Regardless of the type of business you are in, there are only three ways to increase sales under the sun. The three ways are:
1. Increase Sales from Existing Clients.
The first (and possibly the easiest) way to increase sales is to get your existing clients to use your services (or buy your product) more often, or to use more of your services (or buy more of your products). This can have a dramatic effect on your income. If you are not marketing to your existing client base, you could literally double your business with this strategy alone. This is assuming that you have something compelling and valuable to offer your past and existing clients.
As you’ll see, marketing to your past and existing clients is one of the most important marketing activities. In fact, not marketing to your past clients is what I call “The Biggest Marketing Mistake of ALL,” but we’ll get to that.
It is estimated that it costs an average of 500 percent more to gain a new client than to keep an existing one. They already know you. You already know them. They have already paid your price. They are the most likely to do business with you assuming that you have a repeatable service, other products, and you want referrals from them.
Later on I share the reasons this is one of the biggest secrets. This book reveals some of the strategies you can use to keep your current clients coming back for more and to keep them actively referring you.
2. Increase Number of Clients.
Speaking of referrals, the second way to increase sales is to get more cli- ents. This is the one that people usually think of first. Most small business owners say that 85 percent of their business comes from repeat and referral business. Yet they don’t have a system in place to maintain and increase repeat and referral business. Most small business owners say they build their business through “word of mouth,” but they don’t have a referral system in place. There are many ways to get more clients, but the best way is through referrals, and I’ll show you how to put your word of mouth marketing into a phenomenal system.
3. Increase Price.
This is a powerful way to increase sales, but probably the last one that small business owners think of. In fact, you only think of it briefly, because after all, “With the economy being what it is….” I hope to change your mind on this, because when you increase your price without losing too much in sales volume, your top line increases. If you raise your price 20 percent and lose 20 percent of your sales volume, you are still making more profit. If you raise your price 50 percent and lose 50 percent of your sales volume, you are still making more profit.
By positioning yourself and your company differently—by creating a different message—you will be able to continually raise your price. The beauty is that you probably won’t lose any sales volume! If you do lose clients, it’ll be the unprofitable ones you don’t want anyway. And if you do this right, you’ll quickly replace them with clients who are willing to pay a higher price because you will have developed a compelling experience they want to have.
