Just how much is that customer worth?

There is a lot to celebrate

Let’s perform a little calculation on your customers. Follow along with the math. What is the size of your average sales ticket? How many times a year does a customer come into your liquor store? Multiply the two and the answer is how much that customer spends in a year. How many years does the average customer spend with you. Add that multiplier and now you have an idea of how much they spend in their lifetime.

One last calculation; what is your gross margin? Multiply that gross margin by the lifetime spending and you have how much profit you make from the average customer. Pretty substantial number, don’t you think? Perhaps we should work harder to keep that customer and to get more customers.

The alternative is to constantly work to get new customers. We see that most frequently by way of a weekly newspaper advertisement and those big holiday inserts saying, “shop our discounted prices for your holiday party”. While the industry seems to have a tradition of using this methodology, research says the higher the discount the customer receives, the less likely the customer will return even a second time.

There is another issue with the alternative; it is so expensive, and to gain market share, most retailers will do more of that expensive advertising and discounting to do so. Could we consider different ways of keeping that customer and getting more customers like them?

With most of the world wanting to play that “game” of discounting prices, we must remember the store that becomes a commodity last is the winner. Being the store that operates different will require different thinking.

What if we to look at the part we play in their lives? The dinners, celebrations, watching sporting events, picnics and parties; even, “the work week is over” moment. More than just the drink recipe card that distilleries hang in pads in front of their product, we could teach our customers, on an individual basis, how to enjoy the products, and related items we sell them.

What if we were to visit websites, such as nationaldaycalendar.com to find all the many special days during the year. After all, isn’t “talk like a pirate” day, a reason for our customers to enjoy what we sell? Being the business that communicates this information and ideas for celebration makes us very different from the business that wants to communicate the item and price advertising.

We could take a page from the playbook of the back to school promotions in which we see retailers creating pre-determined packages of merchandise based upon the guidelines given by the teacher.

Substitute the various events and celebrations you call to your customer’s attention and instead of selling a liter of some product, you make a sale of a complete “celebration in a box”. The more items your state laws allow you to sell, the more items you can add to the box.

Your outbound email campaigns can become interesting and entertaining news you are sharing; showing how you can help your customers enjoy and celebrate their lives. Your store is a part of their life; the others are a liquor store.

We remember a class we used to attend every year or so. The instructor, while engaging, made a point of giving a postcard to every attendee. While we last attended that class over twenty years ago, we remember the message imprinted on the card; “Here’s to the holidays; all 365 of them”.

If you would like to send this article to someone you know, please use this form to forward this page:

Your Name:	E-Mail:
Friend's Name:	E-Mail:
	Security Code: