Super Cues

Here's one short exercise that can drastically improve revenue.

One small business that followed it grew revenue by $2,500 per week, providing a nice bump in cash earnings. Plus, the gain has been locked in for many years to come.

With the right business, it’s possible you could do even better.

Would You Like Food With That?

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

In some cases, lots of money.

My favorite example to use is a coffee shop.

Every time a customer orders a coffee, this should prompt the server to ask, “Would you like food with that?”

In my experience, one in every five customers will say “Yes!” and proceed to order some food.

This creates sales you wouldn’t have made otherwise.

The Math Really Stacks Up

Let’s say the average food item is worth around $10.

That’s $10 more on 20% of transactions (assuming my experience is correct and one in every five customers say “Yes!”), or $2 more per order on average.

If the coffee shop serves 250 customers a day, that’s an extra $500 in revenue per day.

It adds up to $2,500 a week, over 5 trading days.

And $130,000 per year.

Game changing.

Yet I think only 1 in 10 coffee shops I visit prompt me to order food.

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 option of adding similar products. Ones that supplement the products they are already buying.

Using Simple Cues to Increase Order Values

Here’s how to do it:

1. Find the point in time where your customers might add items to their order
2. Determine the most useful product to offer customers as an add-on at this point
3. Simply offer customers the option of adding that product
4. Train all your staff to do this, on every transaction

It’s a simple and powerful exercise.

The trick is to make sure you and your staff remember to do it.

On EVERY. SINGLE. TRANSACTION.

This means employees need to be trained and reminded to do it constantly.

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. Just take the opportunity to make sure the product add-on you offer to customers has a high profit margin for you.

And go get to it.

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