with Cam Petty

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Expanding your company’s products or offerings can seem exciting and daunting. On one hand, there is so much excitement about expanding, but on the other is fear that your expansion might fail. By fail we mean, the product may not perform well, the service may never be booked, or you may lose money on whatever the new investment is. All of those thoughts (and many more like it) are super reasonable when you start asking questions about expanding.

In this episode, Cam discusses how to expand your offerings in your rental company and how to make the best decisions moving forward on expanding.

First and Foremost

Before you start the process of expanding your offerings, there are some key criteria for starting off on the right foot to lead to success. Your company should be operating like a well-oiled machine, you should have 100% of a support system, and be making a profit from your current offerings.

However, being profitable can be a loose requirement if truly know that your product/expansion really can assist you in becoming profitable. This isn’t an area you typically want to take huge chances!

In addition to the above things, you have to plan ahead in ensuring your team is set up for success so the new offering is executed.

What offerings do clients want?

Asking yourself what’re your clients asking for or if they’re asking for anything is important when deciding if you can or should bring on this new product or service. If the majority of your clients are asking for specific pieces, pay attention to that!

In addition to thinking about what your clients want, you have to be asking yourself, “what are the desires of my heart for this company?” You wouldn’t ask yourself this with single inventory pieces to add or custom pieces, but you should ask it with new styles, services, or any bigger offering that is different from what you are already doing.  

Lastly, you need to find the demand in your current market. You already have the product clients are seeking, you’re aware of what they are wanting, and you know what direction you want your company to go in, and you need to project what new offerings you need to think about to stay competitive in your market.

How to discuss this with your clients

So if we’re telling you that you should be asking your clients what they want then it would be helpful for us to provide you with some guidance on how to form and ask those questions. Here are a few examples of thoughtful questions you could consider asking your new and repeat clients pertaining to expanding your offerings:

• Can you tell me more about what you would expect from our team if we offered this service?
• Can you explain your expectations for this product if we added it to our inventory?
• What would you expect to pay for these products/services?
• How much time do you think it should take to complete this service?

Following Up With our Client

After you have gathered your client feedback talk to your team members. Give them a space to share their thoughts on the potential expansion. Once you have reached a unified decision, connect with your clients soon after to share your decision on the expansion and thank them for their input on the product or new service. Your follow-up timeline should be communicated soon after their initial ask. Tell them your timeline for following up with them on if you’re going to expand your product/service for that event.

Once you let them know what you have decided, and if it’s a yes to a new offering, ask them if they’d like to add it to their order. You could thank your client for their insight/helping you figure out the expansion by offering them a discount but only if you want! Especially if you know you may receive great marketing material for your new product/service, you could provide free or discounted styling pieces to really get the look you want for your marketing.

Questions to ask yourself and your team about potential new offerings

In the same way, we’re saying you should include your clients in the conversation, you most definitely should be including your team! Here is a list of questions to consider asking your team when making decisions about potential expansions:

• What is the purpose of adding this offering?
• What will be the result of adding this offering?
• How are we hoping our clients respond to us making this offering available?
• How much of our team’s time will it take to add this offering (in planning)?
• How much of our team’s time will it take to upkeep this offering (once available)?
• What does the process of sourcing and buying this product look like?
• What will the process look like for packing, installing, and retrieving this piece?
• Will there be additional labor or charges to add this product/service?
• What will the follow-up process look like for this product/service (survey requests, thank you notes, Google review requests, etc.)

How Much Do you Charge?

You can charge however much you want. However, consider what you would pay and what your clients expect to pay and go from there. A flat rate? Hourly? Per product? Per day/hour/month/week? As the business owner, you get to make this decision. You should be making an informed decision based on your clients, competitors, and the industry you are in.

You may need to test out your market and be aware that the price or structure of your new offering may need to change, and know that you can change it. We actually encourage it! If your new product is getting booked a lot, consider increasing the price slightly. If it’s not working well or no one is requesting the service, you might have it priced too high and need to bring it down.

Marketing + Maintaining your new offering

Set up time in the calendar to check in on your new offering. Not just once a couple of weeks out, though. We recommend coming back to your offering and tracking its success at 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 6 months, and 1 year. We do this to measure success in so many other areas of our company, so we should do this for anything else we try to bring on board!

If it’s not working, focus on that. If it needs updating, change it. Be intentional with keeping your new product or service as something you offer, not just as an added thing to your business clients can request.

As always we are here for you and hope you enjoy this episode! Reach out to us at info@therender.co with any follow-up questions!

Joyfully,

TJ White | Content Manager