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Beat The Recession: 2 Ways To Increase Sales
By | January 19, 2009
The recession can be hard on small businesses and large ones alike. While it is important to maintain stability, it is equally essential to increase sales to offset the rising costs of overhead. As a small business owner, you have two opportunities to increase sales and improve profits. These opportunities are created by existing customers as well as new customers.
Existing customers are those that have traded with you for some time and supply your company with consistent business due to regular purchases. These customers are easy to retain as they are familiar with your operation, your employees and your products or services. These regular customers provide a sense of stability to your operation and help to maintain the bottom line.
It is important to maintain and cultivate relationships with your regular customers to insure continued support of your business. This can be done easily by treating your customers as you would your friends. Interact with them in the way that you wish for others to treat you. Show them respect and courtesy to keep them loyal and to keep them coming back.
Take notice of their needs and desires and try to accommodate them whenever feasible. If you don’t, your competition will. To show your appreciation for their continued faithfulness and to promote increased spending, use promotions and sales geared to benefit them with discounts or bonuses. Provide incentives for larger purchase by means of coupons, rebates, etc.
Existing customers are also your best source of free advertising. When you provide unprecedented customer service, an enjoyable atmosphere, and deals that a patron can’t turn down, people are bound to talk. This talk results in your company name being on the lips of those who will bring new business to your door.
Bottom line, your existing, long term, loyal customers are the foundation that keeps your company stable. Without their regular spending, you might find yourself on shaky ground particularly during these unpredictable times.
Acquiring new customers, on the other hand, is also a vital part of increasing sales and profits. As a rule, new customers are generally more expensive and more difficult to get without a great deal of marketing. Obtaining a larger share of the market is also more time consuming. However, to fully maximize all around profits… finding inexpensive, creative ways to achieve this goal, careful planning of marketing strategies coupled with coupons, bonuses and discounts can do the trick.
Your goal here is to get them in the door by presenting an irresistible offer to draw them in, wow them with an inviting, fun atmosphere, dazzle them with exciting products or services at reasonable prices and exceed their expectations with superior customer service. Once your have reeled them in, and do these same things to keep them, they, too, become valued regular customers who bring more people in for the first time.
Topics: Recession |
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