Every Small Business Needs a “Quick Pop” Go-To
What do you do when your business needs money yesterday?
Do you ever notice how some businesses run a particular “special” several times a year? I don’t mean that continuous “sale” that brick and mortar retail stores seem to have going every week. I mean a special offer that is run, at most, once a quarter.
That “special” is their go-to product or service that brings quick cash in the door. It’s an offer they know will be successful and they don’t make it very often.
As a business owner, you should have a go-to product or service that you can use for a quick influx or “pop” of cash in your business. (Yeah, I know. Shouldn’t we all?) It’s something you keep in reserve and only use a couple of times a year as needed.
What should it be? How much money should it bring in? That’s up to you. Let’s consider some of the parameters you may want to set for this secret weapon.
What is the minimum amount of money you want/need for it to bring in?
Sometimes this is based on your monthly expenses or your payroll, or even your quarterly tax payment. The amount of money the offer brings in should be enough to get you out of a financial tight spot. It’s not going to lift you out of years of accumulated debt, but it can float you “over the sandbar” caused by a dry spell or a surprise expense.
Does your “quick pop” tactic have the capacity to bring in the necessary funds?
If your go-to program is low priced, it should also be fairly hands-off. For instance, if you’re selling a $99 mini-course and you know that every time you offer it you can bring in a quick $3,000, that’s terrific — as long as it doesn’t require a lot of personal interaction from you. Paying attention to 30 new clients all at once is going to take up all your time, time that may be better spent working on other projects with clients who pay more. So, low price means you need to make more sales to bring in the funds you need. It also means you should be offering an automated product rather than working one-on-one with people.
But, if every time you offer that $99 course, you get a lukewarm response, selling three or five units, it is probably not what you should offer, especially if you need substantially more money. Yes, it is easier to sell a lower-priced product: There is less risk to the buyer and more people can afford it. You need to do your own math as to whether the time and effort involved in marketing the lower-priced product might be better spent offering a higher-priced product. The higher-priced product may bring in fewer sales but more revenue.
Either way, your “go-to quick pop” tactic should, at minimum, have the capacity to bring in the revenue you need.
Do you have the necessary pieces in place to market this properly?
Does this go-to special need a lot of set up? For example, many internet marketers run a four video launch once or twice a year. It is usually preceded by an email series that is sent out by the marketer and his affiliate partners. It requires completed videos, a place to host the videos, an email sales campaign, a sales page with payment options, follow-up emails during the launch, and then delivery of the product itself. It has a lot of moving parts and requires a lot of prep and set-up time as well as coordination with others. Once you have your videos and sales page set up, your emails written, your product ready to deliver, it gets easier, but it is still a major undertaking.
Compare that with a marketer I know who teaches coaches how to run group coaching programs. He sends out a series of emails to a list he has built over time. It’s a higher ticket item, $5,000. He “only” needs to get 20 people to bring in a quick $100,000. What if he only gets five people? That’s still $25,000 in the door. He has done the foundational work of building a large list of people who are interested in his services. He has the email series written and set up on his email platform. Now he has the capacity to pop quick sales whenever he needs.
How much time is needed to deliver the product or services?
I once offered six months of unlimited coaching for a flat fee. There were parameters built in, of course — things like completing an assignment from a session before requesting another session, hours of availability, etc. But I was committing myself to six months of being on the hook, time-wise. A lot of coaches and consultants will offer a package like this because they know that most people won’t request a lot of time. Clients will typically schedule a few coaching sessions and then life will get in their way. I don’t particularly want to bet on my clients not following through on things. I want to see them succeed. As a program, it just didn’t sit right with me ethically. Once I factored in the time involved, as well as the personal interaction, I kicked that program to the curb. It wasn’t a good fit for me.
Activate Your Quick Pop
Think about what you may be able to offer that will bring a quick pop cash infusion to your business. Think specifically about what people want, more than what they need. (People buy what they want before they buy what they need.) You offer what they want. You include what they need. You may end up creating a special bundle of products or services at a “no-brainer” price that people just can’t resist. You might have to try several different offers before you find the one that people respond to. That’s normal.
Finally, Don’t Devalue Your Quick-Pop
Use your quick-pop offer sparingly. I am on a mailing list that is constantly offering their yearly subscription at the sale price of $99. I feel no urgency to buy in because I know I’ll get another email in a day or two with the same “special offer.” In this case, they’re not only “going to the well” too often, but they have devalued their service. Keep the offer for when you really need it.
This is from my latest book, Revenue Generating Activities. The book has over 40 revenue generating tactics for small businesses, including three quick-pop suggestions that will work for any business. On pre-sale now.