Some call it upselling or cross-selling—it’s that process where you place an order and the order taker then offers you a potential add-on. It’s an effective strategy. Asking if you want fries with your order changed the revenue course for McDonald’s and countless other enterprises. The secret behind the success is that the customer has already made a decision to buy. That leaves you with one hurdle behind you; now you need to convince them to buy more.

What are the fries you have to offer? Different finishing options? Enhancement with foil or varnish? Unusual substrates? Larger format sizes? There may be dozens of options you could offer. You may be offering them when customers ask, but haven’t worked them into the mainstream of your sales process. This is the time to change that!

In the last episode the homework was to look at what you have to offer—your fries—and think about your cost to produce work with those options. This gives you a sense of what your options for discounting and bundling can be. Even if you consider yourself a pure transactional printer or a letter mail producer, a catalog producer, or label printer, think about finishing and bundling options! Look carefully at the capabilities of your equipment. Talk to your vendors and listen to their recommendations—they see everything their other clients do with their equipment and software.