Increase Your Sales by Building Relationships with Existing Customers

Too many salespeople view closing the sale as the final step of the process and the end of interaction with the customer. However this is short term thinking and misses a significant business growth opportunity. In this article, we’ll explain why and how you should build relationships with your customers, which in turn will help to increase your store’s revenue.

The most successful salespeople think long term and view the closing of a sale with a customer as the starting point. That’s because they realize that nurturing a relationship with the customer will enable them to sell more products to the same customer in the future, as well as perhaps their family and friends.

Build Trust and Extinguish Buyer’s Remorse

The first step in cultivating this lucrative liaison is following up with a client who recently made a purchase.  Give them a call between 5 and 7 days after the sale to inquire about their experience with setup, satisfaction with the purchase, and ask if they have any subsequent questions.

This simple action provides multiple mutual benefits.  If they are happy with the purchase, then it’s an opportunity to reaffirm trust. As much as they trusted you to make the purchase, they trust you more now because any notion of doubt has been removed. You can potentially build upon this trust further if you can provide additional expert tips or answer questions on enhancing the enjoyment of their purchase.  A trusting client is a loyal client who will undoubtedly buy from you again. 

The follow up however is even more valuable if they are not happy because it’s an invaluable opportunity to save the sale.  Often all it takes is a little frustration with setup or functionality, and the resulting effect on performance, to experience buyer’s remorse strong enough to return the gear.  However, most of these issues can typically be resolved easily and quickly with a simple, friendly follow up conversation.  In this situation, your expertise has been clearly demonstrated, trust is reestablished, and the client is likely quite grateful.

Service, not Sell

In either case, you have ensured the sale and established trust.  Offer any advice you can, answer any question they may have, but do not try to sell anything.  Use the call exclusively as a provided service to confirm satisfaction and it will maintain its positive objective.  A hard sell on anything will detract from its pure intentions.

Some customers prefer email communication over phone calls. Respect their preference and compose a couple of email templates that inquire about the ease of setup, understanding of functionality, and their satisfaction. Just like the phone call, the goal is to ensure the client is as happy with their purchase now as when they made it.  Add a more personal touch to the template by personalizing the intro specifically to each customer, and perhaps adding a comment about their specific gear.

Enhancing Email Effectiveness

While the information mined and bond formed by a personal call is undeniable, much can be gained from emails as well if you use the right tools available to you. Customer relationship management (CRM) software, like Zoho CRM, helps nurture the relationships, drive sales, and increase revenue with your clients.   It can provide valuable insight by identifying who opened your emails and if they clicked on any attached links.  This gives you a deeper understanding on how to boost the customer’s satisfaction, and in turn help you sell more.

Subsequent emails and calls should always contain an aspect of customer service to continually nurture the relationship, but they can now also include sales growth content.  Emails can contain links or attachments and calls can contain discussion on new products and upcoming sales. 

The Numbers Don’t lie

Many studies have shown that retaining existing clients is well worth the time and investment.  Increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits from 25-95%. The success rate of selling to an existing customer is generally 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a completely new customer is 5-20%.  Chances are your stellar follow up approach will result in new customers recommended by your existing customers, which will definitely raise the closing percentage dramatically.

In Conclusion

It won’t take long for you to see the results for yourself.  Start following up with your existing clients shortly after their purchase, either through a call or email, to ensure their satisfaction, answer any questions, and nip any buyer’s remorse in the bud.  Nurture the relationship with routine follow ups and your stellar service, expert advice, and timely information on new products or an upcoming promotion and that will translate into remarkable sales numbers.

If you enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out some of our other marketing advice articles on the Kevro website. For example, we recently published a great article on How To Attract More Customers and Increase Sales By Promoting Complete A/V Systems