Lifetime value of new customers

When you are trying to get new prospects and turn them into a sale, how far ahead are you thinking? The most profitable of companies look past the first sale they make to a customer and think about how many sales of their products they will make over at least the next 12 months.

Getting customers loyal to your company

The great thing about attempting to make a second sale to your customers is that they already know you. They have gained some trust in that the first purchase is a success and you have delivered on your promises. So you need to ensure that this first experience is the best your customers can experience.

You can then attempt to upsell additional services over time. Below are some ways of getting customers to experience your service and how and when to upsell your additional services (or indeed, the same service).

Get customers to try you out

We are all skeptical of items for sale -- we just don't know if the promises made will be delivered. So how about:

• Giving something away for free?
  But trying out something for free the potential customer will see that your product might actually be what they are looking for. Don't forget to add a call to action for the sale though and a way to contact you. Follow up on the prospect (after all, if they have requested free information, they are interested in what you have to offer)
  
  
• Offer a free trial
  Software companies use this all the time. You can trial out something for say 30 days. If you have used software like this you'll know that in general you'll upgrade because you have saved data or you liked the product
  
  
• Offer your cheapest service first
  This way people don't have to give you too much money and they will think that if it doesn't work out then they haven't lost too much

Making the sale

By offering an introductory route into your organisation you will have a lot of information about the customer. Follow up the prospect with your core products. Bundle them together if necessary to increase the overall order value.

Keep in touch with the customer over the course of a year/ 2 years and more. People want to feel loved and important -- after all, they have given you their money. But doing this you'll be able to sell to them over and over again.

Remember -- it's a lot easier to sell to your existing customers and a lot cheaper (because you don't have to keep getting new prospects all the time).