The Easiest Customer To Sell To

I’ve coached and consulted with over 1,000 business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals over the past 35 years or so, and in my experience one thing is crystal clear and uncannily consistent:

The number one request I get is for help getting more new customers, clients, patients or members.

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of business owners insist on focusing almost all of their time, attention and resources solely on trying to attract new customers.

However, a much smarter strategy is to spend a good chunk of your time retaining and re-selling your current and former customers.

These are people you already know to have excellent buying potential, and they have already proven that they know, like and trust you…because they’ve already bought from you!

And it’s a proven fact that attracting a new customer is usually at least five times more expensive than getting a current customer to buy more or more often from you – something you would think more businesspeople would understand and act on during these very difficult economic times.

Here’s the bottom-line…

When you invest your time, effort and resources into marketing and selling new products to your old customers and spend less time trying to sell old products to new customers, you will see a drastic change for the better in your sales, profits, customer quality and position in the marketplace.

Here are a few key elements to retaining and maximizing your current customers, clients, patients or members:

1. Keep in contact: This means by phone, email, newsletter, in person, etc. – by carrier pigeon, if you have to!

 

2. Post-Purchase Assurance: You need to improve your follow-up with your customers. They must be made to feel as if they are being appreciated for their purchases and properly supported with the products or services they purchased. How many times have you bought something, and then felt completely abandoned by the seller? Something as simple and easy as sending a Thank You note with your contact or customer service information can go a long way to make someone a customer for life and a champion referrer.

 

3. Deals & Guarantees: Always offer your current customers the best deals and guarantees you have. Show them that you truly appreciate their business, and even come up with a Club, Event or level of service specifically created to reward loyal customers. You can also offer a preferred pricing option for your current customers only.

 

4. Integrity: It’s sad to say, but thanks to today’s general atmosphere of distrust, using basic, good business practices and simply upholding integrity, dignity and honesty go a long, long way with customers. Let’s face it: There’s a lot of swindling, false promises and general B.S. out there, so the safer and more confident you make your customers feel, the more they will trust you. And that makes for amazingly supportive and loyal customers – people known as “raving fans,” a phrase first coined by Ken Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles and Harvey Mackay.

Always keep in mind the three cornerstone building blocks to a successful business:

1. Making sure your products or services are high-quality

 

2. Making sure your products or services solve a specific problem for, or enhance the life of, your target market

 

3. Making sure to provide ongoing education on subjects your customers find interesting

Use this three-pronged approach of educating your customers and offering them real information and insight and you will be rewarded with tremendous loyalty and success.

And most important of all: Stop wasting all your time, energy and resources trying to woo new prospects while your current customers are falling by the wayside!

As Jay Abraham says:

Your best prospects are your existing customers. If you’ve been putting all your marketing efforts into acquiring new customers, stop and divert some of your resources into reselling, upselling, cross-selling to those same customers. In every way possible – through package inserts, regular mailings, special offers – stay in touch with those customers and get them used to buying from you.

Stephen Stills wrote and sang the hit song, “Love The One You’re With.” Especially in this current challenging business environment, more than ever you need to understand the tremendous value of your current customer base – and act accordingly.

And remember: Your FREE test drive of SSS Marketing University can help you put together the resources and tools to do exactly that. We’ll help you focus on serving your current customers so they become raving fans, resulting in you reaping the benefits many, many times over.

Click Here to start your free test drive now, and stop complaining forever that “times are tough, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Leave that kind of stinkin’ thinkin’ to your competitors, once and for all. Click on the image below: