achieving your average sale

As discussed in the previous tip – it is really important to understand your average sale. It’s not enough just to know the figure; you need to plan your approach to achieving and securing your average sale.

Structure your product pricing so that your primary products allow you to achieve your average sale and your secondary products enable you to secure your average sale. Here’s my checklist to ensure you get it right, every time.

1. identify your primary products – what is it that you would really love to sell? Have a look around your studio and review your merchandising.
2. ask yourself if you are promoting your primary products effectively? Are they priced to ensure you achieve your average sale?
3. what they see is what they buy! If you want to sell 24x30” canvas prints – have them on display in every space that your client will spend time. Remember if you want to sell 24x30” canvas prints, you should have at least one 30x40” canvas print on display too! Same principle for albums – sales of your 12” albums will increase if you are also displaying larger albums.
4. identify your secondary products and make sure you are offering them to every client, every time – (these are your ‘coke and fries’ products – think about the impact on McDonalds business if their secondary product sales dropped simply because their staff had ceased to ask “would you like fries with that”?)
5. value your secondary products – calculate the point at which you would bewilling to negotiate with your secondary products as a way of up selling your primary product. Be sure that you don’t offer incentives on orders that fall below your desired average sale – reward them for spending higher than average.
6. avoid discounting your primary products – always try and add value by promoting secondary products, otherwise you risk cutting your profitability.
7. offer your clients incentives to spend more money. Loyalty cards are a greatway to do this. Are you offering gift vouchers, photographic gifts, session vouchers, referral rewards? These items all assist in generating more business from existing customers.

next steps . . .
Calculate your average sale and decide whether you are happy with it, or whether you would like to see this figure increase. Set in place an action plan in order to achieve and secure your average sale.