The cost of marketing to generate new customers is significantly higher than communicating with your existing customers and yet so many companies will spend the vast amount of their annual marketing budget, marketing to their ‘potential customers’ or ‘prospects’ as we at Momentum Partnership like to call them!

But, why would you spend all of your time (and budget) looking for new customers to fill capacity or increase turnover, when there is more business to be won from those existing customers, sitting right under your nose…who you already have a relationship with! They are not only easier to convert than prospects, but the cost implication of converting them is also far cheaper.

When you are looking to bulk up your sales pipeline and fill that order book, the first place you should be looking is your existing customer base. Are you capitalising on every opportunity and maximising revenue from each customer. Because if you are not, then we recommend it is a good place to start.

How to get the most out of your customers:

• Keep customers up to date with any changes, new equipment, new staff, expansion plans, new projects.

A monthly email newsletter is the easiest way to achieve this. And if you’re feeling really ambitions, you could also update your news blog on your website. Not all of your updates will be completely relevant to each customer, so you can make a judgement on the customers that are worth a call – to really make sure the message gets through. The personal touch can go a long way when it comes to sales conversion!

• Offer them something new, a better ore innovative solution, a special offer.
• Gain their feedback. Positive and negative! If you need to make changes, you can be proactive. Don’t give your customers a reason to look elsewhere.

• Understand the full sales potential of each customer.

Start with their purchasing team; Your customer may employ several buyers and although you may have a great relationship with one, there might be others who could place business with you too. If your customer is growing, you want your order book to grow with them!

• Understand the competition.

If you are not their only supplier, find out who else is and find out how big their share of the orders placed is. This will also give you a better understanding of sales potential. New business is often won because existing suppliers let them down. Get yourself in poll positions.

Top Tip: Manage your customer data on a CRM platform and continuously build their profile.

It is important to spend as much time nurturing existing customers and maximising their potential, as it is to focus all of your marketing activity on your prospect audience in order to grow your customer base.