50 Ways to Increase Revenues

 

In my other posts, I have explained many ways that one can increase sales through a wide variety of marketing strategies and tactics. In this post, I will focus on other ways to increase revenues.

Here are some approaches to consider:

1. Explore new markets and market segments for your existing products and services
2. Explore new, different uses for your products or services
3. Explore different distribution channels for your products or services
4. Explore geographic expansion for your products and services
5. Offer your products or services in different quantities or amounts
6. Create single use and multiple use versions of your product
7. Offer your product in different sizes or colors
8. Bundle or unbundle your products or services
9. Suggest add-on sales to the purchased product or service
10. Offer complementary products or services
11. Create variations of your current products and services
12. Charge for technical support
13. Adopt a subscription model
14. Charge a set-up fee for complex products
15. Offer training for a fee
16. Develop and sell new related products based on rigorous customer research
17. Partner with a non-competing organization to share customer lists and marketing expenses - cross-promote and co-market your products with them
18. If your product can become an "ingredient product," sell it as an add-on or component of another organization's product
19. License your product through third parties
20. Move up or down the the price spectrum, inviting higher-end or lower-end customers
21. Identify opportunities for upselling
22. Pursue circular entrepreneurship, creating sustainability and multiple revenue streams
23. Explore ways to add value to and charge a related fee to your suppliers and business partners
24. License the technology underpinning your product, while still selling your products separately
25. Offer customized products and services for an additional fee
26. Offer personalized products and services for an additional fee
27. Add highly stylized products to your product range - focus on in-demand designs or styles
28. Offer concierge-level services for an additional fee
29. Offer your products as private-label in addition to selling them under your brand name
30. Rent or lease unused spaces or resources
31. Create a timeshare program
32. Add a program element or special ingredient to make your product or service unique
33. Tie your products or services to different types of events
34. Identify and work with as many strategic partners as possible
35. Set up a franchise model for your product or service
36. Partner with trade associations
37. Pursue a tiered pricing model
38. Pursue price segmentation
39. Create high-end packaging to increase perceived value and charge a premium price
40. If your product or service is building a database, consider selling the information from that database as a separate revenue stream
41. Create a customer tribe, club or community
42. Create customer loyalty programs
43. Start a customer referral program
44. Offer volume price incentives
45. Offer as many forms of payment as possible, make payment easy
46. Offer delayed payment plans
47. Be available for purchase 24/7
48. Educate the customer about new or additional additional product uses
49. Help the customer to form a habit around product usage
50. Turn your brand into a self-expressive brand - this is also known as "brand as a badge"

Marketing & Sales

Marketing and sales are important partners in increasing an organization's revenues. However, some might perceive them to be an odd couple, but more about that later.

First, marketing and sales are different. Marketing has many sub-disciplines but overall it is the organization's investment in identifying and building demand for its products and services. Sales, on the other hand, tends to be more tactical and immediate (strategic sales and enterprise sales notwithstanding). It is all about getting the customer to purchase something as quickly as possible. It is about closing the deal. 

Earlier in my career, when I was interviewing for marketing positions, it always raised major "red flags" with me when the employer in question used the words marketing and sales interchangeably or when that employer said he or she was looking for a marketing person when he or she was really looking for a salesperson. 

In many organizations, especially B2B organizations and those organizations that are not marketing-driven, marketing's primary responsibility is to support the selling effort. In this way, the marketing function is primarily a support function for the sales force. In marketing-driven organizations, marketing typically drives many decisions including target customers, product, packaging, pricing and distribution. Product managers or brand managers may also have P&L responsibility. And this is informed by a marketing sub-discipline, marketing research. In these organizations, it would be wise not to refer to marketing as a support function or a marketing professional as a support person. 

Most marketers will have strong communication skills. Depending on the marketing sub-discipline, the ideal marketer might be more intuitive or more analytical. Many marketers are strong both intuitively and analytically. And generally, a marketer is driven by curiosity and variety. A marketer may be introverted or extroverted. 

Alternatively, salespeople must be outgoing, friendly and likable. They must be good at building personal rapport quickly. And it helps if they are good at reading people. Salespeople are often driven by money, which is why sales commissions work so well as incentives. While engineers and scientists can be trained as salespeople to pursue technical sales, the average salesperson is more focused on interpersonal skills than technical skills. Salespeople should not be afraid to make cold calls and they must be able to take rejection in their stride. On the negative side, I have witnessed more than a few salespeople tell potential customers whatever they wanted to hear regardless of the statement's veracity to close the sale.

Organizations that are serious about their marketing functions often require marketers to first take a sales position (or at least a rotation in sales) to better understand the customer and the work of the salesperson before he or she assumes his or her marketing responsibilities. Similarly, some organizations require their marketing managers to monitor or even personally handle customer service calls at least once a year. 

Marketers can help salespeople by creating the appropriate brochures, product spec sheets and other collateral materials. They can also support trades shows, national sales meetings and user conferences. Further, marketers can set up CRM systems that salespeople can use. And marketers can create many online and offline mechanisms to create sales leads for salespeople. And one should not forget strong marketing campaigns and, perhaps even more importantly, strong brands that create customer pull and make the salesperson's job significantly easier. 

