There’s this three-visit strategy in the restaurant business. If you can get a person to return a second time, the chances are about forty-two-percent they’ll return a third. But if you can get a third visit, the odds you get a customer for a fourth visit are something close to seventy-percent. Then, you’ve got a customer for life.
Why you should care more about the second sale
The first sale is easy. Anyone can sell something to one person, once. You can trick a customer into a buying decision. You can give a ridiculous, money-losing discount to make the first sale. You can pay for a ton of advertising to make one sale.
To establish a buying relationship, however, is a different animal. Whether you own a restaurant, you write books, or you paint walls — the longevity of your business relies on the second sale… and the third.
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Going further with this thought…
Example: I bought a mattress, sight-unseen, through the interwebs. The website was beautiful. The offer — amazing. The promises and guarantee — perfect. These folks got me to spend almost a thousand dollars on a mattress I never met.
But they only sold me once. I expected something different. I was sadly mistaken.
Their email marketing is terrible. Instead of re-categorizing me into a buyer’s list, all I get is a continuous stream of emails to convince me to buy a mattress I already own. They’ve done nothing to make the second sale. They probably never will.
They put all their effort into the first sale. All their marketing and affiliate plans. They’ve got very little to offer on the back-end besides more mattresses.
- They could’ve up-sold me two-for-one, special pillows.
- They could’ve sent me a great deal on sheets
- or sleep masks
- or those cooling pads
- or a sweet alarm clock
- or blackout curtains
- or a sleep book
- or sleep vitamins
- or a meditation course
I spent almost two thousand dollars with these folks and I got little more than a “your mattress is on its way” email.
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Think of how many other offers they could send me in a weekly “sleep newsletter.” I was a big-ticket buyer and they totally missed their opportunity.
The following tips below can help you attract returning customers
- Send a soft ask on a frequent basis.
- Don’t hard-sell your customers. Instead, give them great reasons to return.
- Don’t wait too long to make the second sale.
- If you never ask for a sale, and a year later you make us a big offer, the rare offer may seem off-putting.
You can read more at: https://marketplacetechniques.wordpress.com/2019/10/05/why-the-second-sale-is-more-important-than-the-first/
