We often see businesses think of us as a one off customer or transactional purchase, rather than taking a longer term view and making an effort to get us coming back.
Which is a costly mistake.
Every new client costs you time, money and effort to bring in. It takes considerable effort to cross the know you, like you, trust you barriers that exist before a prospect becomes a client.
This is especially true if you sell higher value products or services where studies consistently show that it can take 9 to 15 touches to make the first sale. And that it’s 7 to 9 times more expensive to get a new client in versus reselling more to them over time.
On-going or repeat clients are therefore significantly more profitable as the hard work and marketing dollars have mainly been frontloaded.
Which is why when mentoring professional services clients, we always start with a strategic mindset shift to think of clients as long term, valuable assets who need to be nurtured, maximising the profit you generate.
Truly getting to know your clients allows you to determine additional risks and pain points that you can resolve, thereby serving them better.
A financial planning client put it this way. “The longer a client stays with us, the more value we can provide.”
Coffee loyalty cards are a prime example in retail. Or the hairdresser who offers a free colour every third appointment.
Then there’s the forced continuation. Razor blades that only fit Gillette or Nespresso coffee machines where they make their money from ongoing coffee capsules.
Now in case you’re wondering if doing all this is worth it, just do a back of the napkin calculation to determine what your client could be worth to you. Multiply the average purchase by the number of times they come back.
If you’d like a more sophisticated calculator which takes more factors like referrals into account, click here and put you numbers in. The results may well give you a completely new appreciation for your clients.
What additional products or services would enhance the solution you provide?
Be strategic. Think longer term. What would get your clients coming back, possibly for years? Not addressing this is leaving money on the table.
Want help? Call Rashid on 0414 913 334 and have us apply our out of the box thinking to your situation.