Just try offering four for the price of three, or buy three and get one free, of almost anything, and you'll see customers that typically bought just one item going for the higher quantity.

I first discovered the power of offering volume choices when I worked for the publisher of an expensive business magazine. I wanted to offer just a basic one-year subscription option - with no other choices.

"WRONG!" the publisher informed me. Then, rather than merely state his point, he did the greatest favor possible for me - he proved it.

He let me do two mailings. Mailing number one only offered people a one-year subscription and nothing else. Mailing number two offered one year for $55. But you could also choose a two-year option for $95 and a three-year "best buy" alternative option for $120.

With the first mailing, no one had a choice. So my average purchase was $55. With the second mailing, because I offered people three different choices (two of which were more value superior than the basic one)...40% chose three years...25% chose two years...and only 35% chose the one-year option everybody had to choose in mailing number one.

By merely offering people three different choices, two thirds of the buyers bought a higher unit of sale and we made, on average, twice the profit per customer we would have made if we only offered one choice, which is really no choice.

Bookseller Annette Monister uses a variation of the volume add-on to sell more books to public libraries. If a library calls and asks her to send more than 20 modern Greek novels, she has trained her staff to say, "Since we don't know exactly what you have on the shelf now, we'll send more than 100 books on consignment. Just send back those you don't want."

Almost without fail, the libraries keep many more books than they originally ordered. So, Annette's business is increased, the reading public gets the advantage of a wider selection of novels, and the library gives the reading public better service. Three winners!

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