Jun 3, 2024
Canmore, Alberta

“Well – we might be waiting a long time to get back off of the island…”

(Can’t read the full email – click here for the online version.)

Two weeks ago, we headed to Vancouver to celebrate the wedding of my brother’s eldest son. Since we were going to be on the west coast, my wife decided that it would be nice to see one of her nieces and an aunt, both of whom lived not too far away, in greater Victoria.

For some reason, neither of them replied until just a few days before we left home, leaving us to make some last-minute travel plans.

You see, this particular weekend was a long weekend in Canada – Victoria Day, to be precise. (Named after a long dead Queen of England for my American friends…)

Ensuring one has a spot for one’s vehicle on the hourly ferry to and from the mainland is tough enough on any weekend – but for one of the busiest ones – I was worried we wouldn’t be successful.

Reserving a spot for the outbound journey proved to be quite easy. That day being a Sunday – most travelling folks had already made it to their destination.

But to come back the next day, Monday – that was another thing entirely.

The reservation system showed room on a 9:00 AM sailing or a 6:00 pm sailing. I wanted a mid-afternoon one. My wife told me she had a good book and that we could wait, for a few hours if necessary. She was ok with that.

During the wedding, we were explaining our dilemma to my sister-in-law’s brother. He nodded his head empathetically. He then told us that we could use his VIP pass, that will guarantee us a spot for the car, on any sailing, as long as we arrived 30 minutes before departure. 

Say what?

Forget about reserving in advance. Or waiting and hoping, there would be room. Simply drive up, show your pass and you were on?

This sounded too good to be true.

There’ll be a cost, he said. You will likely have to pay for one of you, as an extra passenger and then they will give you a receipt. Simply pay me via e-transfer once you complete your trip.

So, for our return trip, we arrived at the departure point before the cut-off point, paid the extra amount and were pointed to a lane that led us past hundreds of waiting motorists. 

I thought it quite interesting that even a government managed operation like BC Ferries, understood the power of offering a VIP pass. Though I doubt they have priced it as high as a private operator would.

Nonetheless, there is an important business lesson here.

For almost every service or product that is sold, there will always be those who want and are able, to pay for a premium option. In fact, there may be several levels of premiums that could be applied and there will still be buyers for it.

Offering such premiums is a very simple, yet lucrative way for you to increase both your average transaction price, per buyer but more importantly, your profits.

There is one more advantage too.

By offering premium services and products, you stand a better chance of attracting (and keeping) those customers who prefer to buy such products, versus losing them to your competition. 

Until next week, 

Stay healthy and focus on profit!  

- Hugh 
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert

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