How Do I Get More Customers?

how-do-i-get-more-customers

People ask me all the time, “How do I get more customers?” they usually comment that it is really slow or it’s not what it used to be.  I agree that the economy has been bad, but there are always people out there that need a service or product. In my opinion you just have to find them.

Here are some ways you can do that.

1. Advertise! At the last company I worked for I was put through some pretty tough training on Advertising, I also went to school for Marketing. So this is something I believe in a lot.

I believe it even more because I have experienced it myself.  When I first started my restaurant a very good friend of mine worked at one of the phonebook companies.  He convinced me to buy a full-page ad, he offered to give me call tracking to see if my ad was working. The first month 600+ Calls! Over the next while it stayed that way at times getting over 800.  That year we grew our sales by 25%.

The next year my other friend convinced me to buy a video and have top placement on their directory.  That grew our sales again at 25%. At that point I believed in it and had ads in both Phonebooks with top placement and Top Placement on Both of their online directories.

A few more years and I built the restaurant it’s first website and did a Search Engine Marketing Campaign. Our sales went up again! For the 10 years I owned the company we tripled sales. Although it was also due to our great service, the delicious food, the staff and my Mom and Dad’s Recipes 🙂 but without people knowing we existed it doesn’t matter how good our food and our service was.

Studies show that every business loses at least 1/3 of their customers every year. Not always because they are a bad company, but the reality is that people move, lose jobs, don’t need your product anymore or they even pass away. You need to replace those customers, like the trainer at my last company always said to us “Advertising Means Business!”

2. Sell Yourself and your Company! Lot’s of people are shy and they don’t want to break out of their shell and talk to new people. I am a lot like that myself. But when you own a business you need to tell people about it, I don’t mean brag about it because that will do you more harm than good.

But if someone starts talking about your industry or asks you what you do you should have an Elevator Pitch ready.  If you had an Elevator ride to pitch your company to a very important potential client what would you say? Who are you and why should they deal with you? If you have that down pat and you show them that you are passionate about what you do, it will gain their trust. Even if they don’t do business with you, at least you might get a referral out of it.  I know 2 gals that haven’t bought a single thing from me but has sent me 3 customers.

3. Offer people a gift if they refer you a customer. This always works well, studies have shown that 90% of people trust peer recommendations. Instead of spending money on things that don’t work, have people sell for you. The ladies above that sent me three referrals we showed them our appreciation by giving them 3 months of our Social Media services.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; there are tons of ways to get more customers that would span a thousand pages. Do you have any that you would like to share? Please let us know below or comment on Facebook or Twitter.