How to get people to buy from you again and again

The most important thing for any business owner is to get and keep paying customers. It’s rarely free to get customers, so the more they buy from you the greater the return on your investment. With that in mind, today I’m going to share the five essentials to getting people to buy from you again and again.

1. Offer them what they want

Often business owners get very excited about the products or services they offer. They can’t wait to starting selling them, but it’s wise to take a moment to consider if the people actually want or need the thing you’re selling. It’ll usually be a waste of time trying to sell fancy glass ornaments to new parents, for example.

You need to do the research to know who is (and who isn’t) your customer. Most importantly you need to know what their problems are. How can you solve their problems? How much are they prepared or able to spend to solve the problem? Where will they be looking for solutions? Once you know the answers to those questions, you’ll know where and to whom to direct your marketing.

2. Get your price right

This doesn’t mean sell it for the lowest price possible. It’s often quite the opposite. People are more likely to buy when the price matches their perceived value. If something is priced too cheaply, they’ll assume it’s of lower quality. If something is priced too high, no one will pay the price because they don’t think it’s worth that.

Make sure the price matches the product. You won’t sell a plastic serving tray for £500, but you might sell a serving tray hand-made from the finest sustainable oak with beautiful silver inlay for £500. After you’re covering your costs, it’s all about perceived value. Check out my blog post How to make more Profit for a bit more about how to get your price right.

3. Make it easy to buy from you

There’s a lot to this, but it’s your job to tell your customers what they can get from you and how. People won’t just appear and spend their time and effort figuring it all out. Going back to the first point, do the right marketing in the right places. Make sure it’s easy and frictionless for people to buy from you. You want as few obstacles as possible between your customer and their purchase. For example, ask for an email address along the way, but don’t make it required if you don’t have to.

Also, give people a few options for payment and fulfilment; be careful though because too many options and you’ll lose people to analysis paralysis. You’ll also want to automate as much as possible but don’t lose the personal touch. Always give people the option to get straight through to a person or you’ll lose sales when people get frustrated with your chatbot or phone menu.

4. Give exceptional customer service

Customer service is something we all expect and rarely get. The minimum is to do what you said you would, when you said you would, for the price you quoted. Ideally though, you should do more. Perhaps you could give a gift with their first order or send a hand-written thank you card. People want to feel special, valued, and loved, so if you can make them feel that they’ll remember you.

This is closely related to the previous point. In the modern world, customers usually have multiple places to buy the same thing from at their fingertips. Of course, your price and quality will have an impact, but what gets people to buy and keep buying is the experience they have with you.

5. Stay in touch

If you want people to buy from you time and time again, this is another important part of your job. Lots of people worry about being too pushy, but you’re just letting people know how you can make their life easier. Perhaps they bought a swimming pool from you, but didn’t see your amazing maintenance package?

You’re just reminding people you’re still around and letting them know how you can help. Send them postcards or emails. Give them a call. Connect and post on social media. Make sure you stay front of mind, so the next time they need what you’re selling they only think of you. You might want to look into a CRM to help you manage this process.

And that’s how you get people to buy from you time and time again. Haven’t I made it sound easy? Of course, a lot depends on what your business looks like, so if you’d like to discuss this in more detail get in touch with me by doing this.