Just Ask

0:04 Hi, you live, don too censure wow for you young. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures Pipe Man W four c Y Radio with a once again positively Pipeman segment powerful business strategies and I'm gonna ask Michael Barbarita from Next Step CFO if he wants fries with that. Well, that is the single question that makes McDonald's millions of dollars every single day. And here's why it mattens to your audience, Dean, and thank you for having me.

0:53 By the way, the reason why it mattens is that thirty four percent of customers will buy additional products or service says at the time of purchase if you simply ask. And the problem is is that most business owners don't ask. So when you think about it, you know you're not chasing leads. This is just an additional sale that would have never happened otherwise by simply asking. And companies and Amazon is also great at this, where you know you buy one product, that's making suggestions on other products that you should buy that are similar that other people have bought after they bought the same product. And it's a strategy that works incredibly well. And everybody's website should also have suggestive selling incorporated it if especially if there's some type of e commerce company. But even beside that, I don't care who you are. Anytime you make a sale, you should be asking for another one, and with different products or services that in all likelihood the customer does not know that you have and that you offer and that the other thing. You know, I was telling talking to a client today and I said, you know, every business owner thinks that someone like Michael Jordan or Abraham Lincoln with it. They're just not forgettable. They're very forgettable, very forgettable. Because a lot of a lot of my clients when I talk about drip campaigns and reaching out

2:25 to former former customers, they haven't bought for you from you in a while. Oh, they know who I am, they know how they and they know who they know me, They know who I am, who we are. You know we did business with them. They don't. They forget, Yeah, and they need to be reminded. Uh. I've got so many clients that just don't understand that concept of rejuvenating former customers and the concept of simply asking just ask if there's if you made a sale, you've got them in the right position. They're there, they get their wallets out because they're buying from you already, and one third of the time they're gonna buy something else. Will you get rejected? Yeah, two thirds of the time yep. But the other one third at the time, you're gonna get additional business. You're gonna increase your average dollar per sale.

3:21 There's a saying that I live by, and that is ask equals get, which also translates to if you don't ask, you don't yet. That's right, It's so true. And a lot of business owners in every one of your whether it's a sales presentation or some type of a communication with customers, whether it's online or otherwise, you need to have suggestive selling to sell something else. Do you want fries with that? Do you want a coke with that? All of that type of suggestice ouse. Would you like to super size that? Yes? Which you'd like to super size that. It's it's just it's incredible how much money that has made companies like McDonald's, like Amazon. And it's a very it's not a difficult thing. And you know, all we're saying is, you know, just ask, just ask. And by the way, many times I have a client in the roofing business, and he also sells siding and gutters, and fortunately or unfortunately, the name of his company has the word roofing in it, so people just think he sells roofing. Yeah, okay, that's all and so uh you know, and and this past year almost ninety percent of his sales were roofing. I said, you need to let your customers know at the point of sale, as well as to drip campaigns, but at

4:55 the point of sale that you sell roofing, I'm sorting siding and gutters and windows too, by the way, So he sells all these things. It has the ability to sell all these things, but customers don't know, mainly because of his name, but maybe not. I bet you if his name didn't have the word roofing in it, these customers still wouldn't know he did siding, guts and windows. Yeah, and so it's it's really paramount. We know our companies better than the customer does. By a landslide, and that's how we have to think about it. By a landslide, they don't know we sell half the stuff that we do sell. They forget that we sell the primary stuff that we sold them.

5:37 That's what we are so important because you know how many times people buy services and products from another company that you do and they never knew you did it, and it would have been such an easy sale. That's right, And that's what kills me because I think if if people think about how they deal with their own life, who is that company I used? Who was that business that I had I used a few years back that did such a great job? They forgot? Yeah, that's okay, people forget. They don't it's not your name, is it Abraham Lincoln? You know, it's not. It's not something of Michael Jordan where it's something that they're gonna absolutely remember or know. It's just isn't that way. You're just a company that's in the sea of other companies and other businesses, and so it's critical that you just ask thirty four percent of the time.

6:34 I'll tell you what too. I have a story myself. You know, when I worked at Prudential staring off in the financial industry. What you used to do is you used to set appointments based on giving them a quote on their auto insurance to save the money on their auto insurance. But really the real reason you were there was to sell life insurance, but you didn't go in with that, so you went in with the and then you saved the money you're and while you're writing the auto insurance, that's when you open up the door for the life insurance. But really the money that you really made as the agent was off the life insurance, not off the auto policy. And I'm mentioning that because sometimes when you just ask, you're going to get a much bigger profit than what you initially sold, right, agreed.

7:26 Uh, yeah, it really is amazing how much you can increase your average ticket per customer by just simply asking. That's it. That's all you have to do. No, no, not a big it's not a big ask. No it's not. No, it's not so So why do you think people just don't ask? I think they're so focused on making the initial sale and so happy that they made it that you know, or sometimes the mechanics of closing a sale are extensive. Okay, well you have to write stuff up and that type of thing, and and they either don't think about it or don't just they're just happy with what they got when it yeah, yeah, just happy with what they got, you know.

8:17 And the thing is too, it is that a lot of times in that scenario, like that's the best part and time in your relationship with that client is at the moment of sale. So the most likelihood that you're gonna get people to listen to you about other products and services that you have is right then and there. Right, that's it. That's the point. That's the point when they're ready the most active to purchase. And by the way, so there's also another point in time that it actually also has a high close rate, and that is at the end when a job is complete. It especially in the trades, especially in the trades, a job is completed, the customer is really happy and now you're telling me what else yourself. Un believable works very.

9:09 Well exactly because once you have a relationship, they're most likely to do business. With you, absolutely and that's the best time to ask them for a review as well. Yeah, and referral right, do it all, do it all, kill it all. So anything else you want to share about this subject and also tell people how they can reach out to you for more information and more help in this arena. Yes, So the way what I love to do to help help business owners and help myself to be honest with you is do book interviews. We're always updating our book. There's always something new happening in business. I mean a year ago, tarifs were something that was just a word, and now it has an impact in business. And so you know, that's why I always say business is always changing, and I need to constantly update my book to get new and fresh information in there and fresh ideas which I get from business owners to book interviews, and it works really simple. At sixty minutes on Zoom. I share strategies for my book and then I ask the interviewee if they were if a business owner in their industry were to implement that strategy, what would the impact be, and then I document it for the book. It's an industry perspective that I like getting.

10:27 Love it. Love what you do to help businesses. They need it more than ever I think nowadays. And thank you Michael for all the great advice you give, and thanks for being here on the Positively Pipemin segment of the Adventures of Pipemin. Thanks for having me gat me. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on w for CUI Radio.