In business there’s a sense that we constantly need to be winning new clients. More clients means more revenue.
At the same time, so many business owners hate the idea of selling, or of being a salesperson.
Marketing is often seen as the way to get inbound enquiries from all those prospects so you don’t have to go and be the salesperson, but marketing without follow up can only work so hard for you.
So what’s the answer?
Let your existing customers buy more from you.
As a small business owner you probably know most of your customers really well. You know their problems and you like to help them solve those problems. You’ve taken the time to build relationships with your customers, maybe even met their families, and you often go the extra mile for them because you value them. They like the fact that they’ve had the opportunity to get to know you, and they like and trust you.
All of this relationship building (which is the key to being a good salesperson, by the way) makes it so much easier to sell it to your existing clients than to sell to brand new ones.
Relationships are key
Giving them a call to talk to them about how an upgrade will help them be more efficient, or how taking on another one of your services will help them to be more profitable is really you just doing them a favour.
You might think that because they are already a client, they already know about everything that you do. But the chances are that they don’t. Their focus is on what you already do for them. You need to put the effort in to repeatedly keeping them up to date with all of the other things that you can do for them too. Keep abreast of what they’re doing, and keep an eye out for those opportunities to sell more to them.
And when they do know that you offer something else that they want, it’s so much easier for you to make the sale to them, than to make that first sale to a brand new customer.
You’ve already got a great relationship. They already know, like and trust you. They are already OK with your pricing structure, they are happy with how you work and they know your people. In turn, you know whether they’re good payers, and if they have any idiosyncrasies etc.
Help your existing customers to buy more from you
When you do customers this favour, telling them about all the other things they can buy from you, as well as being easier than going out and finding brand new customers, it’s also potentially a lot cheaper for you. You won’t have to invest in elaborate marketing campaigns, or spend so much time working through the sales process.
So, if you’ve already got a list of clients – whether they’re working with you now, or have bought from you in the past, make them a marketing priority. Decide what you’re going to do to look after them, how you’re going to make those relationships rock solid, what information you need to get to them, and how you’re going to get the information to them to make sure they can buy as much as possible from you.
When you nurture your customers, they spend more.
What’s your plan for how you’re going to help them spend more with you?