In my last business I sold solutions exclusively to other businesses which for anyone that does similar they'll know that December can often be very quiet. One particular year we had excellent sales in the autumn and we were so busy getting the work out the door we failed to notice that December was coming. As we rolled into November the familiar message from prospects was " yes we are interested, but let's talk after Christmas". During those final couple of months of the year the tumbleweed of inactivity and missed opportunity began to blow through our business. All the hard work of that autumn was wasted as the profits were absorbed by this costly period.
I swore that this would never happen again, so come the autumn time the following year I set about designing a more aggressive sales process using a special offer to make sure we win more business in December. This was the first time that we had really used time dependent special offers and it taught us that when used correctly they are 'sales magic'.
We took our product and we added to it some of the optional extras for free as part of the special offer, but this offer was only valid on purchase orders received before the end of December. Being the genuine and honest business people that we were we simply explained the truth to everybody, "December is a quiet period so that's why we can make this exceptional offer, in January things become very busy so we are unable to make this offer after the end of the year".
That year December turned out to be our highest grossing month of the entire year. More importantly we all learned an excellent lesson that the special offer can convert a prospect's procrastination into real sales.
Here are my tips the using a special offer.
1. Ideally make your special offer add more to the package of products and services you are offering rather than a discount. For example add free training, or add increased warranty and make sure that you've clearly stated the value of these additional products or services.
2. Always make sure that your offer is time dependent and there is a clear reason for this time dependency. For example if your business is seasonal then broadcast the fact that you can offer a slightly special offer outside of the main season because you have spare resources available. By telling the prospect why you are able to make the special offer then it seems more genuine and not simply a marketing gimmick. In my experience prospects make more buying decisions with this type of special offer.
3. Don't pick a closing date that is too ambitious. It takes time sometimes for a prospect to make the decision so make sure that your special offer is marketed for long enough and you don't miss out on business simply because you've not given the prospect enough time to think about it.
4. For prospective sales already about to reach completion you may choose not to tell them about the special offer. Sometimes this can backfire if words gets out, but if a particular sale is going to 'close' any day then by introducing a special offer into the mix you complicate it and may well risk that sale or end up giving away more than you should to win it. Each circumstance should be reviewed on an individual basis.
Time-dependent special offers are a fantastic way of closing business, they work particularly well when you can forecast lower sales periods. If you've never used this technique within your business then I would urge you to experiment - it can become a powerful weapon in your sales armoury.