How do You get More Customers Now?

Many of the Business Owners and Entrepreneurs (BOEs) I work with have a single burning question–how do I get more customers? The answer is both simple and very difficult. Customers have never been a problem for me. I’ve grown and sold two very successful businesses before I was 40, and the customers flocked to me. Or did they?

Thinking back, I remember a lesson taught to me by my first boss, Wes. I was in high school, working for a landscaper. I asked him, “How do you get customers?” We were in his truck, driving to a job in New Jersey.

He looked at me and told me, as we were driving down the road, to point out every property I saw that I thought would need our service.

I started looking. And pointing. Soon I realized that, depending on how we positioned our services, almost every property there could use our landscaping services in one way or another. It was my (pretty basic) lesson in marketing.

My boss went on to explain that while most of those people could probably use our services, some didn’t want it. Some desperately wanted it. But he didn’t know how to tell the difference until he tracked them down. At that moment, I suddenly realized that I could reach them, and that meant I could be in business for myself. With just a little thought, I realized who would most want our services, and I was determined to reach them.

Without knowing it at the time, I had begun to figure out who my ideal client was. At that time, I knew they were people with a certain income, in certain neighborhoods (not too far from home–I was only 16). I got an interview for my first landscaping job, I showed up, and I was hired on the spot. This guy was my ideal client, but I didn’t know why yet.

Later that day, when I was bragging to my dad that I had my first client, he asked me why they had hired me. At first, I was insulted (why shouldn’t they hire me? I was great! I was 16!), but he explained that if I found out why that guy had hired me, I could use that reason to get MORE clients. Brilliant, Dad!

So I called my first client. (I hated doing it. It seemed wildly presumptuous at the time.) But the guy was happy to fill me in. I was the ONLY ONE WHO SHOWED UP. Apparently, at that time, people in lawn care were pretty unreliable. Showing up was sometimes all you needed to get the job.

So from that point on, every Yellow Pages ad and every flyer included the promise, “We return all calls promptly.” Was it brain surgery? No. Did it work? Hell yes.

Understand Your Customers

The point of this story is that you need to understand your clients. You have to know why they really hired you, so you can use your strengths to get more business. But I find many successful BOEs really don’t fully understand who their ideal client is.

If you’re one of them, it’s time to ask a few questions to help you. You want clients who are willing to pay your premium price and then refer you and then brag about it. That means that you want them to proudly say, “Yeah, I paid extra for this,” or, “I get the upgraded service.” You want your clients to brag about how they spent more money with you to get the best product or service.

Ask Yourself Three Questions

I developed a list of three questions to help my clients evaluate how well they know their ideal client. If you can confidently answer these three questions, you have a pretty good idea of what’s going on in your buyer’s head.

1.    What does your ideal client stay up at night worrying about? 

2.    What do they get grief for, get yelled at, or feel guilty about when they arrive home at the end of the workday? 

3.    What conditions exist in that person’s life or at their business that makes calling you right now to enquire about your services a must, right now? 

So for example, one of our clients is a mattress manufacturer and retailer. They know that one of the top items that is purchased right after you move is a mattress. Moving is a perfect time to leave the old mattress behind and get a new mattress at the new address. So this mattress client began to target new moves using info from new mortgage applications, building permits, and the “new move” lists. They understand the conditions that exist that make buying a mattress timely and important.

The Best new Client is the one You Already Have

While getting more clients sounds exciting, what you really want is more business and more revenue, right? And the best way to increase your revenue is to sell more to your existing customers. To deploy organic growth strategies you’ll have to learn how to cross-sell, up-sell, and down-sell to your existing customers.

A cross-sell is simply selling complementing services to your existing customers. Think about what you offer to your customers, what solution you provide, and build on that solution. Let’s stay with the mattress example. If you’re selling mattresses, you’re selling sleep and comfort. Probably in the bedroom. So, it also makes sense to sell headboards. And nice sheets to fit that new mattress. And pillows. And while you’re at it, delivery and removal is good business. Maybe offering air filters, humidifiers, and dimming light switches also makes sense.

Up-sells are upgrades. Instead of (or in addition to) cross-selling, you are offering your clients the chance to get even better solutions. So a customer with a bad back might be looking for a flat mattress, but you also have great adjustable mattresses, which are actually better for bad backs and adjustable based on that customer’s condition. Make sure your customers know all of their options, especially the top-of-the-line solutions.

Warning: Don’t try to shoehorn everyone into a premium solution. A relentless pitch can kill the sale altogether. Instead, just mention the upgrade casually. Let them know there are better models or options and let them ask you to see the upgrade (and most of the time, they will ask to see the better option).

The third strategy is the down-sell. In today’s uncertain economy, a down-sell can protect the relationship. It allows you to keep customers when times are tough. United Airlines just kept me with a down-sell. I have MileagePlus Premier status–which is a mouthful, but it means I get a lot of benefits because I fly A LOT. But lately, most of us haven’t been flying as much, which means we could lose our premier status. United understands that this means some of its best customers might try other airlines once they’ve lost their benefits. So United extended the status until January of 2022. And they did a lot of other cool things, too. Basically, United down-sold me to keep me (and flyers like me) in for an extra year. They didn’t upgrade me. They didn’t cross-sell. They down-sold it to keep me in it for an extra year. And I will stay loyal to them for that.

Share Your Customer Knowledge

What are you doing to keep customers in this challenging economy? How has your business pivoted to find more customers, or keep your current customers? I’d love to hear from you. Share your ideas and knowledge in the comment section here.