The Customer You Have – The Profit You Keep

by | Jun 18, 2009

I was having a conversation with an experienced marketer and he happened to make a pronouncement that got my attention.

As its directly relevant to using Email Marketing to retain and sell more to existing customers, which was the subject of our latest installment of “Email Marketing – The Only Bailout Your Business Needs” on Client Touches, I thought I’d share…

He said there are three fundamental ways to grow your business:

•You can Add Products, which is very costly in general

•You can Steal Customers from your competition, which tends to erode margin

•or You can Sell More to your Existing Customers, which is usually the most profitable source of new income.

The funny thing is that the third and most profitable option is the least focused on probably just because its not as fun for sales hunters.
Well, I guess that’s why larger organizations have separate “new sales” and “account management” teams.  Until you get to where you can make that leap, it might be worth while to set up a system to touch base with existing customers occasionally any way!