As business owners trying to bring in new customers, one of our cardinal rules is 'Always take care of the customer', even if they are sometimes a pain in the butt and are totally wrong. The thing is, we are here in business to look after their needs and supply them with the products and services they want to buy. Oh, and their money pays for our lifestyle too, which is always nice. As publishers of the country's leading wholesale merchandise magazine, our competitors are always trying to poach our clients!

Sure, some of them need to be shown the door every now and then to help us stay sane, but in the majority of cases, your job is to nurture and build relationships with people. It's usually a good strategy to not go out of your way to upset them, to deliver useful information and education, and provide them with the products and services they need and want to buy. By doing these things, your goal should really be to create customers for life.

But in order to have customers coming back over and over again, you have to get those customers to buy from you in the first place. And making sure your customer's first time buying experience is a pleasant one has got to be the best way to do that. Once you have a new customer, you can take them through a process of offering them related products and services, ideally forever.

Of course if you can't make that first sale (or if you do but the customer's experience isn't all that good), there's not going to be a second sale coming along from that customer any time soon. Oh, and they won't give you a testimonial or refer anybody else either. So, how do you make that first sale a good experience for your customer?
 

Since your first sale to a new customer is going to be the most difficult one you'll ever make, you MUST make it an easy choice for them to make a purchase from you instead of one of your competitors. You have to remember that these people are currently buying the exact same products or services from another business. And because most people hate change, you'll have to make a compelling, virtually irresistible offer to get them to switch, or they will just continue buying from where they do now.
 

For some reason many business owners seem reluctant to develop some kind of an irresistible offer to bring in first time customers to their business. The just expect customers to move from their existing supplier and start buying from them without any real incentive to do so. Sorry, but it ain't gonna happen unless you actively drag them away from where they are buying now and give them a reason to buy from you instead.

And it's a proven fact that one of the easiest ways to encourage customers to change suppliers is to come up an absolutely irresistible offer that makes people feel like they'd be crazy if they don't take you up on it. Once they start doing business with you, all you have to do is keep them buying from you instead of somebody else.

Once you have taken those new customers away from your competitors, your focus should move towards doing everything you can to enroll them into some sort of continuity, membership or VIP customer rewards program. Once they are a member, you can send them regular 'Member Only' offers and special promotions to make them feel special and keep them loyal to you. By doing this, you'll see your customer retention increase and your profits soar.