hello I’m Gary Shotton and I’m so happy to be here again with you as a part of Inspiring Better Business today we’re going to talk about increasing sales we have a certain amount of sales in our products or services and yet we would like to increase those what can we do to increase sales and the answer nutmeats first to start with do you have a good foundation do you have the things necessary that every business should have I’m going to review them quickly and if you’ll go through our website and just listen to many many of these lessons by many speakers you’ll get the basis of a good businesses having quality having on-time delivery making sure you know your customer and know what their wants and desires and needs are all kinds of these things are just layers upon layers of lessons that you need to be diligent at to be sure you are producing a product or service that’s meets the requirements and expectations of your customer had a fair price but let’s say you’ve done all that you are doing that or you’re continuing to prove on that and you have competition and the competition is doing the same thing thereafter your same customers what do you do to increase sales well I’m going to talk about two things that I believe could increase sales in any business or service it’s a minor adjustment in the way you focus you could focus on your product and surface and yet how can I focus just a little bit different in addition to doing the good things the right things that I’ve just mentioned how about added value you have a product what can you do to add value to that to make it different than the others I for many years talked about the snack food that’s a peanut or a nut or some kind of a nut item and you know you can get a bag of nuts and you could buy or harvest like hundred pounds or five kilos or whatever quantity you want of these nuts and you can bag them into little bags and sell them on the street and you could make it convenient by spake make letting people go out from your store you can wait for people to come to your store but you’re limited to that one location and you’re limited to that one product why wouldn’t you add some kind of flavoring to those peanuts that’s added value like you could have a caramel coated peanut you could have a spicy peanut you could have something that’s more native to the the taste of your peoples experiment and you could in some way mix this ingredient whether it’s a powder or whether it’s a form of a sugar whether it’s it’s just salted on like you would have salt or whether it’s kind of baked on with a small crust but create something different create your own brand can create your own flavors name your flavors create your identity so that you’re selling them in little bags but people know that you’re the one that’s creating this new taste this new flavor this new formula and the only place you can get it at the moment is at your place now people will copy it we know that but that’s where it starts you can do something different and and when someone comes to your counter like in retail or if you’re doing a service always be thinking what did they ask me to buy if they bought they asked to buy something related maybe to office supplies I’m just making it up and in that you you’re ready to checkout and this the teller the person that’s ringing up the the items could be acquainted with whatever they purchased and make suggestions oh you know do you remember you might need some glue or you need some markers or you need some pencils or we have a special over here on something you might need you might want the good stores in town know about retail and they put things real close to the checkout line that have high volumes or high profit chances and so you’re lending to an impulse buy that’s kind of a added now you’ve caught them standing in a little bit of a line for not too long and they pick up something like some chewing gum or our candy bar or something added value to that retail store added value to that that a product that you just sold and so let me refer back to Alfred Matua again man he has so many added values that’s unbelievable that when he just started just mechanic and he added value to his shop to have not only mechanicing but now he buys cars and does body repair he does bother repair but he buys wrecked cars or secures red cars and he’s in the car dealership building business he’s selling those cars then he had the added value of having the drivers so he has many drivers when we go to Nairobi Kenya and I don’t order a taxi I order a driver plus that vehicle and that vehicle is driven by Alfred Matua Stryver and they come meet me at the airport it’s what they call taxi but it’s not a boat bus it’s not a boat a boat it’s my own vehicle dedicated to me Alfred has has added value to his service and he’s always thinking about how to expand his service what can you do whatever you’re selling whatever you’re doing can you’re if you’re selling shoes of course you would want to sell shoe strings you would want to sell shoe polish you would want to sell shoe cleaning you might even want to sell some other things socks or things that are related to the feet are things that are related to people that have problems with their feet or have feet sores or or have fallen arches I mean what are you doing to make added value to whatever you have for sale as a product or service so those are a couple suggestions you don’t want to be one of 10 look-alikes on the same city block waiting for someone to walk by five others and finally some of arrived to your your booth or your table or your service you want to stand out as being different that would be convenience and added value those are two things to start with well I hope you enjoy this we’re glad to be a part of your life and Inspiring Better Business thank you.