A Bird in the Hand

How much time and money do we spend on getting a new customer? Since its obvious we are in a recession, I am sure many of us have experienced some of our regular customers tightening their wallets and buying less from us. My first instinct is to try to gain some new customers to fill in the gap. I came across an article, though, that reminded me that current customers are always the first place we should go to increase our revenues.

The article is called Eight Tips for Increasing Your Average Sale, and I found it on thestreet.com. It’s an excellent article for putting more money in your business without spending a ton of extra effort.

After reading the article, I had a few thoughts:

You need to be using customer management software. You should be keeping track of your customers and sales figures using a quality CRM program. Free, open source software such as SugarCRM is fantastic and will give you the knowledge you need to break down your sales figures and set some new goals. In addition, there are ways to integrate your customer management with QuickBooks and other bookkeeping software.
Always ask for the sale. I forget this all the time, but you won’t make many sales if you don’t ask. If that means asking them to purchase an upgrade, a bundled offering, or a contract renewal, just ask. Offer your regular customers other products and services they may not even know you have, and your average sale may start to surprise you.
In a price war, nobody wins. If your business is competing on the basis of price, quit it. Find a real, sustainable competitive advantage that will keep the customers coming, and deliver. Our instinct is to get into a price war with our competitors to try and steal some customers when times get tough, but you may just be going through a lot of trouble for bigger headaches and no extra money. Price-only shoppers tend to be the biggest complainers!

However you go about it, there are ways to increase the amount of money you receive from each customer. Make sure that while you are up-selling your customers that you are delivering the very best possible product or service. That way, they are not at home wondering why you up-sold them, they are wondering how they ever lived without the new stuff!

If you have a couple minutes, below is a practical video of how to sell more to your customers.