The majority of businesses need a steady stream of customers if they’re going to have success. There’s a chance that you have one big contract that pays all the bills, but that’s unlikely — and even if it were true, it’d probably be best to find new customers anyway. You don’t want to have all your eggs in one basket, after all.
But of course, while it’s easy to want more customers, actually getting them is a bit more difficult. There’s a lot of competition out there, after all.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at some tried and tested methods for increasing your customer base and getting more sales. They may not work overnight, but if you have some patience, then you’ll find eventually, they get results.
Invest in your Digital Presence
Many companies think that they need to have a website, social media channels, and so forth in order to get customers. This is incorrect. You need to have good versions of those things if you’re going to get people interested in your business. Having a website won’t do any good if it has an outdated design, broken pages, and other substandard elements.
If your website and broader digital presence could do with an overhaul, then do it. The internet is becoming more important to sales, not less. You can’t expect to win customers without it.
Hire a Copywriter
You may know your product or services inside out. But if you’re unable to communicate that information to your customers, then you’ll struggle to make sales. It’s a good idea to hire a copywriter to write the text for your website, including the product descriptions. They’ll be able to craft something that makes sense to newcomers (who may have your level of expertise). Plus, it’ll just more broadly enhance your company’s reputation — there’s nothing that’ll turn a potential customer off a business faster than grammatical and spelling errors.
Understand Your Products
Of course, we mentioned then how you might know your products inside and out. We should change the ‘may’ to ‘should.’ If you don’t have in-depth knowledge of the things you’re trying to sell, then you can’t expect too many people to buy. Of course, if you’re the founder of the company, then you probably already do. But what about your staff? There’s nothing worse than an employee being asked about a product by a potential customer and them not knowing the answer. Be sure to give your employees a crash course on your products during the onboarding process. And if they work specifically in sales or in a customer-facing role, then it should be more than a crash course.
Make Sales Straightforward
It can be difficult to get customers simply because there are so many points during the process when they can turn away. It’s like getting a fish on the hook. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get it in the boat. The key is to do everything you can to improve your chances of turning a prospect into a customer. How you do this will depend on your type of business. If you provide quotes to potential customers, then you could use software that provides Autotask quoting — it’ll give you fast and professional looking quotes that will impress your potential customer. If you have an eCommerce store, then it’ll be in your interest to streamline the payment process. There’s nothing worse than losing a customer right at the last moment, all because the payment process was too long and complicated.
Re-Target Existing Customers
We think of new customers as the type of people we should aspire to bring on board. But that’s not necessarily the case. It can be more effective to make existing customers new again. For one thing, it can cost much less money than targeting new potential customers. Plus, you already know that they have an interest in your brand, so much of the initial heavy lifting will already have been done.
New Markets
Finally, why not take a look at exploring new markets? It’s a big world out there, and if you’ve had success in your current location, then it may be worthwhile exploring other areas. This could involve opening up to selling in new countries, or you may open a branch in the next town over if you have a physical store. You’ll still need to do your due diligence to ensure there’s a demand for your product, but you might just find that you can reach many new people pretty quickly.
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