By Peter Shukla Running a modern business is not about just advertising. Wining a new customer and getting an existing customer back onto your premises is not as straight forward as it used to be few decades ago. Customers are much more savvy, thanks to all the slick marketing campaigns they get exposed to to every day of the week. Then how do successful businesses do that? Lets us do a little exercise with your business. Be as honest as possible: How unique is your product? Can it be bought else where? What price do you charge your customer? Is this the cheapest within miles? Can you list 3 reasons why a customer should speak to you first before placing an order with any one else? It could be that you provide a great service... is it the best around? May be for you but what does your customer think, honestly? May be you give your customer a satisfaction guarantee that your competitors cannot beat or come any where near to. You have probably gathered that being successful in business is all about differentiating yourself from the rest - it could be on price, service, product or some thing else. Every industry has competitors and it is hardly likely to ever ease. If you are in a fortunate position where your business can afford external business consultants then you probably know that they would recommend doing competitor analysis revamping branding of your business negotiating prices upstream (suppliers) so that you can sell them on cheapand so on and so forth! A combination of these strategies can work, and some times they do not. There is no guarantee of any kind, ever. One strategy that does work, especially for small or medium sized businesses is giving more than what customer expects. This makes them want to deal with you more often, and also refer their friends to you as well, taking the your cost of new customer acquisition even lower. The trick is - you do not have to give them more of the product they are buying. Give them some thing that is low value to you but is regarded highly by your customer. Your competitors are probably advertising in in newspapers and other media outlets to generate leads. you can start with your existing customers and ask them for referrals. Offer them some thing in return, like draw to a vacation some where nice if they refer a friend to your business. You do not need to give vacation to every one, just run this contest for a few weeks and then pull out a draw. Perhaps the profits generated by acquiring new customers can pay for the vacation expenses. But since you have new customers in your database, you can hope to do more business with them in future. Being creative in business is one sure way to win. Advertising does not always bring profitable customers, referrals do. When people recommend you to their associates, hard work is already done and relationship half built. They are ready to do business. Go take orders and start up-selling. Referrals are often a win-win situation all around, for your customers (because they may get a vacation or other incentive for just introducing), their friends (they are dealing with a trusted source) and of course, you. In a study published in Harvard Business Review not very long ago, it was concluded that 5% increase in retained customers increased the profitability by an average 80% for most industries. Existing customers are your gold pot. By being creative you can use that resource to get even more customers. Businesses do not have to come up with large advertising or marketing budgets to generate fresh business. If you already have existing customers than they can be the best source ore business. Strange then that most marketing departments in large companies still spend more than 50% of their budget on new customer acquisition who are least profitable in the first place. About the Author: More information on the article you just read can be found on Peter Shukla's website Give Away Incentives. Peter specializes in helping businesses come up with propositions that their customers find impossible to turn down. And this incredible value is added without raising any cost to business at all. Many businesses have increased their sales by at least 30%. To learn more about acquiring more customers Copyright 2007 Give Away Incentives All Rights Reserved
NOTICE: Article(s) may be republished free of charge to relevant websites, as long as Copyright and Author Resource Box are included; and ALL Hyperlinks REMAIN intact and active. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Shukla http://EzineArticles.com/?Giving-Customer-Incentives-Is-Sure-Way-To-Grow-Rich&id=501117 ambien sleep aid
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