Keep Your Customers Longer
Dear Business Builder,
No happy, feel good stuff today.
This is about your bottom line.
You do all that work to build your list and convert your prospects into customers. Then your customer stops buying.
You already know the main ways to increase sales …
- Get more customers
- Increase profit per sale
- Increase purchasing frequency
Notice how two out three is about what you do AFTER you get a customer.
If it takes 5-6 times more money to sell to a new customer than it does to sell to an existing customer … And the whole point of building a list is so you have a built-in market to sell to … it follows that knowing how to keep a customer is a major marketing activity.
So today let’s talk a little about keeping your customers longer.
Here’s one of easiest problems to fix.
A customer shows up on your website. Loves what you have to say. Your products perfectly target his needs so he buys … everything.
He’s in love with you, your products and your business. As far as he’s concerned, the reason his credit card exists is to buy your products.
Sadly, you’ve only got three products. He spends his $1,000 and all of a sudden you won’t take any more of his money.
When his money starts burning a hole in his pocket next month, he’ll have to go somewhere else.
This is just one scenario of how a customer becomes a non-customer. But let’s solve it real quick and move on.
How to create more products, faster
Product creation is an ongoing part of a successful business. None of us want our best customers to run out of things to buy. Or find more interesting products elsewhere.
Product sales diminish over time because …
- Your market changes …
- Your competition increases …
- You’re too successful so your best prospects already have your product …
- New technology or information makes your product obsolete.
Complacency is rarely rewarded in business, or life.
So if you have one, two or three products and you haven’t developed anything new in years, chances are you could be making a lot more money.
If you’re committed to doing it, creating valuable products doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process.
So here several great resources for speeding up your product creation:
- Michael Masterson’s recent article on how to grow your business …
- Daniel Levis’s article on how to make money with teleseminars …
- Julie McManus’s article series:
That’s more than enough to get you moving.
Four Other Reasons You Lose Customers
If you want to keep customers longer and sell more stuff to them, here’s why they leave.
- They think your products are too expensive. Either because:
- They found an alternate, cheaper solution. For most people, that means you didn’t deliver enough value.
- They don’t think the benefit you offer is worth the money. You’re pricing yourself out of the market.
- They don’t have the money. You can’t do much about that and stay profitable.
- They think your product stinks. Common reasons they have that reaction are …
- Your product, in fact, does stink.
- Your products are priced too high for what they deliver.
- You’re using snake-oil sales copy and over-promising what your product can do …
“Buy my product. Women will want you. Men will want to be you. Bill Gates will envy your bank account. Just click here.”
(I bought that product. It didn’t work. I was despondent for weeks) - You ticked them off. They didn’t like the way you or your employees treated them.
- 70% of customers leave because they feel they were treated poorly according to study by The Small Business Administration.
Let’s look at that statistic as direct marketers:
For every second sale you make, you may have been able to make 7 more sales by being a little nicer. Sell 1,000 of your second tier products? You could have sold 7,000. Make $30,000 of that product? Maybe you should’ve made $210,000.
The lesson? Be nice.
Customer Service is a MARKETING ACTIVITY. Never forget it or relegate it to the cheapest alternative. - You annoyed them by ‘churning and burning’ your list. You know how it goes …
Annoying Marketer – “Knock, Knock.”
Customer – “Who’s there?”
Annoying Marketer –“BUY MY PRODUCT!”
Customer – “Is that all you ever say?”
Annoying Marketer – “BUY MY PRODUCT!”
Customer – “Loser.” Slams door, unsubscribes.
- The Grim Reaper called: Send flowers. Sadly, not even the best customers are immortal.
But there is a lot you can do to keep your customers coming back.
How to Over-Deliver So Customers Love you
They can’t all be gems, but if your product stinks – fix it or find a new one.
It’s more profitable and your customers will stick around longer and (Gasp!) maybe even buy something else.
Even when your product is good, you should look at your pricing strategy.
There is a positioning aspect of content delivery that seems to escape many marketers. Simply put, it’s easy to differentiate yourself in a market by delivering greater value at a lower price point.
I’m not talking about being the cheap man on the block here. This is actually one of the keys to consistently being able to charge premium prices.
I’m talking about over-delivering. A little basic research will show you where the opportunities are in your market.
Go look at your competition. Examine each of the following areas looking for opportunities to strenghten them.
- What exactly are they providing to their entry level customers?
- Do they have an intelligent product ladder in place?
- What formats are they delivering their products in?
- What offers are they using?
- What kind, and how many premiums do they deliver?
Do this simple exercise and you’ll find a dozens of ways to deliver more value.
The greater the amount of value you provide in the early stages of your product ladder, the more you can charge for the higher stages of your product ladder.
And by consistently providing more value, you’ll notice a couple of things:
- You’ll have stronger relationships with your customers. This usually translates into more sales of your other products. Because customers will never feel ripped off by buying your products. That gives you built-in credibility when you offer another product.
- Your competition will find it harder to satisfy one of your customers. You’ve raised the bar. So when your customer buys a product from your competition, it’s more likely they’ll feel under-whelmed.
This cuts both ways – when customers get greater value from your competitors for the same, or lower price, you’re the one who looks bad.
- You’ll be able to charge more for your products. Premium pricing is appropriate because you’re delivering greater value.
That’s enough for today.
Later, we’ll talk about another way to keep customers – by building relationships with them. Why? Because price shoppers never make good long-term customers and by definition don’t pay premium prices. But relationships buyers do.
To your faster success,
John Newtson
Editor, Life in the Fast Lane
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
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