improve. However, one of the challenges most of us have in improving ourselves, is that often we?re blind to what we do and say. We operate on ?auto-pilot?, and as such, aren?t even aware of how we come across to others. Additionally, how we think we come across to others doesn?t really matter. What matters is how others feel about us. Therefore, an excellent way of improving our people skills is to enlist the help of others. Ask people around you to help. Ask a spouse or significant other. (Hey! They?re always hoping to improve us anyway, right?) Ask a fellow professional. Ask a manager. Tell them you?re working to improve your people skills, and 1) ask them which people skills they feel you?re really good at, and 2) ask them which ones they feel are candidates for improvement. Then, ask them to point out to you any words, actions and reactions which represent opportunities for improvement as they arise. Not only will people be happy to help, but they will respect you for your efforts.

The second key component in attracting clients is actually getting out, so that people get a chance to see you, know you, and be attracted to you! The reality is that when you are in your office behind your desk, prospects never get to experience you and those people skills you possess. The result? If you try to get clients from behind your desk, you end up having to pursue them. On the other hand, when you get out and allow people to interact with you, you end up attracting them.

OK, so here?s the ?magic formula? I promised. The way to successfully attract clients is to improve your people skills, and get out and meet people. I know it?s a pretty simple formula, but ? it works like magic.

If there is one area that IT consulting services might want to sink their teeth into, then it has to be the healthcare sector. It is for the simple reason that the healthcare industry is in constant need to upgrade their technology network. Whether it is in patient file database, illness profiling, or a myriad of other tasks that need technology, IT consultancy experts will be needed. This provides a fertile ground for such firms in their IT lead generation campaigns. The only question here is how to get healthcare professionals and companies to work with an IT consulting firm.

In case this is the scenario for your business, you must first realize the various issues that healthcare institutions have to face. Among these is variability. There are a lot of technological advancements being done in patient care and administration, and not all healthcare providers have the technical know-how to use or maintain specialized devices. And given the volume of patients needing immediate care, it is somewhat impossible for, say, a doctor or a nurse to operate a computer while treating a patient at the same time. This makes outsourcing the work to an IT consulting services that specializes in healthcare even more attractive. It may look a bit unprofessional for some, but for the sake of actually producing results, this is a necessary investment.

There are also other areas where IT consultants are needed. Take, for example, in information management. When we talk about hospitals and treatment centers, we are not just talking about doctors and patients. We are also dealing with the massive amount of data and technological equipment that needs professional handling. And really, with the costs being incurred with in-house IT specialists, it does make sense to have the job outsourced to those who can competently handle the job. And this is where you, the IT consulting service provider, who can answer that need.

IT consulting firms will benefit from a good IT appointment setting campaign, provided that they choose the right medium to communicate. And there are plenty to choose from, like social media marketing or telemarketing. What is important here is that you select a lead generation provider that specializes in healthcare. You need people who know a lot about this particular industry, since there are terms and rules that you need to be aware of if you want to be effective in generating qualified IT consulting leadsout of the market.

You can promote your firm in terms of benefits. For example, you can start with your specialization in perfecting the IT infrastructure supporting a healthcare institution. Another benefit you can tout is in terms of cost reduction. Since a lot of IT consulting firms work for a reasonable consulting fee, the duration based on contracts, you can say that healthcare facilities can save more with you. If relayed by professional IT appointment setters, this can mean a great deal for you. You can get more IT leads that way.

For most salespeople, selling is all about getting customers to walk out with a product. If the customer buys one item, it is a successful sale. For advanced salespeople, just getting the customer to walk out with one item is not enough. Instead, a customer buying one item is only a sign that there is more than one sale to be made.

To make an additional sale, some forethought is required. You need to think about what your customer is buying and what they are going to use it for. For example, if a unshaven man comes in to buy a razor, you can assume that he is wanting to shave.

Making a second sale is easy once you have an idea of what the people is wanting to do. What could an unshaven man buying a razor also be sold? Think shaving cream. We know that the man will want to shave straight away, so checking that he has shaving cream might result in an additional sale.

A similar idea can be used to sell more of the same product. If you recognise that a regular customer is buying shaving cream for the 4th time we can assume that they are going to want more later. This action of thinking ahead means that we can now sell the customer a larger container of shaving cream. If there are no larger containers, we can always reduce the price for the customer if they by more.

Thinking ahead can also be used to compete with your competition. If you know that a customer is going to check the price of the competitors product, you can save them time and also make a sale. First you need to check out the prices of the competitors products in the morning. Later on when a customer is looking to buy one of your products, you can say what the competitors price is and then offer a price that is lower.