Want to sell more? Here’s why your existing customers are your best chance.
One of the things we’re passionate about is helping our clients find their clients. We help them use social media and paid digital advertising to attract their ideal customers to their business.
But one thing that many business owners overlook is the value of existing customers.
We push to get new customers in the door, without pausing a moment to realise how valuable all our previous customers are.
In this post, we explain why it’s so important to nurture your customers and why they are an opportunity to make even more sales.
Why should you make more sales from existing customers?
While acquiring brand new customers will greatly help your business to grow, it remains important to generate income from existing customers.
Marketing to new prospects takes time and money. You have to work consistently on your social media posts and brand building.
You also have to place some paid adverts to get eyeballs on what you sell.
When it comes to existing customers you’ve already established their loyalty, trust, and need for your products or services. These factors can continue evolving as your relationship with your customers continues thriving.
It’s far easier to sell to someone who already knows, likes and trusts you than a completely “cold” audience who has never heard of your company.
Making more sales from existing customers is beneficial for:
- Improving relationships with customers
- Increasing brand awareness
- Increasing sales for the month
- Improving business
- Increase your customer experience
Some niches where you believe it may be harder to make more sales from existing clients:
Some business owners feel that their business doesn’t have repeat sales. Let’s take a look at a few and see if we can put this into a new context.
Plumbing
If you’re a plumber, your customers won’t constantly require your services. It is possible they need a once-off repair and after the completed job they might not need repairs again.
Motor mechanics
If you’re in the motor mechanics industry, your customers may merely require you to perform an annual service or perform repairs when something goes wrong.
Carpentry
Carpentry is even more “scarce” with making more sales from existing customers because your talents may only be needed when people are looking for certain bespoke furniture design.
But is it really that hopeless a situation?
We want you to transform your thinking entirely.
You might not make regular, consistent sales in certain industries but you want to be known as the person to contact if they ever need assistance.
If you focus on giving excellent customer service, quality workmanship and a solid follow-up process, you can be sure that when previous clients need to repeat business, they select your company to assist them.
Added to the mix is the powerful word-of-mouth recommendations that you’ll get if you impress your customers.
Don’t do a job thinking you’ll never see this person again. That’s completely the wrong attitude to have.
You never know if the person whose car you’re fixing works for a company that has a fleet of vehicles.
If you treat every client as gold, you might get referrals for regular, consistent clients or even massive contracts.
Once you’re established your customer base, it’s easier to for customers to be familiar and loyal to your brand. They would, in addition, come to you regularly to help solve their problems and they may also refer your business to their friends and family.
6 ways to make more sales from existing customers:
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Have options for add-on sales
When it comes to retail industries, it’s all about customers buying products. While it is fantastic for your customer to buy an item, you should attempt getting them to add an inexpensive “add on” to their purchase.
One of the most common examples is “3 for 1” deals.
In the restaurant industry, waiters can offer customers additional options for their meals, such as sauces or extra toppings on their pizza.
Think about your business and how your check-out staff or sales staff can encourage people to purchase more. The key is to do it in a natural, unforced way.
For instance, let’s say you own a stationery store and a shopper is holding a notebook that they intend on purchasing. One of your floor salespeople could casually say to this shopper: “I see you’re interested in that notebook. We just received some beautiful new pens that would match it perfectly. Can I show you where we keep them?”
You see how this flows naturally? The salesperson doesn’t just say: “Did you see we are selling water bottles this week?”.
Likewise, if you’re a hairdresser, you can offer to do a free oil treatment on someone’s hair. Once the client sees the amazing results, you can mention that the oil is for sale at the reception desk.
Think about how you can add “extra” sales without being pushy. The idea is to leave your customers feeling like you genuinely care about their happiness.
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Make your network of existing contacts work for you
This works like word-of-mouth sales. In this scenario, you can ask existing customers or clients to tell their contacts, friends, and family about your services and products.
Your current client already knows how good your products and services are, and have already established a lasting relationship with your brand. It’s easy for them to convince their peers about you and in this way, you’ll have more referrals. This is a great way, even though indirectly to make more sales from existing customers.
If you want to, you can build in a referral program whereby existing customers receive a discount or free product for every successful referral they bring in.
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Get to know everything about your customers
It’s easy to miss the bad points that get customers’ blood boiling. While your focus is on how you can continue to please your customers with excellent service, you also need to find out what makes them angry.
When you learn the good, the bad, and ugly factors about your sales and customer satisfaction you’ll obtain an overall better perspective. You’ll be able to improve and make more sales from existing customers since you now offer solutions to their problems.
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The magic of “upselling”
To upsell products mean that you’re adding to the existing sales. Upselling is a similar concept such as “low-cost add-on”. Notice how clothing shops often dress up the mannequins in great outfits. If your customer wanted a quick fix, merely looking at the window display would help them make up their mind to buy the outfit as-is.
The same applies to property sales. Some estate agents may sell the property as-is or would throw in the furniture at an extra cost but it takes away the effort of having to source decor and furniture.
You’ll see this strategy all the time when it comes to online shopping. You might download a free guide and then on the “thank you” page, there’s an offer for a video course at a reduced price.
But upsells don’t necessarily have to be low-cost add-ons. They can actually be more expensive than the original purchase!
For example, when selling your online course, you might have a VIP upsell where for a significant extra charge, the person will receive 4 x 1 hour online calls with you for expert advice.
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Create new offers
Your existing customers might enjoy certain products and services, and your goal is to entice them to purchase regularly and repeatedly. This is a smart way of getting repeat business without the expense of marketing to new clients.
However, sometimes you need to shake things up and give them something brand new and exciting.
Include them on a special “launch” list and explain that because they are loyal clients, they are getting first dibs on this new product or service. This makes them feel valued and appreciated.
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Give them a better offer
Incentives are great for everyone, and you can do your customers a solid deal by offering them something more. A better offer could come in the form of a discount to reward them for using your services and again for being loyal.
Incentives go together with saying “thank you” for the support and loyalty. This is an excellent way to build bridges of trust and improve your efforts to make more sales from existing customers.
Throw in something extra that doesn’t cost you much time or money but makes them feel cherished.
The takeaway on how to make more sales from existing customers
Your existing customer base is as important as your email list. If you want your business to continue growing and prospering, you want to make sure that you keep your long-time customers happy.
If you’re focused on how to make more sales from existing customers then it’s critical to keep up excellent customer service.
Most importantly, the key to success in any business and any market is to be consistent. Consistency is a large topic that covers various industries and levels of your business.
There’s no better way to increase revenue than to tap into the wealth of gold that is your previous and existing customers.
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