I have over 50 products in my range, is it time to cut back?

This is a hard one. Lots of people say that you should use the 80:20 rule – that is, you will sell 20% of your range to 80% of your customers.

However, I have just finished reading Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin, where he talks about the larger your range the more products you will sell.

I know that this doesn’t help, so instead think about:

• Why do you have 50 products in the range?
• Do you need 50?
• Do all of them sell? Or are there some real dogs in there?
• When was the last time you refreshed your range?
• What feedback have you had from customers on your range?

This is a dilemma that affects many businesses, including mine. When you have so much cash tied up in inventory it causes you issues, but often you can feel like you need to have all 50 and you don’t want to reduce the number and have people moan that they don’t like ANY of them!

Think about your point of difference versus your competitors. Do you say, ‘we have the widest selection of widgets’? Or do you say, ‘we have the cheapest widgets’? Or perhaps, ‘we have the most wonderful widgets’? Whatever you are trying to say, you need to make sure that message flows down into your product range.

Put on your hard-nosed business hat, get consistent and even kill some products if necessary.

Of course, you’ll need to be prepared to stick with your decision. As soon as I decide I am going to kill off a Mocks design (but haven’t told customers), sales really pick up – weird hey?

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks www.MyMocks.com and author of Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.

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