We all want more sales. And there are only a few ways to get more sales. There are 3 ways for sure and one of them that I have talked about before is to have more clients. Simple as that.
More people that buy. Or more customers. But for a lot of people, there’s a difference between a customer and a client.
Now in my, in my business at Fire Protection Online, we are an ecommerce site, so we are like Amazon, obviously little bit smaller.
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Not quite as successful or famous as Amazon. And I’d love to say, but you never know. But no, we’ll never be. Obviously.
But we have many orders a day. Like over a 100 orders a day and new customers coming all the time. A lot of people are just one offs.
They’ll just buy things, they buy anonymously, they don’t have to register. We know who they are but they are not people known to us. We don’t like pick up the phone and say, ‘Hello, do you want to buy more stuff?’
You Need Regular Customers
But then we have other customers who buy regularly. And they phone up and the guys in customer service will probably know these people and know their preferences.
Some of them will ring up and they will ask for Chris for instance. Chris is excellent in our customer services department. And they’ll ask for Chris specifically. Chris will know what they do.
Now those are regular buyers and we describe them more of clients.
Now if you’re smaller, if you are a consultant or therapist, you work with people, you probably refer to them as clients.
But for me, and for a lot of people, the main difference is, a customer’s kind of one off. It’s not that they are not important. They are sort of one off.
Make the Most of Your Customers
But it is extremely important for you to make the most of customers. And to turn that one off customer into a repeat customer. Okay.
Once when they have bought, when they are a customer, they’ve made that first purchase, they trust you a little and they test you out.
But if they then buy again, it means they properly trust you. They trust you enough to buy again. You delivered on your promises. You did what you said you would do. And they will buy again. They become a repeat customer.
And this is important. I’ll explain in a second. Now once they have become a repeat customer, if you can find those, these are the ones that you can take the time, put the effort in and contact and talk to them.
Talk about their experience with you. So in an excuse for feedback, for anything. Now don’t be scared of talking to these people because they trust you. As just I mentioned, they bought from you more than once.
So they, they thought enough of you to buy, they then trusted you enough to buy again. So they like you. They like what you do, the price is right. They like you. They are excellent to talk to.
Spend Time Talking to Them
And when you talk to them, you don’t just want to say, ‘I just want some feedback, can I go through a survey? I’ve got a questionnaire.’
No. tell them that you are constantly looking to improve what you do and people like you, talking to that person, because you’ve bought from us more than once. I’d love to know your experience. I’d love to hear from you what you think, specifically and how we can do better in your opinion.
Now you are sort of stroking their ego. Some people won’t have time. But if they don’t have time, say is it possible, is it okay to give you a ring another time? Is there something more important?
Don’t think they are blowing you off. They may not have time. They might think, you can say this by the way, only take 2 minutes. Yeah we know it’s going to take 10 but only takes 2 minutes.
But ask for another time because they actually may say, oh yes sure sure. Call me on, probably Tuesday morning’s the best. Maybe around 10’o clock. No problem. Eh.
So speak to them. Stroke their ego. People like to hear that you value them. And you value their opinion. But make it sound like it’s specifically them.
Not just people like them in general. They are only interested in themselves. So appeal to that ego.
Ask Specific Questions
Now once you have done that and once, once they have got the questions, so don’t ask them silly demographic things like where did you go to school, how long has it taken… Ask them very specific things relating to the way you operate.
Was it easy to find what you were looking for? Did we follow up? Would you have wanted more information, when we sent it out? Did you find the invoice? Was it laid out?
Did the box, was the packaging good? Was it the way you expected? Did you get, is it, if you wanted that again, how would you want it next time? Make the questions about regarding information to the order.
But once you have got that, you can say to them that’s great. I loved the points you just said about the way the packaging opens.
Yeah the fact that you could open it upside down, could cause problems for other people. If you are going to say that, that’s obvious you are going to be something that other people are going to say, no, no one has actually told me that so I want to thank you and that is something we are going to change. Thank you very much.
Now someone there feels they have influenced you. You are going to change because of their brilliance. They love that.
This all goes as part of the process of moving them. So they’ve already gone from customer to a repeat. Now they are going to do it again. And they are going to become a regular customer, and at that point they are a client, because they are a regular.
That’s why as a therapist, or something you are going to have a 4 or 6 session dates, 6 dates with a client.
They are a client, they are not a one off. So you want to move them through this process. Because you have put all that effort in to getting them make them or help them, encourage them to buy again, and again and again.
Yes – They Really Like You
And when they are a client, they really like you. And it is at that point you can ask them, you can speak to them and say, ‘hey you really appreciate this, this works out.
What we do is great, isn’t it? You must know someone else, can you, is there anyone else in your position, you can recommend us to.
If you’d like to give them address I can mention your name. We can give them a little bonus on their first order and impress them the same way as we do with you.
Then they are becoming preachers. And they are doing your selling for you. That’s right and that’s the difference between customers and clients. So try to work on that. Honestly it will help.
Monday Book Recommendation
Now it’s a Monday, time for a book for the week. And today this, the book is called ‘Fascinate’, now Fascinate has been out before, it’s been revised and updated. It is by Sally Hogshead.
Sally happens to be our expert interview this Wednesday and its sounds like a corny thing to say, but Sally is fascinating, her whole subject is absolutely fascinating.
What she does is she explains how to make your brand impossible to resist.
And she shows you how to differentiate your brand and how to understand, how yours is different to others, or how you are different to others. And how to break that down.
She’s a top marketer. Oh in America, she has won awards and she is fantastic. The book is great. Really really good.
This is one I will be listening to again. And there are pdfs, there’s diagrams, there’s things to go with it. Pdfs on the website that go with it. So Fascinate by Sally Hogshead. I recommend it. It’s outstanding. I’ll be back tomorrow.