Today, customers have more choices than ever before which is both good and bad. However, the bottom line is that it’s essential to have solid strategies and a plan to gain more customers.
New customers are vital for the continued business growth, and, as we have all experienced, customers tend to leave for many different reasons. So, check out this list of uncomplicated ways to gain more customers.
Nine Uncomplicated Ways to Gain More Customers
1. Make your website a marketing monster
In today’s world, it is an absolute necessity for attracting new prospects. Therefore, it needs to contain as much content as possible to get high enough rankings with search engines like Google to ensure you are on the first page when someone searches for a product or service you offer.
If someone needs to click on page 2 or 3 or worse to find you, you might as well not exist on the internet. So, I’ll tie in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) here as well. It is vital to gain more customers.
2. Referrals, Referrals, Referrals
Is your sales team asking for referrals from every customer? If not, they need to get in the habit of doing so. Your current customers are your best champions. According to Invesp, referral leads convert 30% better than leads generated from other marketing channels and have a 16% higher lifetime value. In addition, customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher retention rate and are four times more likely to refer more customers to your brand.The punch line? Build referral generating activity into your sales and marketing process.
3. Get Social
Use social media. Work Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, TikTok, and any other social avenues that might be suitable for your business. Make them your best friends and know them well.
4. Direct mail & email marketing
Believe it or not, both channels are still effective tools. Of course, each is a very different medium, but the idea is still the same to help gain more customers.
Direct mail and email marketing enable you to get your message out to thousands of people with some personal touch to expect a certain percentage to respond, allowing your sales team to contact them and convert a direct mail lead into a customer.
5. Lapsed and inactive customers
For many businesses, one of their best sources of new business is old, inactive customers. Go through your lists of former customers regularly, based on your buying cycle and product life cycle.
Please stay in contact with them either by mail, email, or phone. If your list of former customers is too extensive for your sales team to absorb the work, consider farming it out to a third-party call center offering B2C outbound marketing as a service.
6. Incentives
You’ll never go wrong with incentives for new clients. Offering, for example, 10% off a first order might be enough to get them to drop their business into your lap rather than your competitors.
An inventive might help you identify which accounts are price sensitive so you can position your message to them in the future to keep their business.
7. Be a leader
Make sure you are visible at industry events or, if you are a local business, at neighborhood events. Publicize your expertise by participating in industry or local panels, speaking at events, and on podcasts. Post articles on those social media accounts you have and are actively working so well.
8. Keep your sales team focused and sharp
Believe it or not, there is still a large part of the population that will never buy a car without going into a showroom, never buy clothes without trying them on first, and so on. Then, of course, there are B2B products and services that require human interaction.
Your sales team needs to have the product knowledge, interpersonal, and sales skills needed to turn prospects into customers and nurture long-lasting relationships. So, invest in their professional development. By keeping your team well trained, your business and customers benefit.
9. Hire a world class third-party call center
Sales is still a numbers game. The more leads you have flowing into the pipeline, the more sales you have coming out the other end.
Often opportunities in the form of new markets opening up, new product launches, etc., require more touches and interactive conversations than your in-house staff can do.
Using a third-party call center, like Quality Contact Solutions, to bolster sales activity with B2B or B2C outbound marketing is a great way to feed fresh, qualified leads to your sales team.
I’ll wrap up and leave you with this (sorry, Paul Simon) …
“50 Ways to Gain More Customers”
Just pick up the phone, Joan.
Polish your pitch, Mitch.
Work a full day, Ray,
You know what I mean.
Lower your price, Brice.
You don’t have to think twice!
Just do all these things, Jess,
And call Q-C-S!
Steve Korn is Business Development Executive for Quality Contact Solutions. Steve’s experience spans 40 years and includes ownership of his own call center for over 20 years plus experience in B2C telemarketing and in-house B2B call center management. His core strength is in working with small and medium sized companies in designing and implementing programs for lead generation and appointment setting. Steve can be reached at steve.korn@qualitycontactsolutions.com or 516-656-4198.
