An often-asked question from business owners, and on the surface it’s perfectly sound. More sales means more profit, right? So how DO you get more sales?

Hang on though, before we get into this, do more sales really mean more profit?

If you owned, say, a Plasma TV shop, and you halved all your prices, you’d get more sales. I guarantee it. But you’d be selling each set for less than what you paid for it, and not only would you NOT make more profit, you’d be going backwards. Likewise if a plumber halved her charges or a lawyer slashed his hourly rate. More sales, but less profit (or none at all).

Here’s another example; if you took out full page colour advertisements in every newspaper in the country, you’d also get more sales. But a typical cost structure might be this; turnover up by $50,000 during the campaign, gross profit up by $12,000, additional net profit of $6,000 – and all it cost you was $30,000 for the ads!

More sales are easy. But the question should be ‘How do I make more profit?’

One of the best ways to increase profit is certainly to get more sales – but to attract those sales for NO COST to your business. And the best source of no-cost additional sales is your current customer base.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before; it’s far easier and more cost effective to draw additional sales out of happy customers than it is to attract new ones. That’s why a decent email database and marketing campaign is so good for business. These people already trust you! They’ve experienced what it’s like to do business with you. (And if they shy away now, you have a problem.) Every marketer in the world worth their salt will advise that you keep plumbing the depths of this resource.

But here’s the kicker… don’t restrict yourself to selling to these people.

Use their experience with you to convince others that you’re reputable, efficient, cost-effective and (fill in attribute here). In other words, use your present customers as a source of more sales from new customers. Ask them for referrals. Ask them if they know anyone else that you might be able to help. And if that’s a little difficult for you to do, at the very least ask them to PLUG you! Get them telling others how great you are, and new customers will come to you.

This is how you get more sales – that equate directly to extra profits. It doesn’t cost anything to market to existing customers, and any new customers that you attract will be pre-qualified (unlike those who come from expensive advertising campaigns or serious price-cutting).

You have a page on iplug.co.nz, and it’s available for all to see, so why not start using it!