Small business support: Get customers to buy
Make the most of your customers
Convincing your existing customers to buy more is easier and cheaper than attracting new customers. So if you're keen to grow your business, it makes sense to look at how you could encourage your customers to do more business with you. Here are some tips to help you get started.
How do you convince your customers to buy more?
Firstly, you need to understand why customers choose to do business with you - and what makes them turn to your competitors. You can then look at ways of improving your products and services, so that your customers choose to do business with you more often.
The kinds of improvements you could make vary by customer segment, depending on how loyal they are to your business. Here are a few key segments and some tactics you could use to convince them to buy more.
Customers who always choose to do business with you
These customers are already satisfied with your products or services so will respond best to tactics that reward their trust and reinforce their loyalty.
Customers who buy mainly from you
This group is sometimes tempted by something your competitors offer that you don’t. Find out what this is, beat it and look at ways that you could incentivise customers to spend more with you.
Customers who buy from you half the time
Customers within this segment who only shop with one other supplier are likely to respond best to discounts and other price incentives.
On the other hand, customers who do business with several suppliers in your market may be getting different needs met by each. If your business can meet all of these needs, make sure you let your customers know. If you can't, it may be worth investing in improvements to your business.
Customers who buy from you 25% of the time or less
Customers who choose to do only a small part of their business with you could be doing so for different reasons. Your business may only deliver part of what they want; their major supplier may be in a stronger position than you; or your customer may have a policy of buying from several suppliers.
Tactics you could use to convince this group to buy more include:
- Extending your product or service range
- Showing customers how your strengths compare to their major supplier's
- Offering better stock, deliveries, margins, service and/or promotions.
Useful links
If you're looking for ways to grow your business, you might also want to consider: