Profits

The real profits in most businesses are in the long term relationships with customers. The costs of Marketing to new customers are very high. The costs of Marketing to existing customers are very low – with the internet and email, close to nothing.

Most business owners convert a lead to make a sale; I prefer to think of it as converting a lead to get a customer. People who have bought from you before presumably had a good experience with you and like and trust you; this means they’re likely to buy from you again.

One of the easiest ways to increase you profits with almost no extra work is simply to ask your existing customers what they need and what they want and then give it to them.

The obvious way to do this is to email them and simply ask, but this doesn’t always get you the right answers.

Why?

Because while they won’t actually lie to you deliberately, they’ll want to be helpful to you and so will tend to tell you what they think other people probably want from you. We are natural solipsists and we tend to assume what we want is unique, so instead of giving that information we’ll tend to second-guess and respond by giving a list of what we think everyone else might want.

So a better way to ask is to email your list and ask these two questions:

1. 1. What are your 3 to 6 month goals in respect of X? (where ‘X’ is connected with the business you’re in. So if you were selling weight-loss products, you might say, “What are your 3 to 6 month goals with your weight loss?”).
2. What are the top three challenges you have that might stop you reaching these goals?

Asking these questions forces the respondent to answer in a way that gives you real insights into what they need from you. Better yet, you can use the exact language and phraseology of the responses in your sales letters – this is incredibly powerful and works extremely well. When your prospects read it and come across the language they used, they instantly get a deep connection with your message.

Once you’ve done this you can put a system in place that automatically offers all new customers these other products and services — presto! An instant cash-flow boost for no work.

So you simply must build up a “back end” of products or services to offer your customers.

If you do not have anything obvious to offer them, find someone who does, team up with them and offer their products or services to your customers.