Marketing and business growth genius, Jay Abraham (see his report, Abraham 101), teaches there are only three ways to grow a business:

1. Get more customers,
2. Get them to spend more during each transaction and
3. Get them to buy more often.

Here’s the math used by Jay Abraham in his book, Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got:

1000 customers x $100 per transaction x 2 transactions per year = $200,000

Increase by 10% in each area:

1100 customers x $110 per transaction x 2.2 transactions per year = $266,200

A 10% increase in each area results in a whopping 33.1% increase!

Abraham urges his clients to focus on increasing each of these areas simultaneously for exponential results.

Most small business owners focus on getting new customers. They chase new and sexy ways to generate new leads and unfortunately never get around improving the other two areas Jay recommends.  The good news is, for smart small business owners like you, it is possible to attack the low-hanging fruit areas of the business first. In other words, improve what you are already have by making slight changes to what you are already doing with your current customers and transactions.

This way you can leverage the relationships you already have to generate new customers and increased sales and the time a customer continues to buy from you. Improving efficiency may not sound as sexy as getting new leads but it is very practical because it they can be applied to the business immediately given a little planning and effort.

Here are Three Easy Implementation Ideas to Achieve Exponential Business Growth

1. Get more customers by asking for referrals. The first low-hanging fruit area for getting new customers is to ask for referrals. There are three reasons why you should focus on getting referrals from your existing customers:

• It saves you a TON of time and is easier than cold calling and the usual prospecting methods.
• Prospects will often pay for value if from a trusted source, so there is less price resistance.
• Referrals are easier and cause less stress in closing the deal because the BS Meter is significantly lower.

Here are some tips for putting a referral program in place in your business today:

• Make referrals a daily part of your operational efforts. Teach sales people how to ask for and get referrals. Do not leave this up to chance by
  letting sales people do their own thing. Tell them exactly what to say and when.
• Track referrals. Knowing where you referrals are coming from allows you to improve your results and reward your best referral partners. Update your records with the name of the referral partner, date, time, and referral contact information for best results.
• Reward your referral sources.
• Keep referral sources updated on outcome of their referral.

2. Increase transaction amounts with a bundle. Everyone is familiar with the question “Do you want fries with that?” It has to be the world’s most effective product bundle and consumers buy bundles every day.
   • Create a logical bundle of your main product with an accessory or other complimentary item that are normally sold together and price it attractively.
   • Bundle services like installation, setup, training, etc.
   • Bundle a partner’s complimentary product for which you receive a commission.
   • TIP: Information products are perfect additions to a physical product bundle because they are cheap to manufacture and therefore have high margins to give you price flexibility.
   • Give your bundle a cool name.
   • Offer your bundle in the next step to keep customers longer.
3. Remind customers it’s time to order. A very effective way of keeping customers longer, thereby increasing the number of times they buy from you is reminding them when it’s time to order. Order reminders can improve your relationship are a big benefit to your customers since they can save the money by planning ahead of time thereby avoiding rush charges, expedited freight and other fees and delays that come along with ordering late.

Here is a step-by-step way you can setup your reminder system.

1. Each month, generate a report (or better yet, an Excel spreadsheet) that shows customer orders from your order management system for the same period last year.
2. Include sales person, name, phone, email and contact information and what they purchased and for how much
3. Call each person on the list and remind them it’s time to order, be prepared to give their order details etc. Don’t forget to the bundle!
4. If they don’t answer, leave them a voicemail.
5. For each person you left an email for, send them an email that says:

Subject: RE: My voice mail message

Hi Juli,

It’s Tina Tanner. I just left you a message and wanted to thank you very much for doing business with us and to give you a reminder.

My records show that it’s time to order _____ for your event/need/etc.

If you order now, you can save money by avoiding unnecessary rush and expedited shipping charges. And your _____ should arrive in time for your event/need/etc.

 

Please call me once you receive this so we can discuss your needs and get your order started. Or, if you prefer, send me an email. In either case, I’ll take care of all the details for you.

If you want to save time, simply leave me a message or email saying; “I want the same order as last time”.

I will get your order ready for your approval right away. Thanks again for being a loyal customer.

Sincerely,

Tina Tanner

Continue to follow up with a combination of phone calls and emails. Your customers will view your persistence as a service and not an intrusion.

As you might imagine, there are endless ways to get more customers, increase transaction amounts and encourage customers to stay longer. These three methods, when coupled, can produce impressive results you just have to take action and get started today!

I’d love to hear your suggestions or challenges in growing your company. Leave a comment below.