HARDISON’S TIPS – JULY 12, 2021 – BOOSTING CUSTOMER LOYALTY (PT.1)
It’s often said that it costs at least 5 times as much to find and acquire a new customer than it does to keep an old one.
The figure must be much higher, however, in the office supplies industry; orders are usually in high quantities, which means, for example, that a small price change from 9 cents to 8 can see huge savings for a company. This in turn makes loyalty about as cheap as a pack of 100 push pins.
Luckily for all the office supplies salespeople out there, this is a problem that can be solved.
Sales in the industry doesn’t have to be the same old tug of war between getting new customers and keeping old ones.
1. Strengthen the bond
Sometimes, you should see cross-selling as a tool to build loyalty and protect your market share as much as to boost sales. In fact, cross-selling can be a great tactic for boosting customer loyalty, particularly in the office supplies industry.
I recently wrote an article on cross-selling and how to implement the tactic into your business.
Say, for example, one of your customer’s orders has been slowing down over the last few months. You can quickly nip this in the bud by making them a cross-sell offer that’s too good to turn down.
The reason that this strategy is so good in the office supplies industry is that there are so many strong, complementary cross-sells that can be made, as large quantities of all sorts of products are made on a monthly basis.
“Purchase X amount of ink and we’ll give you X amount of paper at a discount.”
Even if they see the ink on sale one month with one of your competitors, they know that taking their business elsewhere means they’ll lose the great deal on paper that they get from you.
Even if you don’t make anywhere near as much on the paper, for example, as you may usually, this ‘loss leader’ tactic will mean you keep selling the more expensive product for longer, making you much more in the long run.
This tactic is also great for boosting loyalty because it shows a customer that you actually think about them and understand their business. It is often said that Buyers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
