CUSTOMER ACQUISITION STRATEGIES FOR YOUR BUSINESS (2) by williamsp(Mocality)

In the first part of this series, we discussed growing your business by bringing in more customers. The post today will talk about making more sales without necessarily increasing the number of your customers! To understand this strategy, it is pertinent you understand why people buy anything. You see, customers don’t buy products or service; they buy end result. They buy a product because it is a means to an end (they want). For instance, someone who buys a book doesn’t really need the book, but the knowledge in the book. Or the product could be body cream, but in the customer’s mind, the end result is a smoother, fresher, youthful, and more beautiful skin. If you recognize this, you can always add products and services that help customers achieve their end result more completely, conveniently, and efficiently and in the process get them to buy more from you. The hard part is getting customers to know and trust you to make that first purchase. Once that is achieved, you simply need to let them know how you can give them more of what they want. There are basically two techniques that can help you deliver greater benefits to your customers while increasing your revenue and profit at the same time: Cross selling This is offering your customers the opportunity to add related items to their basic purchase from you. Items that when combined together will increase the level of satisfaction or significance of the ultimate result more completely. I once worked in a Christian bookstore. Whenever a customer bought a bible, it was customary for me or any other sales attendant to ask the customer whether he would like to buy a bible cover to protect and prolong the life of the bible. Not only that, it would also be suggested to the customer to buy a bible marker to mark his favorite parts of the new bible. That is cross selling. The bible is the front end product while the bible cover and the marker are back end products. However, key to successful cross-selling is to focus your efforts on meeting the customer’s needs, rather than simply pushing more products and service. In the bible store example, the customer would definitely benefit more from buying a cover to protect his bible. And a bible marker would enhance his study of the bible; while the store will invariably make more money from the customer. You have probably been cross sold too. Have you ever bought a camera phone? You may have picked a reasonably affordable one of say N15000, but after adding memory card, car charger, and case, you ended up spending N18000. This simple strategy works because people hardly hesitate in situations like this. They are already there to buy something, so buying more is an easy next step. Once a prospect has made a purchase, he is in “buying mode” This strategy can work in all kinds of business. That pepper seller on your street is another good example. You buy a N200 pepper from her and she offers to grind it for only N50 naira. Even if you have a blender at home, you sometimes allow her to grind the pepper because her doing so would save you the trouble of washing and cleaning the pepper (which she will do at no extra charge) So, you can—and should make use of cross selling to make more money from each customer. Offer your prospect a related product or service when they make a purchase. How to come up with cross-selling opportunities in your business Action steps Step 1 Identify where your customer goes before he or she buys your product or service and offer complimentary product or service your customer is likely to buy anyway. For example, if you run a music training academy, be sure to sell equipment necessary to perform the task you are teaching (keyboard, piano, trumpet, violin, music manuscript etc.). If you cannot directly sell this equipment for one reason or the other, form an alliance with a provider (for a share of the profit). Step 2 Find out where customers go or what they need after they buy your product or service. Using the music academy example, once they have gained mastery of a musical instrument, some of your students might want to monetize their newly acquired skill. Thus, you can offer brokerage service where you link schools and churches that are in need of talented musicians with your recently graduated students. Up selling This is simply increasing the value of what a customer buys from you. It is offering your customer a slightly different product from what they thought they needed if the different product will satisfy the customer more completely, conveniently and efficiently. A few years ago, we needed to change the water pumping machine in our house. The intention was to replace the bad (surface) pump with a newer one of the same type. At the machine sales store, the salesman asked me a couple of questions about the depth and location of our borehole, and based on my responses, he advised that a submersible pumping machine will be more suitable for our house than a surface pump. He gave a couple of reasons while this was so. Thus, rather than buy a N14000 surface pump as I planned, I ended up buying a N27000 submersible pump. The key point here is to understand your customers’ needs and that you are genuinely giving them something that‘ll help them better achieve the satisfying end result they want. “Dozen price,” “three for fifty naira,” “super pack”: these are all popular parts of our lexicon but more importantly, they are a great example of upselling a customer on the quantity of the purchase. This strategy is effective because people are willing to buy more than they ordinarily do when given the option or incentive; just try offering four for the price of three, or buy three and get one free, of almost anything and you ‘ll see customers that typically buy just one item going for the higher quantity.