Sales Down? Change Your Offer

Drue Sanders, founder of Albany-based Drue Sanders Custom Jewelers, stocked up on more silver inventory than gold in response to her gold sales drastically dropping during the 2008 holiday season. Since silver prices are starkly cheaper than gold or platinum, Sanders was able to sell merchandise at a considerably lower price - something not only benefiting her customers' needs, but Sanders' needs as well, since moving greater volume helped compensate for a decrease in big-ticket sales. The recent Wall Street Journal article, "Smart Ways to Cut Prices," proves that flexibility is crucial for maintaining consistent profit margins. A few months ago, many of our readers echoed this sentiment in our annual Success Guide. Mardy Sitzer, president of Bumblebee Design & Marketing, found success in a down economy with a similar strategy. "We've eliminated services that were cumbersome and no longer profitable and focused on what our core business really is about. When we started 15 years ago, the ratio of print media to Web was the reverse of what it is today. We provided a lot of production services to accommodate direct mail and other print and fulfillment requirements for our clients. As things began to more toward more digital and less print, it no longer paid for us to maintain the equipment and staff to support production, which was eroding our profitability. As the numbers began to tell the story, we had to cut and move on. Interestingly enough, the cuts made room for us to grow faster in other departments." Has flexibility in your product or service offering generated revenue for your business? I want to hear about it.