Existing customers marketing guide
When growing your business, it pays to capitalise on the resources you already have. This includes your present customer base. Selling more products and services to your existing customers is one of the easier ways to increase revenues for your company. Some simple marketing, such as upselling and cross selling, can help you achieve this. Remember that it costs you less to increase sales to the customers you have than to try and find new ones.
Making the most of existing customers
Increasing sales to current customers is quite different from attempting to convince new ones of your good reputation, or the quality of your products and customer care. Satisfied customers are already aware of this. Let them know that you care about what they need and that you want them to be totally happy with their purchases. Your approach to them should reflect the fact that you already share a good relationship. Chat with them about their experiences and take note of their feedback. Then you can offer them advice on things they could find useful. Just because you know your products and services well does not mean customers are aware of everything you offer.
Use contact with customers to your advantage
Interacting with customers is an opportunity to demonstrate the details of your customer care programmes. You can also send them newsletters or emails to inform them of new products, promotions or offers. These can be specially tailored to complement purchases they have made in the past. After they have purchased an item, a follow up call is a great opportunity for offering other services and products, and to ensure they are completely satisfied with all aspects of the transaction. When a product is shipped to a customer, you can include information on other items that you think could interest them.
The art of cross selling
This is an established and well known sales technique. Essentially, you group together products or services that have related functions. On a website, there may be a list of recommended items based on a purchase that has just been made. In the toiletries section of a supermarket, dental floss, toothpaste and mouthwash will be in close proximity to the toothbrushes. You can enhance the potential for cross selling by grouping appropriate items together, whether physically in a shop, depicted on a flyer or brochure, or displayed on a web page. Consider this a form of education for your customers, alerting them to the full extent of what your business offers. Offering incentives can also be a help here – give customers a discount or a bonus when they buy a number of related items at the same time.
Boosting sales with the upsell
This is where customers are persuaded to increase their spending and make a more expensive purchase. This can be achieved by really knowing your customer and offering them something that will address their needs more fully, while increasing revenue for you. Another way to achieve this is to provide some form or reward or incentive for a bigger outlay. Combine both of these techniques for a powerful approach that should be a win-win for you and your customers.