dramatically. To pump profits even further, we agreed it would be a good idea to have normal insurance as well as, premium. Premium insurance would be like icing on the cake.

We thought of at least another six things to put on a checklist to upsell every single client and most importantly, I finally convinced Barbara to up her prices by 10 percent. Of course this meant we had to redo the quotes and turn them into action plans.

Then came the toughest part.

We had the solution; now it was a matter of getting her sales team members to sell it. Scripts were made up so that all customers were offered insurance. Well maybe not offered-it was more or less sold to them. You see, instead of getting the sales team to ask, Would you like to take out insurance with that? to which most would simply say, No, thank you, they asked Which would you like, our normal or our premium insurance? The customer wasn't really given a choice.

By carefully phrasing the question in this way, the customer felt obliged to go with one of the insurance packages-and often it would be premium for the extra peace of mind since they were going to take insurance anyway.

That one idea changed my thinking about the entire business, Brad. Since then we've added dry cleaning and gardening to our checklist of services. They all help add value to the customer's experience and as result our average dollar sale and subsequent profits are terrific, Barbara said.

Oh and the price rise-once we trained the sales team, no one even questioned it. Now on the same turnover, we make about five times as much profit.

Maybe it's time I thought about offering a few extra products and services, Charlie thought aloud.

And don't forget to think about how you ask customers if they want them, added Barbara. What made the insurance idea so successful was the way it was presented, she concluded as we waved good-bye.

No longer dumbstruck by the simplicity of the success stories he was witnessing firsthand, Charlie began appreciating the possibility that their success 48