Don't Overlook The Easy
Sales
by Bob Leduc
Are you so busy chasing down
new customers that you completely
overlooked these two prime sources for
easy sales?
Source 1: Existing Customers
Here are two ways you
can use your relationship with existing
customers to generate additional
business.
1. Offer Them Related Products or Services
Your
existing customers already know you and trust you. It's
easier and cheaper
to get more business from them than to get any
business from new
prospects.
Find or create additional products and services you can
offer to
existing customers. Your new products and services should
be
closely related to those your customers originally bought
from
you.
For example, I recently spoke with a network marketer
selling
nutritional products. She also works with a health club that
pays
her a commission for each new member she signs up. She told me
that
over one third of her income is generated by offering the
related product
to her customers.
2. Ask Them to Help You Find New Customers
Do
you have a system to get referrals from satisfied customers?
If not, you
are losing a lot of profitable sales you could easily
get.
One way
to get referrals is with a brief Customer Survey. Send
it by postal
mail, email, fax or post it on a web page. The one
I use asks only 3
questions:
1. What did you like best about our product (or
service)?
2. What can we do to improve the value of our product
(or
service) for you?
3. Who do you know trying to solve (state the
problem you
solved for your customer)?
...or:
Who do you know that
wants to (state the benefit provided
by your product or
service)?
The first two questions focus attention on the benefits
you
provide. Your customer is more likely to volunteer referrals
when
they're thinking about the value of those benefits.
You also gain
something else with the first two questions. The
first question often
generates a response you can use as a
testimonial (with your customer's
permission). The second
question may provide an early warning of a problem
you need to
solve ...or alert you to an opportunity you can
exploit.
Source 2: Previous Non-Buyers
Most prospects will not
buy from you the first time they hear
about your product or service ...or
the first time they visit
your web site. You can recover many of these lost
sales with a
follow up system.
Your follow up system can be as
simple as contacting previous
prospects occasionally with a new offer. Or
it can be more
complex such as distributing a weekly newsletter with
topics
related to your product or service.
Problem For Internet
Marketers: Many visitors to your web site
want what you offer - but they
are not ready to buy right now.
You cannot follow up with them if they
click away from your site
before you find out who they are and how to
contact them.
The Solution: Post a complimentary offer on your site
for
something valuable to prospects in your targeted market.
Deliver
it only by email so you can capture the email address of
each
visitor who requests it.
For example, offer a complimentary
subscription to your email
newsletter if you publish one. Otherwise, offer
a special report,
a source list or other valuable information they cannot
get
anywhere else.
Tip: Try to get each prospect's first name too.
Use it to
personalize your follow up messages. People cannot resist
reading
something when it is personally addressed to them.
Include
existing customers and previous non-buyers in your
marketing efforts. Both
are a prime source for easy sales. And
you don't have to spend money
on advertising to get them.
-----
Bob Leduc spent 20 years
helping businesses just like yours
find new customers and increase sales.
He just released a
New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small
Business
Fast With Simple Postcards and several other publications
to
help small businesses grow and prosper. For more
information:
Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject:
"Postcards"
Phone: 702-658-1707 after 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas,
NV
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