How To Profit From Product Bundles
By John Sanpietro, Certified Business Coach
Last month, I wrote about how easy it was to run a profitable stamping business, as long as you were fully committed to making a profit. Fully committed not only means making decisions that lead to making money. It also means making the tough decisions you have to make when you know something is NOT going to make you money. The new Product Bundles present a perfect opportunity to test that commitment.
I think the Product Bundles are a great idea. I think, when used properly, they can make you a lot of money! Unfortunately, when used improperly, they can also cost you a lot of money and dig you into a deep financial hole.
So… how do you use the Product Bundles to your advantage? Read on…
1. Only Buy Them If You Can Sell Them (Part 1)
Whether discounted or free, the Product Bundles won't save you money if you weren't goingto purchase the individual products in the first place! You have to honestly assess whether or not the products in the Bundle are the products your customers will be most interested in.
Are the products in the Bundle the most saleable product? Is this the product you would have purchased anyway? If not, then any money you might be saving on the front end is nothing compared to the amount of money you may be losing on the back end in lost sales commissions.
Remember… you only have so much money to invest in your business. You have to make sure you're investing that money on the product that's going to give you the BEST return…and customer interest is a big contributing factor to that.
2. Only Buy Them If You Can Sell Them (Part 2)
Even though you're going to be seeing a lot of new product in the next month or two, you may not realistically have a large enough business to justify the purchase of additional product, discounted or not.
Look at your current inventory. If you still have several items you haven't shown your customers yet, or items you have only sold one or two of all year, you should probably hold off on any additional purchases. You have to work your way through your existing inventory AND sell enough of it to make a profit, BEFORE you purchase any additional product. Otherwise, you're just compounding the problem.
Remember… just because the product isn't new to you, if your customers still haven't seen it, it's new to them! It doesn't matter if it's three years old. It's still new to them.
3. Count the Product Bundles Toward Your Inventory
A discounted bundle isn't saving you any money if you purchase the Bundle in addition to everything else you were going to buy anyway! In that case, you're not saving 20 or 40%… you're just spending an additional 60 or 80%!
For example, if you were going to purchase seven stamp sets, and the Product Bundle you purchased contained three stamp sets, you should only buy four more stamp sets… NOT seven!
Even if you get the Product Bundle for free, the only way to REALLY save money is to deduct what's in the Bundle from what you were planning on purchasing.
Now, I know that isn't a lot of fun, but that's what a commitment to profitability requires. An actual commitment to make a profit!
If you follow these suggestions, then you can really benefit from the Product Bundles. If not, then they can end up costing you and your business a lot more money.
As always, the choice is yours.
Warmest regards,
John
John Sanpietro
Certified Business Coach
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