Generate More Sales and Profit from Your Current Customers...

Generate More Sales and Profit
from Your Current Customers
by Joe Gracia


When talking about generating more sales in a small business, very often business owners think that means going out and finding more 'new' customers.

But what about the current customers you already have? Too often we forget about this incredible resource sitting right under our noses.

If you've served your current customers well, then they already know, like and trust you. At this stage they are much easier to sell as opposed to a complete stranger who knows nothing about you or your business.

It's been said that it takes five times as much money to sell to a new customer than it does to sell to your current customers. I believe that's true.

Here are just a few ways to profit from your current list of satisfied customers.

Educate Them

Sometimes you need to educate your current customers on the many ways you can be of service to them.

You are so familiar with your line of products or services that you may assume that you customers are just as familiar with them. That may not be the case.

From time to time, remind your customers of your list of products or services. Don't assume that they know about them or how they can help them solve their problems, faster, cheaper or better.

Send them a post card or, better yet, a letter. Include a brief description for each product or service you sell as well as current prices and any special deals.

When you're talking with your customers, ask them if they are familiar with a particular product/service that you offer.

They can't buy it from you if they don't know you sell it.

Cross-Sell or Up-Sell

There is no better time to sell a customer more than when he or she is already in a buying mood.

Cross-Sell: Whenever a customer is buying something, think of a related item that would complement or enhance the first item and ask if they would be interested in it.

Up-Sell: If they are considering one grade of a product or service, simply let them know about the features and benefits of a better grade of product or service.

That's not high pressure, it's merely letting them know their options. Then they can make up their own minds which one would serve their needs best.

Never assume that your customers always want the cheaper version of a product or service. That is often far from the truth. Your customers want the best value for their money.

Follow Up with Regular Offers

One of the most powerful ways of increasing your profit in your business is by simply following up with your current customers and reminding them of your products and services.

If you simply wait for your customers to come back on their own, you may be waiting a long time. Customers have so many options today that you can't rely on automatic loyalty.

Remember, your competition would love nothing better than to lure your customers away from you. So you need to be proactive to ensure that doesn't happen.

What are the best ways to follow up with your customers?

Following up by mail is an excellent way to keep in touch with your customers, but you could also do it via email. With the push of a button you can have your marketing message sent out to hundreds, even thousands of customers in a few minutes.

My wife, Maria, and I actually follow up with nearly 250,000 prospects and customers every single week via email. The email service we use, Aweber.com, makes it easy and incredibly affordable.

If you'd like to learn more about how you could use this type of service to follow up with your customers and prospects just visit the following link. They even include a free trial.

http://www.aweber.com/?201930

Follow Up with Special Offers

Sometimes just a reminder is all that is needed to motivate a customer to buy. But more often you need additional motivation.

Special offers can do the trick.

-- Special Preferred Customer Discount Offers

-- Buy Two, Get One Free

(My wife and I stopped in a local gift store the other day after dinner to simply browse, we had no intention of buying anything. 20 minutes later we left the shop with three bags full of games, and wall hangings totaling over $130 -- all because the owner was holding a 'Buy Two Get One Free' sale.)

-- 20% Off

-- Free Gift With Purchase, etc.

Include a Special Offer in Their Current Purchase

When your customers make their purchases, slip a special offer coupon or flyer into their packages, or delivered with their products, or in your invoice mailing.

Or you can hand them a special coupon good for a discount or bonus the next time they visit.

Start a Continuity Program

Continuity Programs can work wonders for a small business.

You've seen them. The business provides you with a card that says something like Buy 9 Get the 10th One Free.

Each time you make a purchase, you get the card stamped or punched and then once you have filled your requirement you cash in the card for your free product or service.

Restaurants make good use of these types of continuity programs, but many other businesses can use them too.

Reformat Your Product or Service

If you provide expertise you can reformat that expertise into a book, an audio CD, a video, etc.

If your customers buy a book from you, a percentage may want an audio or video version also.

Sell Someone Else's Products or Services

You don't only have to sell your products and services. Many businesses have only one thing that they sell to their customers. But the sales don't have to stop there.

Any business can sell related products or services to their customers.

Make an arrangement with another business to sell their products and services to your customers for a commission.

Then you'll find that there's no limit to the number of additional sales you can make to your customer list.

Good - Better - Best

If you sell just one version of a product or service, you may want to consider creating Good, Better, Best versions, or Basic, Intermediate and Advanced versions.

Then, instead of selling just the lower end version, you can increase your profit by selling higher end versions.

Or if you sell a basic version, your customers could then buy the intermediate and advanced versions.

Package a Number of Items Together as a Special

Rather than just selling one item at a time, try packaging several related items together and offer the package at a special price. You will then end up selling 2, 3 or 4 items instead of just the one item.

Add-Ons for a Good Deal

If your customer is buying one item and you offer to have him buy two or three of the same item at full price, he will probably decline the offer, since there is no enticing incentive for him to do so.

But if you give him a terrific deal on the 2nd and 3rd items he now will have a very big incentive for buying the additional items now.

