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I’m looking forward to sharing great ideas with you and helping you to grow.

As promised, here are three of my top ideas that you can use for instant results. These ideas will apply to most businesses and can deliver thousands in sales growth and cost savings.

Idea #1: Increase Average Order Value

Many business owners leave lots of money on the table simply by forgetting to use simple cues to increase average order values.

My favorite example of this is a coffee shop. Every time a customer orders a coffee, this should prompt the server to ask, “Would you like some food with that?”

In my experience, one in every five customers will say “Yes!” and proceed to order a food item worth around $10.

That’s $10 more on 20% of transactions, or $2 more per order on average. If the coffee shop serves 250 customers a day, that’s an extra $500 a day! $2,500 a week!

Game changing.

Yet I think only 1 in 10 coffee shops I’ve been to have promoted me. When I’m hungry and I don’t know it, I’m happy they asked. When I’m not, I’m happy they thought of me and offered me food (people love being offered food).

This works equally well in the online world too. When customers are checking out their shopping cart, offer them the options of adding similar products too.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Find the point in time where customers might add to their order
2. Determine the most useful product to offer customers as an add-on
3. Simply offer customers the option of adding that product

It’s a simple and powerful exercise.

The trick is to make sure you do it, and remember to do it consistently. For example, employees need to be trained and reminded to do it. Anaeo Pro can help remind you.

There’s lots of upside to be gained in finding these high leverage customer touch points and simply asking a question or offering a useful product.

Idea #2: Attract New Customers

What’s the best marketing investment in the history of business?

Building something worth talking about into your customer experience and then letting them tell the world about it. Yep, word of mouth.

It is both the most effective and the lowest cost marketing out there.

Here are some examples to get you excited:

1. On check-in at any Hilton Doubletree hotel, every single guest gets given a warm chocolate chip cookie. They hand out 75,000 cookies each day and 34% of guests tell their friends. That's 25,000 stories being told about Doubletree every single day. Each cookie costs just $0.20.
2. The Magic Castle Hotel in Los Angeles has a red phone mounted on the wall near the pool. Guests pick up the phone and a staff member answers automatically: “Hello, Popsicle Hotline”. The guest places an order and minutes later a staff member wearing white gloves delivers your cherry, orange or grape popsicle to you poolside. On a silver tray, for free. The result? Magic Castle is one of the top-rated hotels in Los Angeles. Pretty good for a budget motel.
3. Skip’s Kitchen is just your normal burger restaurant in California. Except just before you pay the waiter pulls out a deck of cards. If you pick the joker your meal is free. Based on the probability just 2% of customers win. The financial cost to Skip's is just $2 for every $100 spent. They're a busy restaurant that has never spent a single dollar on advertising.

Think through your customer experience from their point of view. What can you do that would get them talking? Don’t miss the opportunity to add a nice touch that makes customers feel good and gets them talking.

It could be as simple as a free cookie, popsicle or letting cards decide who pays the bill.

Idea #3: Earn Cashback on Expenses

Many business owners basically fly business class for free any time. Others decide to turn their expenses into 2% cashback.

How?

They run business expenses through their credit card accounts to earn points.

Here’s how:

1. Find a corporate credit card with a good points offer.
2. Charge your main expenses to the credit card to earn points.
3. Pay the card balance in full every month to avoid any interest charges.

This is important. You were going to pay the bill in full in 30 days anyway, so make sure you set a reminder each month to pay your credit card balance in full to make sure you’re not charged the interest.

Because the standard credit card provides 30-days interest free, you only pay your bill in 30-days when you would have paid your suppliers anyway (you usually get 30-day payment terms), so your cash position is no different.

Everybody wins with this arrangement:

• Your vendors improve their cash flow because they are paid at the time of delivery, rather than having to wait 30 or 60 days.
• You get free travel and rewards spending to attend conferences, charitable events or just to reward staff, or cash back in your pocket if you choose.
• Your cash position is unchanged.

I’ve heard that some businesses use their points card to purchase enough supplies to earn, on average, a free trip a week. Even if you’re not at this scale, a 2% cashback program will improve cash flow by $2,000 per year for every $100,000 of eligible expenses.

You are incurring the expenses anyway. Why not get some cash back for your efforts?

Let me know what you think of these ideas.