Simple ways to increase sales

When we think of sales, we often equate it with client acquisition. However, it’s often easier to sell to existing customers rather than finding new ones, since they’re already engaged with your brand. It’s also cheaper, since you don’t have to spend money to make them aware of your existence and educate them how you can help them.

So how do you streamline costs by focusing on those you already help? Let’s take a look at some key strategies.

Upselling

Upselling is a term that’s used regularly in marketing. It’s the act of persuading someone to invest in a more expensive product than the one they’re already using. Upselling to an existing client could be as simple as giving them a call to discuss how the next level of service – which incurs an extra monthly fee – could benefit them.

If the customer has been using your service for several months or years, they’ll already have a level of trust in your practice. Perhaps the clients who come to you for tax return completion and submission would benefit from a package that includes basic bookkeeping duties as well, making the gathering of information at the end of the year simpler. This might be particularly interesting to sole traders and small businesses with stretched resources.

Cross-selling

Cross-selling is about persuading someone to purchase other products that you offer. You can do this by identifying clients that may have other needs to be met. Do your business clients need to discuss wealth management, for example? Or do you work with clients who are looking to open an office abroad, and may require additional guidance around overseas taxation?

As with upselling, your existing customers already trust you to deliver a great service, and will be more likely to stick with you for all their financial needs if you proactively make them aware of everything you have to offer.

Introducing partnership services

Partnership services are an effective way to offer your clients more without the need to take on lots of extra work. Forming a partnership with another agency can bring you both new business, as well as providing existing clients with options that they may find useful. For example, you could partner with a local legal firm and refer business clients to them for questions around contracts, or send private clients their way for Will writing. Similarly, they would then refer any of their clients with financial needs to your firm.

Update your offerings

Part of client retention is ensuring you have the most up to date technology and services on offer for your clients. Accounting software, for example, is essential now for VAT businesses, and will soon be necessary for landlords and those filing Self Assessment tax returns. Ensuring your staff have the relevant expertise with at least one software will help you to offer the latest solutions to clients, keeping them on board and up to date. You may even be able to offer cloud-based packages at a more competitive price, opening you up to new customers too.

Help with client retention

If you’re looking for help with ways to optimise client retention, Whitefish Marketing can help. We specialise in SEO services for accountants and have a wealth of experience in digital accountancy marketing, making us well-placed to help you find the best solutions to grow your business with your existing client base. Contact us today for a chat or to learn how we’ve successfully implemented marketing strategies for accounting firms.