Why is getting new customers often so expensive?

There is of course no one single answer. Generally I would say it is that decisions are made through inexperience or businesses experimenting with ideas that they have heard were successful for other businesses.

In many instances, the experiences of other businesses can be invaluable but if adopted, they can also become very costly mistakes. What works for one business may not work for another. The chances of two businesses having identical budgets, history, products and/or services, prices, strategy and ethos must be in the millions-to-one. It is therefore completely illogical to adopt sales methods simply because they worked elsewhere. 

Sales is a personal, bespoke element within a business. Sales is telling a story, your story and explaining why your story makes you different, makes you better, makes you someone to do business with. Quite simply, you can't tell that story if you just use someone else's messages.

When I talk with business owners I listen intently (sometimes for over an hour) about their frustrations with getting their message across "if only customers knew what we could offer, they would buy it" is a very common comment. These owners always know why they are better or cheaper, why their product more reliable or of a better quality yet so many struggle to turn these selling points into a message that brings sales.

So back to the key question; why is getting customers often so expensive? Because of mistakes, poor judgements or a general lack of understand about the sales & marketing process. Static adverts are one of the most common mistakes businesses make, often without much consideration. Placing the same advert in a business directory every year may have delivered clients over the years, it may still deliver clients and it may be the very best method of getting customers for your business. It may also be one of the worst ways to spend your advertising budget, have you considered you may be able to reach the same customers many times per year without spending any money? Why rely on your customer picking up the dusty directory and coming across your advert when you can ensure your business is a remembered name when the need arises? 

You are reading this blog now, you have found me and my business. I have not paid anything to get your attention, but I have it. What have I invested to get your attention? Just time, time to write this blog (which I enjoy). Some businesses pay me to write their blogs for them, but they really don't need to, it's a choice. 

There are so many ways that SalesFriend can help you increase the profile of your business using many of the free tools that are out there. Once we have established things for you then you can decide how to run things in the future; You can take over completely or we can continue to run everything and write content on your behalf - it really is entirely up to you. 

There are of course many more ways that businesses can invest money in getting new customers. Many decide against employing a salesperson, primarily due to cost concerns and there is also the management issues with salespeople. What do I do if they don't perform? Who can train them? Is my product or service right for face-to-face sales? How do I know if they are presenting my business in the way I want? If they leave will they take my customers with them? 

These are all very legitimate concerns. SalesFriend can provide a range of products to help you build sales without ever needing to employ anyone or buy any company cars to boost salesman's ego's! We can establish a sales strategy for you and we can also put it into effect. We can undertake a marketing campaign and if required we can also attend sales appointments on your behalf and make full presentations as if we were employed by you. And the real beauty of this service is that you decide when you want it. It could be one day a month, a day each quarter or a high-impact three month full time campaign. You set the rules, the budget and we will work on your behalf to deliver.

This gives our clients the ability to have the "tap" that is turned on when required - we could be behind the scenes maintaining regular client contact and marketing and when needed we can become full time salespeople to give your sales a boost. 

The simple fact is this - sales may well be very expensive sometimes but sales should always deliver benefit. There is little point in spending £1000 to win a one-off sale of £20 but it is very attractive to spend £50,000 to get £1,000,000 of recurring sales each year. 

Ultimately it should not matter how expensive getting new customers is, as long as the profits or value created outweigh the costs and your cashflow can support the growth.