Q: What is the best way to get more business from your existing customers? Would you recommend offering discounts for repeat business or will I lose out in the long run?
May 20 2008
Answered by: Jackie Jarvis Ask a question
There are two main ways to increase business from your existing customers, the first is to increase the transaction value (the amount they spend) and secondly the frequency of purchase (how often they spend).
Ways to increase transaction value are as follows:
• Try to sell them more when they buy
• Offer small discounts for multi-purchases
• Special offers and incentives
• Raise prices and stop discounting
Ways to increase the frequency of purchase are as follows:
• Establish long-term contracts
• Offer commitment discounts
• Communicate more often (newsletter, email, telephone)
• Come up with new products sevices to sell
• Review your customers needs
• Promote yourself (adsvertising, asking for referrals)
If you communicate with your existing customers and find out what ongoing requirements they have, then you can encourage them to buy more, refer you leads and give you more word of mouth business.
I would suggest that you brainstorm all the ways in which you could apply these ideas specifically for your business.
Some kind of discount for a commitment from your customers is a good idea as long as it doesn’t adversely affect your profit margins. It depends how valuable the commitment is to you verses how much profit you give away by discounting.
Make sure that the commitment is big enough to justify the value you are offering price wise. It does need to offer an incentive to the customer at the same time. I offer different levels of commitment to longer term marketing mentoring programmes. I offer different options for a three hour, five hour and 10 hours a month commitment, with a three month minimum time period to qualify for a special price. A 12 month commitment has the highest discount because it is of highest value to me.
I hope this is useful to you.
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