5 MORE WAYS TO DOUBLE YOUR CUSTOMER BASE IN JUST WEEKS

Advice on franchising by Pieter Scholtz, Master Licensee for ActionCOACH SA. ActionCOACH is one of the fastest growing and most successful business coaching franchises in the world today.

In the last issue we introduced five ways to double your customer base in a matter of weeks. Here are five more.

#1) Improve your lead conversion rate 
Keeping tabs on leads or sending mailers can be a costly drain on company resources. To avoid your lead database deteriorating into nothing more than a labour-intensive list of names, it is necessary to move these contacts up the ladder to ‘hot prospect’ and eventually to ‘loyal customer’ as soon as possible. When someone walks into a party where they don’t know anyone, they are inclined to quickly turn around and leave. A good host/hostess, however, knows how to spot such individuals and will help them enjoy themselves by showing them around and introducing them to other partygoers. The same holds true for businesses who convert strangers into loyal customers.

Converting a stranger into a loyal customer requires getting to know the person, understanding their wants and needs and then fulfilling those wants/needs in a mutually beneficial manner. There are many conversion strategies and techniques and these can be systemised so that any new contact entered into the leads database is automatically cultivated and nurtured to become a paying client. If you currently convert 20 out of every 100 contacts or leads, increasing that by ten conversions equates to a 50 percent increase in your conversion rate. Convert 40 instead of 20 leads and you have effectively doubled your conversion rate without incurring any additional marketing or advertising costs.

#2) Advertising
If you have a mass market product or service, then mass media is often the most effective way to significantly increase your customer numbers. Many businesses, however, devalue this kind of effort either because they are not willing to pay for advertising or they don’t understand how it can help.

I suggest consulting with local media outlets as understanding the demographics of advertising is at the core of what they do. With their greater understanding of the overall picture, an advertising representative from a local radio station, for example, can assist in designing and implementing a tailored and targeted advertising campaign.

If your target market is localised, ads in local newspapers are an inexpensive entrée into print advertising.

#3) Grow your customer base by up-skilling your employees 
Dedicated employees can have a substantial impact on boosting your customer base. Give your employees a sense of ownership and invest in up-skilling them, thereby also giving their career development a boost.

Employees come into contact with potential customers every day, both in- and outside of the business environment, but converting these individuals into paying customers requires a certain level of professionalism and skill. By providing employees with the skills to promote your business to these contacts, you significantly improve your chances of capturing new customers.

Employees thrive on attention, guidance, training, education and incentives. Examples of companies who up-skill their staff in ways that are mutually beneficial are wineries who pay for their representatives to travel to Europe to learn more about wines, hair salons who send their stylists to conventions to learn the new ‘tricks of the trade’ and construction companies who pay for their carpenters and electricians to attend night school in order to obtain advanced certifications.

An investment in up-skilling employees pays dividends when employees return and do a better job or land lucrative new accounts, and you are able to charge customers a higher rate for a more specialised service.

#4) Convert a single customer into multiple customers
One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to increase your customer base is by mining your existing database. Turn a mediocre customer into a top-tier one by selling him a premium version of the standard item they are already buying. Successfully introducing an existing customer to other products and/or services in the line-up is just as good as landing a new customer. By up-selling or cross-selling, profits can multiply in a variety of ways and across a number of different product lines.

For those customers who are on a limited budget or have other considerations that may be keeping them away, try a down-selling approach. Convincing them to buy a less expensive item instead of turning to your competitors has the same bottom line effect as recruiting a brand new customer. By retaining their business at a price point within their means, they may again upgrade or expand their purchases to become a valuable and lucrative customer.

#5) Use online marketing to drive traffic to your brick and mortar location
Incentivise website visitors to share information about themselves and continue to emphasise a call to action with irresistible incentives that will convert internet surfers into useful leads and/or real customers. Concentrate on obtaining contact information or a commitment to pay a visit to your place of business in person, but keep it simple so visitors are not intimidated or tired out by the process. For example, if they sign up online or visit the store, reward them with a discount, contest entry, a free consultation or service upgrade.

If your website attracts 10,000 visitors per month at a conversion rate of one percent, that will add nearly 1,000 new customers to your database each year. Up your conversion rate to ten percent and that will mean 1,000 new customers every four weeks or so – an astonishing result that is entirely plausible and achievable.

ActionCOACH Business Coaching
www.actioncoachsa.co.za
pietercholtz@actioncoach.com
086 122 6224