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Suggest You - How to Squeeze More Profit Out of Your Customers!
Matching and MirroringNeuro-linguistic programs teach you a lot about the psychology of selling and it’s worth your while reading a book on this subject, or studying a tape. Matching and mirroring is one concept I believe you should adopt in a sales process. First of all, if you have several staff, try to use the salesperson that is closest to the customer’s age (and sometimes gender) because people tend to buy from people who are seven years on either side of their age, older or younger. This means a 27-year old is much more likely to make a purchase from a 20-34 year old than from a 45-year old.This is a form of matching and mirroring, although the expression is usually associated with body language – for example, if a customer has their arms folded, your best posture will subtly mirror what they’r
So how does this work? Let’s take your customer Bodgit Ltd. You go through their purchasing history (from the database you have now set up!) and you see that every 6 weeks or so, they re-order. But some months there are gaps, suggesting that they may go to competitors on some occasions. Make a note in your diary for one week before you would expect them to order again. When the time comes, pi
It's all very well having a flashy (and expensive) advertising campaign, backed up by a wealth of positive PR, but if your staff are not all pulling in the same direction this could be the biggest leak in your plan.Want a more in-depth guide to internal and customer communications, plus a CD-ROM with software with advice, additional content and links to helpful sites?Buy 'Marketing your Business' todayFirstly, everyone need to be able to get accurate information, so ensure that you have a good computer network (or better still, a fully-fledged Intranet) and routinely store the latest versions of documents where everyone can access them.Keep all staff that have any exposure to customer AT WHATEVER LEVEL aware of new campaigns. Even the Stores Manager might talk with customers on the phon
The biggest mistake businesses make is to focus all their marketing effort and budget on getting new customers. Research has shown that it costs up to 6 times more to get a new customer than to retain or sell to an existing one. And this is the key. Concentrate on selling more to your existing clients. Simple! Squeezing more profit out of your customer base is a cost-effective way of increasing your bottom line.
So, let’s look at the steps you can take to tease more profit from your client base.
Pareto’s Law
No doubt you have heard of Pareto’s Law? You may know it better as the 80/20 rule. In a sales context if you examine your sales pattern, you may find that 80% of your profit comes from only 20% of your customers. While the percentages may vary slightly, as a principle it generally holds true. Yes, it may come as a bit of shock to find out that most of your profit comes from a handful of customers, but armed with this information you can now create a plan to earn more profit!
So, the first step to squeezing out more profit is to identify your top 20% profitable customers. Obviously, to do this you have to have a database, which keeps track of who orders what and how much. What? You don’t? Keeping track of your customer’s dealings with you is essential. Get a database up and running … today! The effort in setting this up and keeping it up to date will be quickly paid back.
Get them buying more often
Having identified your top earners, the next step is to focus on how you can get them to buy more frequently. Increasing their ordering frequency may sound a bit simplistic but that’s the beauty of it … it is! The trick works especially well if you are in the retail or supply business. The idea is to catch the customer in advance of them needing your product or service and offer it either before they know they require it, or before they go to a competitor.
So how does this work? Let’s take your customer Bodgit Ltd. You go through their purchasing history (from the database you have now set up!) and you see that every 6 weeks or so, they re-order. But some months there are gaps, suggesting that they may go to competitors on some occasions. Make a note in your diary for one week before you would expect them to order again. When the time comes, pi
Vending Locator Service - OverviewMost vending locator services promise you to provide the best and top quality vending location services. In such a situation when all services sound good, choosing a perfect vending locator service provider gets most tedious. At the same time, you should remember that your chances of making money through vending machine installations can be brighten up if the vending service provider you hire knows his job best. Hence select a vending locator who knows his job best.Your ideal vending locatorTake a look at the key features of an ideal vending locator service: Capability to find most suitable and safe vending machine locations Conduct a through research while selecting locations Should provide vending machine maintena
So, let’s look at the steps you can take to tease more profit from your client base.
Pareto’s Law
No doubt you have heard of Pareto’s Law? You may know it better as the 80/20 rule. In a sales context if you examine your sales pattern, you may find that 80% of your profit comes from only 20% of your customers. While the percentages may vary slightly, as a principle it generally holds true. Yes, it may come as a bit of shock to find out that most of your profit comes from a handful of customers, but armed with this information you can now create a plan to earn more profit!
So, the first step to squeezing out more profit is to identify your top 20% profitable customers. Obviously, to do this you have to have a database, which keeps track of who orders what and how much. What? You don’t? Keeping track of your customer’s dealings with you is essential. Get a database up and running … today! The effort in setting this up and keeping it up to date will be quickly paid back.
Get them buying more often
Having identified your top earners, the next step is to focus on how you can get them to buy more frequently. Increasing their ordering frequency may sound a bit simplistic but that’s the beauty of it … it is! The trick works especially well if you are in the retail or supply business. The idea is to catch the customer in advance of them needing your product or service and offer it either before they know they require it, or before they go to a competitor.
