Most businesses focus solely on attracting new customers. The fault in that sales process is you are not spending time retaining current and former customers. Your existing customers/clients are people you already know are good sales potential because they’ve already bought from you!
Changing your marketing process to include the time to market and sell new products to your existing customers and less time selling to new customers will increase sales and decrease cost of selling.
My 4 elements to use in retaining your existing customers:
- Staying in contact: This means by phone, email, e-newsletter or maybe in person if you have too!
- Prevent Buyer’s Remorse. Following up with customers will make them feel like they are being supported for their purchase and with the item they purchased. How many times have you purchased a product, and just heard nothing but crickets? Just sending a simple Thank You note that includes how to contact you or customer service information can go a long way in retaining a great customer.
- Customer Special Deals & Guarantees: Always make your current customers feel special with the best deals and guarantees you have. Show them you appreciate their business or even come up with a club specifically to reward loyal customers. You can also do this with a preferred pricing option.
- Build Integrity: Using good business practices and simply upholding integrity, dignity and honesty go along way with customers. Let’s face it, 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.
There are three fundamentals to a successful business:
- Quality of your product/service.
- Offering useful products/services which your customer wants/needs that solve a problem for or enhance the life of a customer.
- Educate them by offering subjects your customers find interesting
Use this approach of teaching your customers and offering them real information and insight and you will be rewarded with loyalty and success.
It’s cheaper to sell again to an existing customer than a new customer. Don’t let 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, 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 use to buying from you.”
That’s why an educated customer is a loyal and repeat buyer.