Selling more, and often to old customers is probably the easiest way to grow a business – and yet, so many businesses neglect it. They are afraid of how customers will react.
But as a business, you should help those who already know you, because you have a much greater chance at selling to them.
Of course, it is always easier to sell more to old customers than to constantly chase new ones. Once you know why your old customers buy from you, you can come up with different ways to get them to buy more often from you.
By doing this, you can easily grow your business by 5-10% or more within the next few months.
What would happen to your company …
• If everyone who sells learns to propose the next logical purchase to each customer?
• If all employees learned that all customers must be offered the opportunity to also buy a supplementary product (up-selling)
• Should customers who buy more expensive items always receive a letter home with a brochure containing supplementary products and that they are encouraged to call or return within a certain time to receive discounts on those particular products?
• If some of your employees’ earnings were valued by how many customers they were given to purchase additional products?
• If customers who buy more expensive products receive a call from a seller who tells about additional products and gives them an offer directly on the phone?
• If the staff received specific rewards for additional sales?
The answer is, of course, that you would start to grow and it is the people who meet/talk/email with the customers who will also make sure that it happens.
Contents
25 tips for any company that wants to grow by selling more and more often to existing customers
1. You should never settle for selling only once. You must always come up with a next step for customers. Always ask yourself: What is the next logical step with this customer?
2. Customers who purchase must always have every opportunity to purchase additional products.
3. Contact old customers to see what they have going on and look for opportunities to join and look for new opportunities for business and collaboration.
4. Keep track of customer key times. Do your customers do something special at a certain time each week/month/year that can cause them to need you more – show yourself and what you sell. If you know that customers usually buy at a certain time of the month – contact them just before buying about both what they usually buy and other things you think they may need to buy.
5. Keep track of other dates/times. You can certainly come up with something to sell to your old customers during holidays/summer vacations / special days such as Valentine’s Day and Halloween. If you were forced to develop products or services for these occasions – what would it be?
6. Remind your customers of everything you offer. Don’t trust that your most loyal customers have full control over everything you can offer them. We do not have so much impact on our customers’ lives that we have control over everything. Remind them through newsletters, tell them about news and show things that complement what they bought before. Offer them things you think they may need, but don’t know you have.
7. Encourage customers to tell you what you sell to others in their company. Big companies are perfect for that. What you sell to a project manager in a large company, he/she can recommend to others in the same company to buy. Give them something for the hassle – maybe a discount on the next purchase that will make him/her easier to stay within budget. Another method is to be more active. Talk to your customers and tell them that they can get discounts if they buy more at once. There may be others at the company who also need the same.
8. Develop your own new products and services or supplement new products and services with a partner to become a more complete supplier to your customer.
9. Start a gold or platinum service that is only for your best customers. They may pay a little more for this service, but they also get a little more back.
10. If you sell something that is suitable for getting specific deliveries on a contract basis – do it. If your product does not fit it – try to figure out how it would fit it.
11. Make it very easy to order and find out what customers see as easy. Do they want a phone number for an automatic answering machine, already filled in order forms at the bottom of the product box, the order form printed on your boxes, a hotline to call around the clock, a special e-mail address, a form on your site, that you call them once of the month or what do they need?
12. Create an email list only for customers where they receive weekly or monthly offers.
13. Give customers special offers with a time limit
14. When appropriate – offer the customer to buy a better product than the one they have purchased so far and which will be an even better purchase for them.
15. Find out what they are buying from competitors and offer them a better price to try out your corresponding product.
16. If there is a reason to get a customer who has not bought in for a long time – offer a return-to-buy discount.
17. Add values that are free to you, but which are perceived as added value to the customer as they shop more.
18. When a customer buys the product X for Y dollars, tell them that they can get the product X and the additional product Z for less.
19. Sell longer warranty periods. Adding a year to the warranty is a good deal for everyone.
20. When you ship an ordered product to a customer, attach a brochure or flyer to something else you sell that is related to the purchase.
21. When a customer has purchased from your site – send them to a thank you page where you also present a good product to easily add to the order.
22. Send a free surprise to your customers when they have bought something and send at the same time a flyer design about a good product.
23. Give your customers a free membership to your “for customers only” page and have ads for related products there. Your customer page must contain attractive information material or special tools to suit your customers.
24. Call customers after the purchase and ask if they are satisfied and at the same time tell you that you have an offer for something that is related to the purchase they made.
25. Send an email and thank you for the purchase and add an offer for something related to their purchase.
