I’m often asked ‘how do I get more customers so that my revenue grows?’ Almost always, the answer is sitting right under the nose of the business owner, without he or she even realising it.

Does a business need more customers for increased revenue? The answer is no. Sure, new customers are important when it comes to growing your sales. For some businesses new customers are critical just by the nature of the business. For example, a home builder will always need new customers, because the customer on average builds a new home only so often, usually years in between builds.

How then do you grow your revenue without necessarily acquiring new customers? There are several strategies available to you:

1. Increase the frequency of your existing customers buying from you. Our experience tells us your customers often do not know of all of your products and services that are available to them. Because of that your existing customers are buying products and services that you supply, but not from you! It is your responsibility to inform your customers of all your products and services you sell. You already have a relationship with them and they will buy from you because they know you, like you and trust you.
2. Increase the value per transaction from a price increase. Many businesses compete on price when they don’t need to. Also, many businesses have not increased their prices in years mostly because of fear of losing customers. There are strategies available to achieve price increases which we see used successfully over and over again.
3. Effective sales systems. Improving the effectiveness of your sales systems will generate increased sales. How effective is your team in selling? Do they know how to demonstrate value? Do they know how to uncover opportunities? Do they know how to deal with objections? Do they know how to ask for the order? Do they regularly follow up?
4. Retention of existing customers. Do you measure your customer retention rate? Are you looking after your existing customers as much as you look for new customers?

It costs between 6 and 10 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to effectively service your existing customers.