Sales Secrets: Create an Experience

When I was a child, my parents took me to a cave called “Feengrotten” in Germany. This was around 30 years ago. This year, we went back again to see the cave. I was shocked: There was a whole world built around the cave! 30 years ago, it was just a cave. But then I thought about it: This is a really smart sales secret! Read on to find out why.

Why is this a Sales secret?

The organizers created an experience around the caves! An experience that allows an entire family to spend a full day on site!

30 years ago, visiting this cave took approximately 30-45 minutes. That is it. You paid your entry fee, saw the cave (it is really beautiful by the way), you learned something, and that’s it!

When we arrived this time, there was a huge parking space. Going towards the entry, there was a museum. Then a washing station where you could wash gemstones from the earth yourself. Then a huge area where they sold any types of souvenirs: gemstones in all variations, fairies (the translation of the cave name to English is “Fairy Caves”), pictures, magnets, cups, books – anything a true souvenir shop has. There were food stations along the way. They even created a “Fairy forest” next to the caves in which kids can play. Then the “highlight”: Even the toilets were painted in fairy forest design!

Of course, you can still visit the caves as well and many people do. However, the experience created around it makes families stay a full day, eat, drink, play with the kids, and see some things. This is a classical “upsell” concept!

Because how much do you think a family with small kids will spend when they see fairies, glittering stones and they can play there all day long? Only the 10 bucks for the entry per person? Of course not! This easily ends up being a 200-300 Euro experience per family! Well, if the kids can negotiate better than their parents can, maybe even more.

Why is it worth sharing this example?

This is an example of “conceptual implementation”. This concept of leisure parks is known for a long time from Disneyland, Universal Studios or others. However, applying it to a “fairy cave” is a really smart move!

The organizers thought: What can we do to create an experience and leverage what we have?

First of all, they had their name: Fairy Caves. Thus, the concept of building a fairy forest and setting up a world around the fairies is almost obvious. Therefore, they build a fairy forest, targeted their whole concept around the fairies, their website, their traffic signs, the buildings, the outfit of the employees, the souvenir shops that sell fairies in all variations and as said, even the toilets are designed along this concept!

Then they thought: What can we do with the cave? You can teach something about how the cave evolved, history around it, teach something about the types of stones you can find here, how these stones were processed and what they are used for, and how people who worked in the caves were living back in the days. Therefore, the museum came to life.

Then they went further: What else can we do around this topic? The cave contains gemstones. So what can you do with gemstones?

Gemstones can be dug out. We all know about the gold diggers in the Wild West in the USA. Who didn’t want to be a gold digger for once in his life? Therefore, the gemstone washing station came to life to provide a small El Dorado experience to visitors.

Gemstones can also be sold. So, who would buy gemstones? Many people, but especially the ones that believe in spiritual healing, people that believe in esoteric and the power of the stones, but also people that just like gemstones as jewelry or decoration.

With all of that, the sales per person increased significantly! Instead of paying the entrance fee only, you now pay the entrance fee, the pictures, souvenirs, food, the entrance to the museum, and of course, all the gemstones and fairies that you (or your kids) want to buy.

What can you take away for yourself?

Think about your business. What can you do to create an experience for your clients? What is your “fairy cave”? What can you leverage to grow your business and scale your sales? Look around yourself and implement such concepts in your own business.