
When a mid-year review of your bottom line reveals you must cut costs and increase sales right now or face losses this fiscal year, what do you do to salvage your year? On paper, the choices look easy. You must either sell more or decrease the cost of sales.
Selling more can be tough when the economy is challenging, yet there are always people ready to buy if the pricing and timing are right. You can achieve increase sales volume by selling a few more big-ticket items or lots more lower-priced items. If you keep in mind that your real objective is to increase profits, not just the dollar amount or number of items sold, you can offer incentives in the form of price cuts or discounts to move more product and reduce warehousing costs. Depending on your product, you can pursue the economics of selling fewer at a higher price, which can still produce more revenue in some cases....