How to Increase Sales From the Customers You Already Have
As a marketer working with DZ operators, a lot of the conversation centers around bringing in more tandem students. But there’s another lever that often gets overlooked: how to maximize a customer’s average overall spend per visit, beyond the tandem and video.
More specifically:
- How can we increase the conversion rate of second-purchase tandems on the same day?
- How can we grow merchandise sales, from small add-ons that stack up over time to higher-value branded apparel?
In this article, I’m going to highlight a few simple keys that need to be in place to create more conversion opportunities, generate more sales, and ultimately drive more revenue.
I. Setting Up the Sale
The first step is to set up the sale, and it starts long before your customer is ever presented with the opportunity to purchase something. It begins in your confirmation emails.
As a DZ, confirmation emails should go beyond date, time, and requirements. The confirmation should feel like a celebration with your customer. Remember, this is a life-changing event, so the confirmation email should reflect that.
At the bottom of each confirmation email, include a small section that’s clearly defined and intentionally written differently across your three separate confirmation emails. For example:
Confirmation Email 1 (sent immediately after booking)
A GOLDEN TICKET
Not to put the carriage before the horse, but we just know you’re going to love this experience.
You don’t think it’s important now, but you will after you land. After your jump, you’ll be presented with the opportunity to jump again for $XX OFF. Pardon the pun, but you’ll want to jump on this.
Confirmation Email 2 (sent 24 hours before the skydive)
DON’T FORGET…
Don’t forget the golden ticket. After you land, you’ll be presented with the opportunity to jump again for $XX OFF. You don’t think you’ll want this deal now, but you will, because this experience is so much more than you think it is. Remember, this will be offered only once and it must be purchased on the same day as your jump. After that, the golden ticket fades away.
Final Confirmation Email (sent on the day of the skydive)
REMEMBER…
After your skydive, you’ll be presented with the golden ticket of offers: jumping again for $XX OFF. You’ll be offered this just once, and it must be purchased today. Don’t miss this opportunity.
Note the technique here: we’re not calling this a sale. It’s an “opportunity.” It has scarcity, it’s fun, and it’s memorable.
II. Customer Routing
How you route your customers through their experience has a direct correlation with sales.
Think about landing at an international airport and being routed through Duty Free on the way to immigration, or walking through the staged rooms at IKEA before getting to the warehouse pick-up area. The path is designed to maximize exposure to add-ons and “I didn’t know I needed that” items.
It’s no different at a dropzone. Think about the routing of your customers:
- Checking in for a jump
- Purchasing water or snacks
- Meeting for training
- Meeting the instructor and getting geared up
- Getting de-geared down
When I ran a dropzone, I wanted to ensure that all of these moments centered around, or took place in close proximity to, merchandise: hats, shirts, lip balm, the little stuff.
This is all part of the setup. Sales seldom happen before the skydive, but you want customers to see what’s available before the key sales moment occurs, which is after the jump, when all that serotonin, nervous energy, and pent-up emotion is released. After a life-changing experience, spending an extra $20 is a lot easier than it is beforehand.
III. Invite Them to the Sale
The first two steps set customers up for the sale. This step is the invitation to spend, and it has to happen at the right time, in the right place, and from the right people: the tandem instructor and the admin staff.
Timing
The invitation begins after landing. Your customer is amped, and they’re in that headspace of lowered inhibitions and a more open mind to buying.
After all, why wouldn’t someone want a memento from a life-changing experience? A coffee mug, tee shirt, hat, key ring, or even another jump.
Intentional price points should be set to match every budget. But if someone isn’t buying anything after having a great time, something is broken in your system.
Tandem Instructor
When the tandem instructor de-gears the student*, the process should include telling the student they did superbly well (assuming they really did and weren’t puking their guts out under canopy) and that there is a special offer that’s truly worth considering.
The instructor can highlight that it’s a win-win: the student gets $XX off a next jump, and it keeps professional instructors doing what they love, jumping.
It’s important that the tandem instructor is part of this sales process because this is the relationship that holds the most trust. The student just shared a life-changing experience with that instructor, and a recommendation in that moment goes a long way.
Location
The final encounter should happen inside the store, where merchandise is visible and easy to grab, and where the next tandem can be purchased as well. This is where the last offer is made by admin staff: the opportunity to jump again for the discounted price, with the reminder that it must be purchased that day to capitalize**.
IV. Friction-Free Closing
When admin staff makes the final offer, there can be no friction getting in the way of the sale.
That means if someone wants to buy something, their wallet needs to be readily available, not sitting in the car. The moment they walk to the car, all kinds of distractions can happen: a phone call, checking messages, a bathroom trip, family wrangling, you name it.
Once they’re at the car, they can just as easily drive away instead of coming back in to complete the purchase.
I recommend every dropzone has a secure place to lock up valuables for students, so they don’t need to go back to their car for wallets and phones.
