All too often when meeting with my clients, I hear them talk about the latest and greatest marketing initiatives they’re working on to attract new clients/customers. While that’s clearly important, a more productive path is to build upon your already solid existing clients/customers.
These are people who already know you, and value your product or service.
Take the additional time to market and sell new products to your existing customers and you will see a drastic change in your sales, customer quality and branding position.
Here are a couple of key elements to use to retain and sell more to your current customers:
- Stay in contact: This means by phone, email, e-newsletter, and in-person.
- Post-Purchase Assurance: This means you need to follow up with customers. Your customers need to feel like they are being supported. How many times have you purchased a product or service, then felt completely abandoned? Something as simple as a Thank You note with your contact or customer service information can go along way in retaining a great customer.
- Deals & Guarantees: Always offer your current customers the best deals and guarantees you have. Show them you appreciate their business. Reward loyal customers. You can also do this in many ways including a preferred pricing option.
- Integrity: Using good business practices and simply upholding integrity, dignity and honesty go a long way with customers. Let’s face it, there are a lot of people out there with bad business practices. The safer and more confident you make your customers feel, the more they will trust you… and that makes for an amazingly supportive and loyal customer base.
Stop wasting all your time on new prospects while your current customers fall 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, up-selling, or 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 more from you.”
As always, have a great week.
Henry