Graham McGregor: How to grow your repeat and referral sales

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I received an email recently from the owner of a large nursery business.

The email asked if I could provide some ideas on how to solve a common marketing problem.

Here is what the email said...

"Hello Graham, How would you suggest ways to encourage repeat business from customers we supply to? Often they purchase once, are happy with the product and forget us next time they buy plants. Also what are some ideas on being more proactive with marketing / sales as opposed to just being reactive?"

This email reminded me that many of us in business have the same marketing problem as the owner of this nursery.

We have customers and clients who buy from us once and are very happy with our products or services.

However they often forget us and as a result we miss out on a small fortune in repeat and referral business.

So how do we solve this problem?

The good news is that is very simple do to do.

Try this simple strategy:

Add value monthly to clients and customers

Make a list of 100 or more of your best customers and clients.

These are people who love what you do, are a pleasure to do business with and spend good amounts of money with you regularly.

Then every month use good old fashioned 'snail mail' to send something helpful to these customers and clients.

Snail mail works well because it is rarely used these days in business with the popularity of digital communication.

I've found that you can mail out something very simple to clients and customers that is often well received.

Here it is:

Helpful ideas on personal success

This could be something useful on stress management, creating more energy, getting a good night's sleep, becoming more motivated, saving time, enjoying more fun and adventure in your life and so on.

When you mail out this type of useful information, include a short cover letter that explains why you are sending it out.

And at the same time invite the person reading it to give you a referral or spend more money with you. (Do this in a very low key friendly way.)

Example:

Let's say you are a tradesperson. (Perhaps you are an electrician.)

You might send out a short article on stress management that you found useful.

And you could include a short cover letter like this...

===============================================================

'Hi Jane, I trust your month is going well.

I came across an interesting article on stress management recently that I really liked.

It showed three simple steps that any person could use to instantly feel better when things turn to custard.

I shared this article with a couple of my clients and they told me they found it really useful

So I thought I'd send you a copy of this article as well. (With my compliments.)

I trust you find something of value in it.

Thanks again for being a client and let me know if I can be of any further service.

Kind regards

Ernie Electrician

PS: If you have any friends or colleagues who might be interested in using the services of a great electrician I'd love to be of help.

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A note like this is very low key and friendly. And if you enclose something that is genuinely useful it will often be appreciated.

Your clients will now remember you positively every month and you make it very easy for them to give you repeat and/or referral business.

The secret to this strategy is to use it consistently so every month you send out something useful to at least 100 of your best customers and clients.

This 'add value monthly' strategy could be worth testing in your business if you want to grow the amount of repeat and referral sales you normally get.

'It is not your customer's job to remember you; it is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don't have the chance to forget you.' Patricia Fripp

Your Action Steps:
1: Make a list of 100 of your best customers or clients. Mail them some useful ideas by 'snail mail' once a month and enclose an interesting cover letter each time you do this. Test this for 90 days and notice what happens.

2: If you would like some free samples of the type of helpful information that you could send out to clients and customers just contact me using the email link in this column.

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. You can download his 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage' Ebook at no charge from www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com