It’s always hard to kiss the girl, the first time. After that, it’s pretty easy. All business owners are looking for ways to increase revenue.
More often than not, they exert effort in trying to expand their client or customer based. It is the business owner’s default, more revenue needs to come from more customers. But if you are in a relationship based business (versus a transaction based), then look to other services to offer in your arsenal. It is likely easier to make repeat sales to existing clients that trust and value your work versus finding new ones. Many business owners don’t spend enough time getting creative in this way.
Building a market of clients can be a greater challenge than adding to the menu of services.
Think of ways that you can cross-serve your clients. The retention of your clients or customers will also increase if they have more services or products with you. It might be easier to leave you as a client if someone comes in with a cheaper price on a service, but if you have a good relationship and you are also assisting them with many lines of work, than it is going to be harder for them to cut the chord.
Brainstorming questions to ask yourself:
- When my clients come to me for help, they may also have questions about ___________________?
- What things are typically going on in my client’s life when they are seeking my help?
- What are additional services am I familiar with and will make me a better practitioner if I learn more about them?
- What are the services that I can add to my menu that wouldn’t increase my labor intensity or expenses significantly?
- Who can I partner with or profitably employ to add additional services to help my existing clients?
Some of these could have conflicts of interest in certain circumstances but here are a few examples of professions that can cross serve… some common, some a little out there:
- CPA’s getting their investment licenses
- Attorneys getting their insurance producers licenses
- Real Estate Agents having interior decorating expertise
- CPAs or Business Insurance agencies offering coaching and consulting services
- Veterinarian offering training or doggie day care services
- Tutors and babysitting
- Web Design and Marketing Plan consulting
- Catering and Invitations
About
Eddy Ricci, Jr., has been labeled as “the emerging expert in developing Gen Y sales professionals” by the chairman of Publicis Kaplan Thaler. Eddy is the director of a unique training and development collaborative platform that services financial planning firms in the northeast where he has arguably worked with more Gen Y financial professionals than anyone in the country over the past four years. He is the founder of The Growth Game, LLC. ,a professional development company and has authored a book that holds the same title. Eddy is a certified coach and specializes in helping professionals develop sales skills, leadership approaches and implement business development activity systems.WWW.THEGROWTHGAME.COM.
