7 ways to increase sales from your existing customers

Your existing customers are one of your business’s most valuable assets. After all, they’ve already found you, chosen you over your competitors, and are familiar with your products or services. It’s therefore cheaper and easier to work on increasing sales from your existing customers than it is to attract new ones.

So how can you tap in to your client base to sell more? Here’s six ways:

1. Gather customer feedback

People who have bought from you are often the best judge as to what sells well and why, and from there, you can work out your most effective sales strategy. By unearthing what your customers need and when, you can also predict demand more accurately. Try following up sales with a courtesy call or carry out a brief customer service questionnaire to get feedback.

2. Don’t overlook social media sites

These are a cost-effective way to gather opinion from customers. Sound out new products or services with your followers on Twitter or Facebook, or check out competitor activity. If your trade or business organisation has an online forum, consider starting a discussion or thread to get feedback.

3. Exploit cross-selling and upselling opportunities

Reach out to your existing clients by increasing either the range or the value of what you sell. If you sell online, use your website and email marketing campaigns to make recommendations based on customers’ buying habits.

4. Send email alerts

Alerting customers on your database through emails or newsletters when new, improved or related products or services become available is another way of increasing sales.

5. Cater to your most valuable customers

Work out what your most valuable customers – the high spending ones – really want from you. To encourage orders, you could offer discounts or special promotions on further purchases.

6. Drum up referrals

You could also try to attract new customers through referrals – usually a highly reliable way to bring in new business – by giving a special discount to customers who recommend your business to others.

7. Ensure you target the right customers

No customer likes to be badgered with sales pitches, particularly if the product or service doesn’t meet their needs. If your marketing and sales campaigns don’t accurately target the right customers, you risk losing their trust and jeopardising the relationship. Your aim is to build a solid long-term association, not chase one-off profits.