There is a gallery in my area that once fascinated me. The displays were interesting, the work inventive, the artists fresh. I brought all my out-of-town visitors to see this treasure of a gallery. By the time spring faded to summer and fall came, I was so familiar with the gallery's inventory, that I could give visitors a detailed tour.
Nothing changed… the same artists showed the same items in the same display. I got bored. Finally, I stopped going.
When I told friends about the gallery, they mentioned the same thing happened to them at seminars: "you see the same instructors with the same topics."
I began to wonder how many people have quit exploring a business because they see the same people with the same products time after time?
Best-Sellers Come with a Shelf-life
Your best-selling line is a temporary thing. After your clients have purchased it once for themselves and again as a gift, interest begins to drop. If you want to stick with one product, you will have to constantly depend on new customers. Business research says that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers.
If you want to keep your current customers, you'll need to offer them something new. Adding products to your line can mean enhancing something you currently have or making something new with the materials already at hand. This is true in any business, from art to instruction.
Make Loyal Clients Repeat Purchasers
Susan Loy and Ron Ayers, partners in Literary Calligraphy, create prints that incorporate flowers and biblical or literary quotes in detailed calligraphy. They offer a choice of frames to please their clients. Their clients purchased the prints for housewarming, wedding and anniversary gifts.
When Susan wanted to reach a larger audience, adding a line of note cards fit the bill. It created a lower-priced item that allowed a larger audience to become clients. Then Ron added a calendar, which extended the line to new and existing customers. Recently, the partners added a self-published book of their illustrations. "In addition to extending our product line, the book brings us to new venues-book signings-that we didn't reach before," Ron says.
"Clients who bought the calendars love knowing that the book includes even more pictures. And the book is a great way to show our line of prints to people who aren't familiar with our work."
These artists gave a lot of thought to each new product, planning items that would attract both a new audience and satisfy existing clients. While each venture brought its own challenges and problems, the benefit of using the existing work in new ways is paying off.
Adding line extensions–more products in the same theme as the work you already do–can significantly bring you more customers. Using materials you already have can save you money. Both combined can make a significant contribution to the health of your business.
About the Author: Quinn McDonald is a writer and nationally-known speaker who has achieved the "Professional" designation from the National Speakers Association. Contact Quinn through her website, QuinnCreative.com.