So how does this work? Let’s take your customer Bodgit Ltd. You go through their purchasing history (from the database you have now set up!) and you see that every 6 weeks or so, they re-order. But some months there are gaps, suggesting that they may go to competitors on some occasions. Make a note in your diary for one week before you would expect them to order again. When the time comes, pi
In the Industrial Age the main skills you needed to survive and prosper in the business arena were loyalty and strong work ethic. You could set your watch by annual pay raises. Seniority was the standard for upward mobility, but that was long ago.Survival today takes a lot more. If you have a job, you’re probably working harder and longer than you were ten years ago, earning fewer pay raises, benefits and languishing on the promotion stepladder.People used to have career master-plans: Get a degree, get a job, and retire with a pension and full benefits. Today, career planning is an oxymoron. Technology, reengineering, and a global economy have altered the career landscape. To survive, you have to learn to manage your career and your life in a much different workplace.You must understand that t
So, the first step to squeezing out more profit is to identify your top 20% profitable customers. Obviously, to do this you have to have a database, which keeps track of who orders what and how much. What? You don’t? Keeping track of your customer’s dealings with you is essential. Get a database up and running … today! The effort in setting this up and keeping it up to date will be quickly paid back.
Get them buying more often
Having identified your top earners, the next step is to focus on how you can get them to buy more frequently. Increasing their ordering frequency may sound a bit simplistic but that’s the beauty of it … it is! The trick works especially well if you are in the retail or supply business. The idea is to catch the customer in advance of them needing your product or service and offer it either before they know they require it, or before they go to a competitor.
So how does this work? Let’s take your customer Bodgit Ltd. You go through their purchasing history (from the database you have now set up!) and you see that every 6 weeks or so, they re-order. But some months there are gaps, suggesting that they may go to competitors on some occasions. Make a note in your diary for one week before you would expect them to order again. When the time comes, pi
When it comes to advertising and marketing your products and services, common sense dictates that the higher the response rate, the better. But just knowing that is not enough. It’s important to understand exactly how each additional response can affect your marketing costs and profits. The better your understanding of the potential value of each additional response, the more effort you’ll invest into increasing your response rate over time.Increasing your response rate can increase your net profit in one of two ways. You can either:1. Maintain (or increase) your marketing investment and frequency and capitalize on your higher response rate to bring in more revenue. If the response rate for an ongoing campaign that reaches 10,000 people can be increased by 20%, let’s say from 1.5% to 1.8%, that incre
Get them buying more often
Having identified your top earners, the next step is to focus on how you can get them to buy more frequently. Increasing their ordering frequency may sound a bit simplistic but that’s the beauty of it … it is! The trick works especially well if you are in the retail or supply business. The idea is to catch the customer in advance of them needing your product or service and offer it either before they know they require it, or before they go to a competitor.
So how does this work? Let’s take your customer Bodgit Ltd. You go through their purchasing history (from the database you have now set up!) and you see that every 6 weeks or so, they re-order. But some months there are gaps, suggesting that they may go to competitors on some occasions. Make a note in your diary for one week before you would expect them to order again. When the time comes, pi
An organisation’s competitive advantage and therefore achieve long-term success is driven by two key factors: The efficiency and effectiveness of their processes to deliver quality products and / or services The quality of their risk management, enabling them to avoid events and outcomes that damage the image or stability of the business and managing the upside risks to realise opportunitiesMany organisations, when driving a business improvement programme, forget about the management of associated risks, or when implementing risk management do not realise the impact of the controls they put in place on the efficiency of their operations. It also needs to be recognised that both achieving process improvement and managing risk are, to some extent, dependant on factors the organ
So how does this work? Let’s take your customer Bodgit Ltd. You go through their purchasing history (from the database you have now set up!) and you see that every 6 weeks or so, they re-order. But some months there are gaps, suggesting that they may go to competitors on some occasions. Make a note in your diary for one week before you would expect them to order again. When the time comes, pick up the phone and say, “Mr Smith, I imagine you must be getting low on widgets? Would you like me to send your usual amount or do you need more?”
“Wow” thinks Mr Smith, “This company is sharp!” Result? One happy customer; an order that may have gone to your competitor comes to you; one extra cheque to bank! Have a think about how you can apply this technique to your business. Try it out.
Increase the average order value
As well as getting your customer to buy more often, why not get them to spend more? They may be buying one product from you, but a complimentary product, which you also supply, from a competitor. Be bold; ask him for a bigger share of the pie! Try to resist cutting your margins to secure a deal but instead, see if you can tailor the product to meet his needs. Can you change your delivery system? Can you provide better after-sales service. Explore all these avenues to see how you can get more business. If you do have to cut your margins, work out how much overall extra profit you will get if the average order value goes up.
If you have an extensive range of products, you may be surprised to find out that some of your customers are not aware of the full extent of your range. Part of your strategy to squeeze out more profit should be to ensure your customer knows what you sell! When did you last call with your customer with the sole aim of chatting through your range of goods or services? You could be amazed by how little they know!
Talk to them
Too often the only contact a business has with its clients is when they receive an order. The customer hears nothing until the next order is sent in. To get your profitable customers to do more business, find any excuse you can to talk to them. Make an effort to contact them on a regular basis. Ask them what they want from you? What do you have to do to increase business with them? Would a new addition to your line fit in with what they want? Question, question, question! Even if nothing comes out of your conversations immediately, at least they know you are interested in them. This all builds loyalty to you and your business.
Love them!
As well as taking the
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