A common myth in business is that if you want to scale up you need to reach a much wider audience, in more and more places. But in fact a business is 60-70% likely to sell to an existing customer, compared to the 5-20% likelihood of selling to a new prospect. That’s also the key take-away from a new whitepaper by business software provider Oracle, titled Seven Ways to Grow Your Profits – as reported by marketing publication The Drum.
At Sugar Marketing we always recommend our clients look to their existing customer base first to grow their business. But while you’re around 70% more likely to sell to an existing customer, only around 10% of companies actively communicate with their current client base.
The report from Oracle confirms the strategy we’ve used for more than a decade to help our clients grow. The whitepaper has also been published at a time when growth is top of mind for industry – according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), companies are increasingly looking to expand their services or products quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.
But increasing your turnover to a multi-million pound business requires a considered approach that engages your existing customers and results in repeat sales, rather than uses all your marketing resources to chase new customers. The key to this approach is communication; ensuring your clients know exactly where to find you, and exactly what you offer – whether that’s a new product launch or an existing service that compliments a previous purchase from your company.
Ultimately, you need to communicate how your product or service can benefit your customer, by making their working life easier or providing a solution to help them grow their own business. Oracle’s whitepaper states: “For upselling and cross-selling to positively impact your firm’s bottom line [you] should be constantly communicating with customers and teasing out their unfulfilled needs.”
So while great communication is imperative, so too is consistency. It’s incredibly important to ensure regular communication with your existing customers so that your business remains front of mind at all times – whether your customer needs your product or service now, or six months down the line.
To talk to us about how we can create a strategy to help you cross-sell to your existing customers, maximise sales and add value, contact us to arrange a chat.
