This month's video is again from SimpleTruths.com.  This short video is a story about a young man with Down's Syndrome that changes he culture of the grocery store that he works at by being creative and giving the customers more than they expected.  Click here to watch the video.

Turn the Momentum of the Holidays Into Year Round Sales
                                                by JJ Reich

Nearly every business has it's ups and downs.  Some businesses' sales are cyclical around the major holidays, some around the seasons, while yet others around the weather.  No matter what your business's cycle is, there are ways to take more control of your sales - giving you more steady income all year round. 

To do that, lets look at the three ways to increase sales and decide which one would be the most effective to use to stabilize sales and how. 

Getting New Customers To Walk In the Door

First, the most commonly thought of way to increase sales is to get new customers to walk in your door, call you on the phone or hit your website.  This is the sales stream that nearly 90-95% of most small business advertising dollars go after. 

It is true that this is the most common way to increase sales, but it is also the most expensive.  Getting new customers to walk through your door can cost anywhere between 5-20 times more than it does to get your existing customers to come back.  So, why do we spend so much money to try to boost new customer sales? 

Simple, cause that's what everyone else is doing and because that's how all the big advertising and marketing firms make their money.  This is a sales stream that can be tapped into, but if you are small business already struggling to make ends meet, this is not the best way to invest your money.   On the upside, it has a high reward pay-off if you make it work.  But on the downside, the risk is even higher.

Getting Existing Customers To Come Back Again and Again

Second, the most overlooked method of increasing sales is to get your existing customers to come back in - again and again.  If done right, this can be a "pot of gold" for the down times of your business.  This is the group of potential buyers that you know (or should know) more about than any other group.  It is a group that you can market to effectively and see your sales increase in your down times.  And, as important it is that you know your customers, they also know you and have already shown that they are interested.  

Increasing Your Average Sale / Invoice Price

The third and final way to increase sales is by increasing the amount of every sale / invoice from any customer / client that buys from you.  This is a very effective method of increasing overall sales, however it is usually only going to generate 5-10% growth at best.  The best way to use this method is in combination with the other two. 

So, as you can see, the proverbial "pot of gold" following the holidays, that most small business owners miss out on is figuring out a way to increase the number of times existing customers come back for more of your products and services. 

To learn how to take advantage of your current high volume of holiday customers and turn them into repeat customers all year long click here and read the rest of this article.