Some of you may say, I have given up some of my profit by giving him a discount on the 2nd and 3rd items.

If you sell shirts, for instance, and you customer decides to buy one shirt -- that will be the end of his purchase today.

However, by offering him a special discount for buying additional items, you now will make an additional profit that you would not have made.

That's a real Give to Get strategy.

The Give To Get Strategy!!!

Give to Get Marketing PowerTips- Part 2

Case Study: Acme Screens - Part 2by Joe Gracia

Problem 3. Discount Certificate for a Future Purchase

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Side-Bar Comment:

Dan was asking his recent customers to keep a discount certificate for $25 off their next purchase of replacement screens, until a future date when they were ready to purchase again.
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My advice to Dan:

Any time you ask your prospects or customers to take some action, you are going to be met with resistance. People are busy. They are easily distracted, forgetful, and they love to procrastinate -- and that's with activities for themselves. They will take even less effort for someone else, especially a business.'

-- $25 DISCOUNT CERTIFICATE:

You are asking your customers to consider purchasing additional screens in the future and to file and remember this certificate. They won't do that. Your certificate will probably be lost or tossed within a day or two.

Solution 3

If you want your customers to apply a $25 Discount Certificate to a future purchase of replacement screens, then you must send them the Certificate later, at the time when they may be ready for another purchase.

Then you can follow-up with a phone call a few days later. When you mail them that Certificate, that should be the only thought in that mailing. Remember, one thought at a time -- one stone -- one bird.

Problem 4. Asking Your Customers to Give You Referrals in a Cumbersome Way

-- $25 REFERRAL GIFT:

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Side-Bar Comment:

Dan also included an offer of $25 as a referral gift, for each referral his customers would send his way. Unfortunately, none of his customers were taking him up on his referral offer.
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Solution 4

My advice to Dan:

You are asking them to think of someone who might have an interest in your screens, and then have them speak with those people about your screens. They also have to tell their friends how to get in touch with you if they are interested. That's a lot to expect-- most won't do it.

If you want to get referrals, create a referral card -- in the format of a post card -- offering a free info-kit that includes lots of information about your product.

Your customer can just hand those cards to their friends. Then, any of their friends who want more information can just fill out the card and drop it in the mail or call you for the free info-kit.

This method makes it easy for your customers to refer you. There's nothing for them to do but pass out your post cards announcing your free info-kit offer.

Very easy. Quick and painless.

That's great that you are rewarding your customers for their referrals with a $25 Referral Gift. That gives them additional incentive to actually pass out your post cards.

Don't forget that you could also ask them for referrals right after the sale.

Problem 5. Asking Your Customers to Write and Mail You a Testimonial

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Side-Bar Comment:

Dan also included a request in his follow-up letter for a testimonial from his customers. That's not a bad idea. In fact, it's a great idea. But the way he was going about it was resulting in little or no testimonials.
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Solution 5

My advice to Dan:

As I said before, you are asking your customers to consider too many different actions that you want them to take.

The best approach is to break down these actions into separate follow-ups. Focus your follow-up on 'one' thing that you want them to do and you will get much better results.

You are asking your customers to think of some positive things to say about your product and service and take the time to sit down and write them out and then mail you their testimonial. Very few will take the time to do that--or even remember to do it. Their lives are already filled with work. From their perspective, they don't need any more.

Of course, there are exceptions. Many businesses get unsolicited testimonials from their happy customers. But, the fact is, in your case, you are not getting them. So you need to do something different.

One thing you could do is make sure you treat them in a way that they would feel compelled to say nice things about you and your business. Treat them right. Make the entire process from the first contact, to the sale, to the installation to the follow-up a prime example of excellent customer service.

How about a thank you gift after installation, thanking them for their business?

Make sure you educate your customers about the many features and benefits that they are getting with your products.

Explain what sets your products and your company apart from the competition. That way you'll be helping them remember the positive things about their purchase.

Here's how to make it easy for your customers to give you testimonials.

Listen. While you are with your customers or while you are on the phone with them, listen to what they are saying. When they say something nice or positive about your service or the features/benefits of your product or service, jot it down.

Then ask them if you can use their positive statements in some of your marketing materials as testimonials.

Most people will happily agree. Then simply type up what they said, and ask them to approve it. If they want you to rephrase a few things, that's fine, tell them it's not a problem.

You can also just ask them how they feel about their new purchase. Hopefully, their responses will be positive. If not, you need to do some more work to improve your product or service.

That is a very simple system for obtaining testimonials. It works every time.

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Conclusion:

Very often what happens to small business marketers is that they will attempt a few very good marketing tactics, and when they don't get the results they had hoped for, they mistakenly conclude that the tactics weren't a good idea.

That's usually not the case at all.

It's not 'What' Dan was doing in his follow-up letters that was wrong. It was 'How' he was doing it that was wrong.

He needed better systems for carrying out his ideas.

In every case, I showed Dan a better way to get the results he wanted. I did that by focusing on his customers. I have been in the marketing profession for so many years now, that it is fairly easy for me to spot obstacles that are preventing business owners from getting the results they want.

