If you were with us last March, this month's exercise will be a breeze. But audience demographics change over time. So even if you reviewed your offerings against your audience back in March, it'll pay to do it again. By periodically checking your product offerings, you can minimize any missteps quickly, adjusting your product offerings before it cuts into your bottom line.

Pull the numbers

Start by using the Product Sales Report and Microsoft® Excel® to determine which products have sold best for you over time. You'll find the Product Sales Report under the "My Reports" menu in the Reseller Control Center. You'll want to look at a minimum of three months worth of data, to get a feel for month-to-month trends.

First, run your report using the Order Type filter to isolate 'New Purchases'. Export this data to your spreadsheet program, and sort highest to lowest UNITS for each month. This tells you what your top products are by volume

Next, sort highest to lowest on COMMISSION to find out which products are bringing you the most income. It might be useful to highlight your top five, so you can find them at a glance. Now answer the following:

• What are your top five products for volume as new purchases?
• What are your top five products for commission as new purchases?
• How much cross-over is there between your top five for volume and commission?
• Are your top five always the same or do you see spikes and variations?

Hold on to that data. Now do the same exercise with the Product Sales Report, only this time set the Order Type filter to 'Renewals'. Again, compare your monthly data and answer the four questions:

• What are your top five products for volume as new purchases?
• What are your top five products for commission as new purchases?
• How much cross-over is there between your top five for volume and commission?
• Are your top five always the same or do you see spikes and variations?

Compare new sales to renewals

If your top five products for new sales and renewals match pretty closely, these are the products you should emphasize in your advertising. To increase income, send an email promoting natural add-on products (e.g. If one of your top five is hosting, promote Search Engine Visibility^TM.

If renewals are drastically lower than new sales for your top five, send out a customer survey via Express Email Marketing® asking why they are not renewing with you. Then adjust your strategy accordingly. Remember, renewals are the #1 means of building income!

If your top five or 10 products for new purchases are varied AND your renewal numbers are growing steadily, you've found the sweet spot! This means your customers are renewing existing products AND adding new ones.

Note to self:
Now that you've created a tracking system for your product mix, take a few minutes every month to run Product Sales reports and compare your month-to-month trends. Checking this regularly will ensure you're aware of any shifts in your product mix, so you can either take advantage of the shifts or make an effort to correct them, as appropriate.