A Quick Simple Question...
The other day I went into a fast food restaurant that will remain nameless just because some people will probably take this article the wrong way and I don’t want a good business to suffer because of it.
I ordered a simple combo-meal that included a drink and fries. The clerk, who happened to be a manager named Julienne asked me “Medium or Large?” It was such a quick and innocent sounding question that I almost answered before thinking.
“No, a small will be fine, thank you”. She completed my order and as she handed me my receipt and tray of food I asked her a question that she clearly didn’t feel comfortable answering.
I asked her how many of the people accepted one of her two options and went with either medium or large. She said she didn’t know. I pushed until she admitted that it was at least 85-90%.
This simple upsell adds either 59 or 99 cents to each meal ordered. As each combo normally runs about $5-6 that’s a 10-20% markup on EACH meal sold. The best part is that it costs the restaurant almost NOTHING to fulfill delivery. A slightly larger soda costs them a penny or two in syrup and fractions of a cent for a larger cup. The difference between a small and medium sized fries is non-existent. Only the cardboard box changes size. Basically the same amount of product fits in each size box. The large holds a little more than the small but even then, you’re talking about potatoes: just about the cheapest food product on the planet.
So for virtually no cost at all they are able to increase their revenue by 10-20% just by asking one single, very simple and almost automatic question. The secret is to ask the question systematically, to EVERYONE who orders a combo meal and to ask it EVERY single time.
I’m still trying to work out exactly how this principle can be applied in my business. There is something about the assumptive quality of the question and something also about the two-options format. But basically it is a simple question.
Do you do birthday parties? Are you willing to do Goodie bags? (I do the former, but not the latter). Maybe you could add a simple question like “Do you want us to handle the goodie bags for everyone or are you going to put all those together yourself?”
Not as clean as “Medium or Large?” but it gets that conversation started. I’ll bet that’s got to be worth a few thousand dollars a year for the right performers.
Or, if you do awards banquets you might ask “Do you want to include enough magic tricks for every seat at each table or just one trick per table and let everyone kind of share it?” Most event planners might not have even thought about the idea of including magic tricks for the guests, and when they find out that you can provide quality, PRE-SELECTED tricks for less than $2 per person you might just be able to bump up your revenue for the night by a pretty significant amount.
I welcome your thoughts on this. Remember, I'm not just talking about ways to increase revenue. There are countless thousands of ways to do that. I'm talking about doing it with a question. A single, very simple, question that is asked near the end of each transaction.
What is YOUR question for 2009?
Labels: sales
posted by Julian Franklin @ 2:12 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I hope this generates some discussion, because I think it is an excellent topic to pursue. My dad was a salesman for a flour company and he had a way of presenting presumptive options to his customers in such a way that he often added to his sales figures with a question like the one in the article. It helped that he:
a) had a great product, and
b) never felt he was tricking the customer, simply presenting him with two options, either of which were good for his client.
The fast food restaurant probably has good fries, and your presence there was an indication that you wanted to eat, so it was not like Julienne was trying to sell you aluminum siding for your brick home, or talk you out of your choice and sell the fish sandwich. We need to keep that in mind as well. We need to "upsell" things the client wants, would be glad she purchased, and would add to our bottom line.
Maybe someone smarter than I can come up with the place to start for the diverse clientele we all have.
One idea occurs to me - For Blue and Gold banquets, if you do BOR sales, ask the client if he wants to purchase a couple of your deluxe magic kits as a giveaway that evening in a drawing to add some fun to the event. It features your product, increases your sales, and adds to the event.
Tommy Johns
I hope this generates some discussion, because I think it is an excellent topic to pursue. My dad was a salesman for a flour company and he had a way of presenting presumptive options to his customers in such a way that he often added to his sales figures with a question like the one in the article. It helped that he:
a) had a great product, and
b) never felt he was tricking the customer, simply presenting him with two options, either of which were good for his client.
The fast food restaurant probably has good fries, and your presence there was an indication that you wanted to eat, so it was not like Julienne was trying to sell you aluminum siding for your brick home, or talk you out of your choice and sell the fish sandwich. We need to keep that in mind as well. We need to "upsell" things the client wants, would be glad she purchased, and would add to our bottom line.
Maybe someone smarter than I can come up with the place to start for the diverse clientele we all have.
One idea occurs to me - For Blue and Gold banquets, if you do BOR sales, ask the client if he wants to purchase a couple of your deluxe magic kits as a giveaway that evening in a drawing to add some fun to the event. It features your product, increases your sales, and adds to the event.
Tommy Johns
I have never figured out why people whose income depends -- in large part -- on the size of their sale. For instance, why doesn't the waitress come out at the end of a meal and say something like, "I just came from the kitchen and the best-smelling apple pie you'll ever small came out of the oven. Now who of you would like a piece of that pie before some other table snaps it up?" That's selling the sizzle.
Why shouldn't a magician say something like, "My last birthday party was a big hit because I taught each child a trick, which they could take home. Would you like me to do that for YOUR child's birthday?" Or, "using the dual close: "I usually teach one or two tricks to all the kids, which they can take home as the party favor. Do you want me to teach the two or three trick packages?" They could be pre-packaged in see-through baggies.
How about the idea of having eight different tricks on each banquet table, and each person has to learn and show the trick to the others. I can hear the laughter now.
Dennis from Ring 29
Little Rock, Arkansas
This IS a great topic!
One thing that I do with clients that works at times and gets a good laugh is say, "would you like to biggie size your show for only $59.00 more?" I sell them on a bigger show (o.k. not really bigger but it seems bigger) as I'll add in a levitation where I float a kid in the air and one more "big trick!" so the client feels more bang for their buck. Does it always work? No, but it usually does get a good laugh.
I think is a great Topic like Mr Tommy says, i try to put some bags at my sales , if they dont work, i sell the live animals, or the extra levitation, but like Mr Julian Say its the way you sell it THATs the secret,i get them to get my bunny because all the kids can play with him at the end, take pictures,learn about animals, and its already a clasic, plus litle tommy get to make him apear from the empty hat.
Things like that will sell your product and have great reviews for you , from word of mouth to your next party, they might not call you next week but they will call you later trust me..
Excellent ideas! This ties in with something I often forget, which is to let our clients know all the services we can provide - not overwhelming them with lists, but mentioning a related product at the close. It's like offering dessert when they've ordered dinner.
For day care and school shows, I offer a 30 minute magic lesson as an add-on. I teach 3 tricks using simple materials the client provides.
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