It's all about understanding your prospects and customers. It's about putting yourself in their shoes.

Dan simply asked his customers to do the work for him. That's rarely the best idea.

I turned that around and tried to make each marketing tactic as easy as possible for Dan's customers to carry out. When you do that you will have a much easier time getting the actions you desire.

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Give to Get Marketing Power Tips For Today

Case Study: Acme Screens - Part 1
by Joe Garcia

Case Study: Acme Screens

Here's a case study from my files that I thought you might find interesteing.

A few years ago I was asked by Dan (not his real name) to critique his follow-up letter to his newest customers.

His business, Acme Screens (not the real name) sold a special screen for open doorways that would allow you to enjoy a cool breeze and let you walk in and out of the doorway without letting bugs in. It was a unique idea and a quality product.

He was very dissapointed in the results he was getting from his follow-up letter to his recent new customers.

He wanted the letter to accomplish three things:

1) help him sell backend replacement screens,
2) get some referrals from these recent customers
3) and get some testimonials

There were a number of problems with the letter that were preventing him from getting the kinds of results he was hoping for.

Here's what I told him.

Problem 1: Too much WE-ME. Not enough YOU-YOUR

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Side-Bar Comment:

The first one and half pages of Dan's letter focused on how terrific his product and his company is. It was all about him. That was a big mistake. There's a good chance he lost the attention of his readers at that point.
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I wrote:

People get bored and distracted 'very' easily. If you talk about your product, your company, your services in the beginning of your letter, very often your customers will stop reading immediately.

The first page and a half of your letter is all about you, your product and your company. It's filled with 'WE-ME' writing, -- as in, WE installed, WE'RE #1, WE'VE been in business since 1937, etc. It's also loaded with variations of 'WE-ME' like OUR Staff, OUR customers, OUR company, Acme Screens, etc.

It's all about You, You, You, when it should be all about Them, Them, Them.

Solution 1: Focus on what your customers want

You don't get and hold someone's attention by talking about you. You get and hold it by talking about them.

You need to use phrases like YOU get, YOU will receive, YOUR problem, YOUR benefits, YOUR solution, YOUR savings, YOUR gift, etc.

Your prospects and customers don't care about your company, and your successes, they only care about themselves. They want to know 'What's in It For Me?' and they want to know that immediately -- or they will stop reading.

This can sometimes be a hard lesson to learn, because some business owners so close to their products and services, that they mistakenly believe that their prospects/customers will be just as interested in their products/services as they are. Not true.

Of course, there is a point when you must tell them what is so special about your product/servive and your company. But you do that from their perspective--in terms of what it will do for them.

You must describe how your product solves their problems. You must describe how much better their lives will be once they are using your product/service. Every positive thing you want to say about your product/service or company can be said in terms of how those things will affect them.

But let's think about this for a second.

You've already 'sold' these customers. They already own your product. So it's not necessary to write them a follow-up letter that sounds like a sales pitch. You're beyond that point now.

You don't start talking about what your customer will get until the middle of page two --

You say

'Enclosed you will find a Gift Certificate...'

Great. That's something they should be interested in.

That's where you should begin your letter. The solution is to eliminate the first page and a half of WE-ME copy.

Now let's see what the real purpose of this letter should be.

Problem 2. Too many thoughts and offers for one letter

People can only hold ONE thought in their heads at any one moment. It's tough enough to get a prospect or customer's attention to begin with, but to expect them to grasp and hold more than one thought or offer at a time is expecting a lot. Once they have gotten to your second thought, they have erased the first one from their minds.

You have presented a total of FOUR thoughts for your customers to retain, and three of them require action on their part:

First Thought: Acme Screens Are Versatile:

This isn't an offer, it's a selling point meant to get your customer thinking about the many uses of your product. As I said above, they have already purchased your product--they already know all of this.

Second Thought: $25 Discount Certificate:

This is your first offer -- a $25 Discount Certificate for future replacement screens.

Third Thought: $25 Referral Gift:

This is your second offer.

Fourth Thought: Testimonial:

This is a request, and your fourth thought they have to remember, consider and act on.

Whew! By the time they read about all four of those (and many won't), they will tune out and move on.

Solution 2: Focus on only one offer at a time

When you are prospecting, focus 100% of your marketing piece on your prospecting offer -- nothing else.

If you are trying to convert to a sale, focus 100% of your message on that conversion.

If you want to make a backend sale (more sales after the first one) then focus your marketing piece 100% on that backend sale.

Don't try to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It rarely works.

If you want them to consider purchasing replacement screens with the $25 off certificate, then that is all you should be doing in this marketing effort.

If you want a referral, then focus only on getting the referral.

If you want a testimonial, then focus 100% on getting the testimonial, etc. Most people want to kill 6 birds with one stone -- it can't be done. One stone -- one bird.

(Yes, catalogs sell more than one product at a time. There are always exceptions to the rule. But they don't apply in this case.)

Low Cos Ways To Grow Your Business