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There is no such thing as easy money right? Are you sure? There are really only two ways to grow your revenue: cut costs or sell more. There is a limit to how much more revenue your business can earn by cutting costs whereas selling more is limitless. If you only had time to do one thing in your business it should be focusing on how to sell more. There is no easy way to do that then by figuring out how to sell more to existing clients either directly or indirectly. The more systematic you can make this the more profitable your business will be and ultimately your business will be worth more.
So how do you sell more to existing clients or customers?
Having worked with entrepreneurs and business owners for twenty years I can tell you that many businesses are focused on continually selling to (and investing in) new business and tend to leave repeat business opportunities untouched. The reality is that finding a new customer is more work and requires more money than finding new sales opportunities with existing customers that your business has already paid for. Think about it. If you have invested time and energy in attracting, converting and selling to new customers why not do the same thing with your established customer base? The margins are higher and the friction in the sales process is less. It’s a well known fact that a business is worth more if it systematically knows how to generate repeat business on a consistent basis and yet many small and medium sized businesses do this very poorly.
How can our business grab the easy money?
The first place to start to determine if your business has the potential to resell to clients each week, month or business quarter. If your business offers a product or service that is consumed in some way by your client or customer then chances are you can help them consume more. If you are a lawyer how many different “legal” issues or services can you provide your clients each year? Can you set them up on a schedule? Can you come up with new services that maybe you haven’t historically offered by if you did you could service a percentage of your client base? If you sell coffee can you create a new line of coffee or accessories that your customers can purchase? Can you offer them customer-only specials a few times a year that they have to sign up for in advance so you can lock in that revenue? Can you offer complimentary food products that can be delivered to your customers with their coffee? There are multiple ways to begin figuring this out but you have to start with a desire to want more of your revenue to come from repeat sales compared to new sales. A business that is earning more revenue from repeat customers will withstand any number of challenges and survive compared to a business that only focuses on the next new sale.
Our business doesn’t have resell opportunities – what do we do?
Every business has an opportunity to add more value to their customers. Strategic relationships with other businesses that offer complimentary products or services to your products and services is the easiest place to start. Creating a unique referral program with strategic partners is probably the easiest thing your business can do to earn more revenue from customers your business has paid for. These types of referral programs often have special features or pricing that is only available through the relationship and would not be available to the general public. This can be a great way to build brand loyalty for your business as well as helping increase your top line.
If you are reading this and need some help figuring out what your business could be doing – get in touch. Businesses always need money to grow or take advantage of opportunities and we use that need as a starting point for helping you do more – even if you are figuring out how to increase your revenue through repeat sales.
I created mlenow.ca to help businesses looking for ideas, money and results. Our team gets up every day to help businesses that find themselves in this position. Let’s chat and connect if you (or someone you know) needs some help with their business.
