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3 Promotions That Changed My Business. Stats that I heard recently that reinforced challenges to traditional retail. Universal premise…create more opportunities for transactions to take place.
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3 Promotions That Changed My Business • Stats that I heard recently that reinforced challenges to traditional retail. • Universal premise…create more opportunities for transactions to take place. • We now have 600 students at Monster Music, and I consider those 600 opportunities to make a sale each week.
Promotion #1: Free Guitar Deal • Origins: • Every year in late may, a significant % of our students would stop for the summer. • My teachers still need to eat over the summer. • How do I incentivize people to take lessons at a time of year when they otherwise don’t normally wish to take them?
Details of the Free Guitar Deal • Buy 20 weeks of lessons — at my store I charge $450 — and I will give you a brand-new acoustic guitar for free. • KMC, Stagg and the Music Link are just some of the companies that I buy guitars from that I use in this promotion. • Me to my sales rep: “How would you like to sell 50 guitars today”?
How do I sell it? • For $450, you get 5 MONTHS WORTH of lessons, PLUS a guitar with a perceived value of $200.
How do I sell it? • For $450, you get 5 MONTHS WORTH of lessons PLUS a guitar with a perceived value of $200. • The Catch? You start taking the lessons NOW. • The deadline to sign up is Memorial Day because this is the day where there is a profound change in mindset.
More Details… • Some people don’t actually take the lessons. They sign up, pay the $450, take the guitar with them, and I never see them again. • Most people take the lessons, and it creates a seamless bridge to back-to-school. • Many of the new students don’t get halfway through the cycle before they start looking at the expensive acoustics and think about trading up.
Bottom Line: This Program Creates Customers • Many can’t wait to sign up again. “Time for me to sign up for another 20 lessons”! • Another special? Me: “I gave you a free guitar last time, but how about a $50 gift certificate.” • Huge number of my BEST CUSTOMERS began doing business with me, and 1/3 of my active students began with a free guitar deal.
Promotion #2: Free Use of Any Band Instrument for the Summer • With a hard deadline of mid-June, if you sign up for 12 weeks of lessons on a specific band instrument, I will give you free use of that same band instrument for the entire summer. • Every store that rents instruments has a GIANT pile of instruments that generally settle in for the entire summer before getting rented out after Labor Day.
Put them to a better use! • Ask the question, “What instrument have you always wanted to play?” • Here is a cello…take it with you…how about really expensive instruments, like the oboe or the upright bass? • Many people fall in love with their new instrument… “Can I rent this for the whole year”?
Layaway Madness • Every music store has a layaway program…nothing novel here…but… • HUGE INCREASE IN AWARENESS as major retailers were aggressively promoting layaway. • When Walmart advertises layaway, it is less an advertisement for Walmart and more an advertisement for layaway.
Psychological Impact • As with the lesson program, people see 25 people in the store at any one time…not sure what is going on here but something sure is! • Big layaway section screams unconsciously, “You better put something down if you want any chance at owning this instrument!” • And yes, you ARE obligated to buy.