Going back to my earlier "odd couple" comment, marketers are often motivated by the brilliant consumer insight, the analytical discovery or the inspired creative campaign, while salespeople are driven by the closed sale and the increased commission. However, the two functions comprise an important duo for any organization that wants to increase its revenues. 

Don't Let Your Sales Force Get Ahead of Your Brand

A talented salesperson could sell an Eskimo snow. This is an extremely important skill set to have at your disposal. But be careful. Salespeople are driven primary by making the sale. And sometimes they will say whatever it takes to get that sale. Brands need to deliver on their promises. Brands that don't get into a lot of trouble. Brands also must act with integrity. Promising something that may not be available or making quality or performance claims that are questionable at best also do not serve brands well. 

Salespeople must be carefully scripted so that they do not over promise or make the wrong brand promises to customers and potential customers. Over promising something may lead to a sale but it is equally as likely to lead to customer disappointment and diminished customer loyalty. It can even lead to customer defection. 

Strong incentives to make the sale are fine as long as they are established within solid brand boundaries. 

I have witnessed companies that have had bad financial results because their salespeople found it easier to sell the company's least profitable products. I have heard salespeople lie about competitors' products to sell their own products instead. And I have witnessed salespeople selling luxury products as value products and vice versa to make a sale to the wrong customer. I have also seen salespeople sell to customers who are poor credit risks. I have heard salespeople promise products that are not available. And I have heard salespeople promise customer benefits that the brand does not deliver. 

Clearly, not all salespeople will get your brand into these types of trouble but it is possible given the nature of their role, their personal motivations and the incentives to which they respond. Make sure your salesperson hiring practices, incentives, recognition programs, selling scripts and training programs reinforce the brand advocating behavior that you desire. It also helps to establish "integrity" as a core organizational value. 

If designed and managed well, your sales force can be one of your organization's most valuable assets. If not, they can detract from the brand and its equity.

Did you know?

• There is a direct correlation between advertising spending, brand awareness, and market share (given that the brand’s distribution is equal to that of other brands in the category and consumers like the brand’s point of difference). In fact, James Gregory and the Corporate Branding Partnership (and others) have linked advertising spending to increases in sales, earnings, market share, and stock price.
• A brand’s perceived quality increases with increases in advertising impressions, regardless of message.
• The more extended a brand becomes, the more it needs sub-brands to aid with its extensions.
• “Purchase intent” tends to be inflated for declining brands and understated for emerging brands.
• Advertising is often most effective in increasing share of market when brands are so similar that the advertising message is the primary source of differentiation.

Excepted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here.

Salespeople as Information Sources

Often salespeople are an organization's overlooked information source. They are out on the front line talking to customers and prospective customers about your organization's brand and its products and services. They hear a lot about customer needs and also about competitive offerings and messaging. The most productive salespeople have probably discovered some brand messages that open doors or even close sales. Wouldn't you like to know what they have found works? You could gather this salesperson information via informal conversations or more formal depth interviews or even focus groups. At a minimum, this approach with help with brand messaging, but perhaps even with brand positioning. Don't overlook your salespeople as a source of customer and marketplace information.

Marketing vs. Brand Management

"Is brand management part of marketing or is marketing part of brand management?" I have been asked this question many times throughout my 30-year career in brand management and marketing. My answer is always, "Yes." Yes, brand management is a part of marketing, which can also include marketing research, product development, product management, advertising, promotion, package design, pricing, distribution, public relations, trade relations, direct marketing, social media marketing, brand licensing (when it is separate from brand management), customer relationship management, retail design, merchandising, sales support, trade show management, and sometimes (but rarely) business development and sales. 

And yes, marketing is a part of brand management, which can also include brand strategy and positioning, brand identity development, brand equity measurement, brand pricing and distribution strategy, brand extension and the largest non-marketing pieces, customer touch point design and inside-out brand building, which typically impacts employee training and communication, corporate culture, recruiting criteria, common measures, organization design, process design, customer service design, recognition and reward systems and organization investment priorities. 

Consider marketing and brand management as two separate functions that have a significant amount of overlap. Picture a Venn diagram with two intersecting circles, one being marketing, the other brand management.

In some organizations (typically houses of brands), product management and brand management are combined. In other organizations (typically branded houses) these functions are managed separately. Some organizations have one person in charge of brand management and marketing, while in other organizations, these two functions are managed separately. Some organizations combine brand management, marketing and organization strategy under one person at a very senior level. While others keep organization strategy separate from brand management and marketing. Sometimes, sales is a part of the mix at a very senior level, while often it is not.

And then there is corporate communications and public affairs. This is occasionally part of marketing, but more often it is managed separately.

Finally, because of brand management's impact on organization design (brands must deliver on their promises), there are a few rare organizations that have combined brand management and human resources at senior levels.

Clearly, the reason people have this question is because the answer to it can vary across organizations depending on the organizations' goals, business models and depths of understanding of these functions.