How To Double Your Customer and Profit Instantly

Your best prospects are your existing customers. If you've been putting all you marketing efforts into acquiring new customers. Stop and divert some of your resources into reselling. Up-selling and 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.

First of all, your customer relationships are the number one asset you have. You can secure customer relationships by:

1.  Keep in touch -- whether it is by telephone. Mail, or in person –all customers want to feel that they are special and that you take special interest in seeing to their needs.

2. Providing post-purchase reassurance. Each time a customer places an order with you, call him/her a week after receiving your product or service to see how it's going. This will allay any after-purchase conflict.

3. Giving your clients the best deals and guarantees that you possibly can get away with.

4. Preferential pricing -- let your 'old' customers in on the best deals first. Give them the opportunity to buy your sale items before the public does.

5. Building rapport and trust. Be as honest as you can be with your customers. People do business with ethical people they can trust.

Keep an accurate and timely customer list. Updating and reusing your customer list is vital. If you have a solid customer list. Work those customers that you already have -- they've bought from you once, and if they had a good experience -- they'll buy from you again.

Your company should be run and operated as you would expect it to be if you were the customer. Constantly look for ways to improve the treatment of your customers, because they will respond to you through the most important vote of all, their money.

Taking it further, do not accept average in any phase of your business, particularly in your customer relations and your sales efforts. Those two functions form the basis of every company and serve to separate the marginal companies from the most successful.

I believe anybody who has a moderate quantity of customers should immediately begin a perpetual communication with their customers to set the stage that they're a trusted friend and advisor. The first thing to do is send a letter or mail within five days or a week from the time of your customer's first transaction where you:

1. Thank them:

2. Resell the value of your company; and

3. Reassure them of the prudence of purchasing the product or service (if that can be identified).

Such a letter essentially programs the customer to repurchase and revisit and rethink in terms of dealing with you. (It's always a good idea to first test your messages because they're different in every situation.

Perhaps make your customers an offer of either an additional product or service they can purchase on a preferred basis, or if what they bought can be exchanged or returned, upsell them to a larger unit.

The point is you must reinforce the buyer's buying decision. This simple action can prove extremely contact, and have a program set up to reinforce that buying decision. Thank the customer and give him/her an opportunity to bump to a larger sale (If it’s appropriate).

Also tell the customer in the letter that because you're concerned about him/her, because you care more than to just make a profit and leave, not to be surprised from time to time if you write to inform or alert him/her to find out about things.

You may have figured the number of times a customer will repurchase from you, on their own. But have you considered how the value of a customer Increases If you actively solicit them again and again? The key to determining what a customer is ultimately worth to you is the extent of your back-end or additional sales to them.

Step one is to up-sell or resells right at or immediately after, the Initial sale, preferably at the point of purchase. Then, if you can get them to add another Item or service that is synergistic to the one they're buying, you can naturally improve the profit. Experiment with add-on products or services. Offer a package of related Items for a 40% discount if they buy it now.

Contact or visit a customer right after the sale to see how they like their purchase, and offer them a deal on a related product or service. One out of every three customers may take you up on It. Secure the rights to high-profit or repeat-type products or services that are logically suited to your new customers, then follow up with calls, visits or mailings to sell those other products.

Once you know how much extra Income you can earn on the "back-end," you can dramatically expand or Increase the amount of money you spend advertising houses for sale. You can justify spending a lot more time and money cultivating your customers –since they're no longer worth Just "X" amount. But rather they're worth "X" + ''Y'' amount.

If you don't want to push other people's products or services, you can turn over your leads or prospects to other companies whose products or services are compatible, and take a flat fee per lead or a percentage, albeit less than if you did it yourself. This quickly Increases the marginal net worth of a one-time-only customer.