The myth most business owners believe: The best way to increase sales is by increasing my advertising.
Why this myth causes a problem: In this economy, just about every business is experiencing a decrease in sales. Their business customers are cutting costs or closing down. And high unemployment, shorter work weeks, and increased costs for almost everything are forcing the consumer to cut or eliminate almost all non-essential items.
Most small business owners don’t have the budget needed to launch an effective advertising campaign in order to replace lost customers. So they do the worst thing possible – nothing! (Complaining doesn’t count as doing something).
The truth successful business owners learn the hard way! The easiest and cheapest way to increase sales is to concentrate on increasing sales to current customers. These people already know you, trust you, and like you! This is a much easier sale than a cold call or advertising to non-customers.
Experienced business owners have a plan to:
- Get their current customers to come back more often
- Get their current customers to buy more each time they are there
- Get their current customers to refer their friends
The smart business owner focuses on these three things and has a written plan for how they are going to accomplish each one. It almost always results in a big payoff for the owner, even in this economy (I would argue, especially in this economy). I have personally helped business owners double their sales in a year just by focusing on these three things.
Lesson learned: New customers are necessary to keep a business growing. But the road to quick sales and profit increase starts with selling more to your current customers.