No matter how great a product, service, category or industry seems, there is always room for innovation that can drive more sales.
Oftentimes we unknowingly create barriers to purchase simply because we don’t understand they exist as they aren’t insurmountable, just annoying. Or, we leave industry-accepted barriers in place because that’s just the way everyone does it.
One of the surest routes to drive new sales is to look for ways to remove as many barriers as possible. Entire industries have be reconfigured by people (usually from outside the industry) that look to some combination of the following elements for clues to the keys to innovation.
- Price – I don’t understand your pricing model or I don’t appreciate the perceived value you attach to the price. Explain why you priced it like you have and go to work on a price/value combination that blows everyone else away. (Hint: Don’t just lower the price, heap on value!)
- Package – I don’t get why I can’t buy it the way I want. Why can’t I bundle, mix and match and create pairings that make sense to me. Deconstruct how products and services are generally sold.
- Access – I want to buy direct from the source, see the product being made and talk to the people I might engage. Find ways to break down normal distribution channels and put faces on the people that do everything in your organization.
- Payment – I will gladly repay you Tuesday for a . . . today. Find ways to create the most favorable payment structure you can afford.
- Quality – I don’t want what the industry puts out there. Go over every inch of what you sell and find ways to make it better and demonstrate just how much attention is given to your quality. Define your processes so I know what I’m getting has a great deal put into it.
- Training – I just don’t think it will work for me. Teach me how it works, assure me that you’ll be with me until I get the result and perhaps long after as I try to get even more from my purchase.
- Accountability – I’ve been down this road before and I know I won’t use it like I should. Add a level of accountability. Show me how you will make it work for me this time, create a feature that allows me to track my progress or better still tell me that you’re going to work with me until it works this time.
- Design – This doesn’t wow me at all. What if you used design as a point of difference? What if you caught my attention because your space, packaging, product, communications and materials were stunning in field where everyone else just did enough to get by?
- Proof – Sure it sound good on paper, but . . .Get data, get tangible proof, get customers so thrilled with the actual, measurable results they’ve received that they are willing to sing your praises to the point where the proof in your promise is overwhelming.
- Assurance – The truth is I don’t really trust myself. Let me know that if it doesn’t work out, for any reason at all, for absurd, no fault, it was just an impulse and now I changed my mind, I can get my money back!
