3 WAYS TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE OR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE (III)

Give me a lever long enough, and a Fulcrum on which to place it, and I will move the World.

This is the third and conclusive part of our article of the above title. In the first and second article, we outlined the 3 ways that any owner of a small business or professional service can grow their business. In the first part, we mentioned the need to create new customers through the use of the 10 strategies discussed. You can get the full article here: http://bit.ly/2zfCcjv. In the second part, we also mentioned that you need to consciously increase the average transaction value of each of your clients. You can get the second part here: http://bit.ly/2RloS4g.

In the third part to complete your master plan to grow your small business or professional practice, you need to increase the frequency of purchase of your products or services by each of your customers. In this period of harsh economic realities, this look like a daunting task, but it really is not. Like in the first and second parts of our article, you need to consciously deploy strategies whose aim is to get your customers coming back to buy your products or services as frequently as possible, that is, you need to help grow your business by increasing the rate at which your customers buy from you.

To achieve this objective, we will discuss 6 different strategies that will enable you to easily get your customer to keep coming back for more of your products. They are:

1. Create Back-end Products and/or Services you can offer past and current clients:  Five years ago, I bought a short time internet plan with Swift Technologies, and they painstakingly took my data, my telephone, email, date of birth and home address. Up till today, I get different kind of offers from them - promotions, new plans, price reductions etc. This strategy will work very well for you if you take adequate record of your currents customers or those who had bought from you in the past. The strategy also assumed that you offer many different products as part of your company products' bouquet, and that you customers are happy with you who bought from you in the past. With this strategy, write and offer them the other products from your business that have not yet bought. Explain to them that because you appreciate their business, you are also offering them other products from a different benefit point of view. And if you can throw in a discount, the more the merrier.
2. Communicate personally with your clients by telephone or by letters to maintain a strong and positive relationship: As the owner of a small business, once you are able to secure a customer through whatever means - salespeople, referrals, advertisement or social media - make it a point to get personal with your customer and treat them like clients.
   
   Make calls to them on their important dates - birthdays, anniversaries, promotions or important national holidays - always ensure that you are on top of their mind.  There was a small dry cleaning business I use - I get pleasant surprise calls from them every time to time - TGIF calls, New Offer calls, National Holiday calls etc. I use other dry cleaners, but guess you know who my favorite among them is.
3. Endorse other business's products or services to your customers' list: This is another reason why you need to take adequate records of customers who are buying from you now or have bought from you in the past.. If you have done this correctly, and have created affinity with them, gained their trust and earned their respect, you can now use that relationship in a stronger, more strategic way. You can recommend the products of other companies, or services of other vendors or suppliers to your customers - A Word of Caution - what you are offering them had to be what you are convinced will add value to their lives or improve the benefits they currently enjoy with your business. If you do this correctly, it will produce enormous goodwill for you from your customers, and allow you also to gain enormous amount of new business from reverse endorsement from the company you are endorsing. You can also gain some new revenue streams, earning a percentage commission derivable from new businesses occurring with your new endorsee.
4. Run Special Events: Special events include new product launch, closed door sales, preferred customer offers, etc. So, ask yourself, what kind of offer or promotion can you give your customers that can make them feel special, or that which can confer some unique advantage to them ahead of every other business in the marketplace. Imagine running a monthly Meet The
   
   Customers Breakfast Forum where you can get your customers to attend with two friends or relations. Imagine hosting a Christmas Party or Eid el Kabir get-together where you can get your customers to bring 2 relations or friends. Imagine hosting a new buyer support program where your customers can bring their friends along. The list is endless, the possibilities are limitless. The objective is to make your customers feel special, and at the same time getting them to give you free referral business.
5. Programming your clients for products or service repurchases: This is a strategy to consciously program your clients for future sales. You can do this by way of discounts, coupons and special offers. If a client buy one product, offer him a discount to buy two. If a customer buy your products every month, offer him/her incentives to sign an agreement to buy a quarterly or half-yearly plan at a discount. Moreover, there is also the concept of Moving Parade.
   
   Moving Parade refers to the changing needs of your customers as they graduate from one stage of life or status to another. For example, a single man graduates to a married man, graduates from one status to the other, and graduates from employee to employer, from actively working to retiree. He also has children, buy cars, buy or build houses. This change from one status to another leads to the customers needing new and newer products as their new status and stage in life parade before them. If you have created a special relationship with your customer, you will be there to offer them products at every stage, and every change in status of their lives.
6. Offer Pricing inducements: If you have customers who have not bought from you for a very long time, offer to induce them to come back to purchase with special price discounts. You can also introduce 'Points' when customers buy from you. When they reach a specific'points level', you either offer them a discount or a free product. For example, major international airlines offer Frequent Fliers discount based on the number of points that customers had racked up from flying with them before. You can replicate that with any business you do - create a discount points voucher, hand it over to the customer each time he buys, whenever he reached the predetermined point level, you offer a discount on their next purchase or you give them a product completely free.

In conclusion, our 3 part article had focused on how to help you grow your business profitably, happily and sustainably. In our next article, we shall be focusing on an equally important concept "Attrition". Why does it happen, and how does it affect your business. Till then, keep selling, keep sailing. Do you want to get our blog posts as it happens, hit the subscription button, and you will be the first to get our blog posts as they arrive.