Moving your current customers back through the sales cycle again has value. Just like any recycling process where an item is turned into something else, the same can be done with your current customers. All too often we use a sales cycle to acquire a small business customer and then put them on the customer shelf. What revenue increase could you accomplish if you took them off the shelf and put them back through the sales cycle? New Products and Services Most new small business customers normally start with a few products or services. Customer recycling could bring them back through your sales process and produce a broader base of business from them. The process of recycling treats a current customer as though they were not yet a customer. This helps you open up your thinking and see new opportunities. The advantage comes from the fact you already have a relationship of trust but you approach things with a fresh set of eyes and ears in looking for sales volume from new products and services. More of the Same An initial order may not represent the full potential of a new clients need for your products and services. When you continue to recycle current small business customers through your sales process you stand a good chance of gaining more sales volume from the same customer base. This area of small business customer recycling focuses on assessing past purchases against total possible volume. If you work in a highly competitive market you may not be getting all of your customers volume. Customer recycling using all the original sales tools could increase their order size. Customer Referral Increased contact with your small business customer base can also increases your opportunities to develop the kind of relationship necessary to ask for and receive customer referrals. You may not increase your volume or add new products and services to the list of items they purchase from you but you might gain a new customer to sell and recycle. Every time you do a full sales cycle you increase your customer knowledge and deepen your level of trust. The fact youre continuing to invest your efforts in the best interests of servicing a customer translates into the kind of relationship that facilitates new customer referrals from your current customer base. There are many new things that can come from small business customer recycling. The three possibilities listed above are a good starting point. Customer recycling is not just asking a current customer for more business but bringing current customers back through the sales cycle with the idea of creating a new customer. How many customers do you have just sitting on the shelf ready to be recycled? |
