But these strategies are not viable for every business owner. Traditionally successful businesses have outlived their competitors by following strategies that charm their customers every so often. We all know that bring even more customers.

These types of strategies are possible even today and they work for all types of businesses, whether they are offline, online or both.

Many businesses are already stealing the customers from under the nose of their far bigger competitors - without spending anything on marketing or advertising. Would you be interested to find out how they do this?

They do this by understanding their customer's psychology. They know that all their paying customers have one thing in common. People always want ore for less. This is true in every country, in every culture and in all parts of the world. This is human nature, especially of it involved money. No one likes to ? some more so than others.

How you make a customer a truly happy customer so that he wants to bring his friends to your premises?

Here is a true story that happened to me.

I have been paying a regular once a month visit to my barber for many years. He runs a very successful saloon. I have been loyal customer not because he is cheap but mainly because I am accustomed to his service and I do not want to take undue risks elsewhere either. During the end of one of my visits a few months ago, as I had just paid for his services, he said: 'Would you like to take away our top of the line bottle of shampoo - for free?'

I do not know about you but I find it hard to turn down a free offer. Over the years he has developed his own range of toiletries that he markets from his own and other saloons. He is a good businessman and I have never known him distributing things for free. So there had to be a catch, right? So I asked him. ?Nothing?, he said, ?just let me know what you think? and he put a couple of other freebies in the bag as well.

I tried all freebies during the next month. On my next visit, he asked me how I got on with shampoo. Of course I was happy with it (after all he had been selling it successfully for years). Then he said, ?how would you like your friends try this too? Also perhaps our service here in the saloon? for free and see what they think??

I have been in marketing business for some time. I instantly knew that he wanted referrals. But the way he went about getting them was charming. I found it difficult not to give him names of few of my friends because I felt indebted for allowing me to try out his stuff for free.

Now my question is: If you got a call from a well known name asking you to try out their service for free, as well as collect a free goody bag, would you want to give it a try? Especially if your friend has happily tried them for years, are you likely to turn down the offer and distrust his recommendation?

Can you see the power of ? I know for a fact that 2 of my friends are now regularly using his services. What about the friends of his other customers? What about the friends of friends?

What did it cost him to acquire new customers? Almost nothing. They came along because they were offered a product or service that was perceived by them to be of higher value than they were able to get elsewhere.

Customers do not just look for cheap prices or the service with a smile any longer. They take these things as a given. If you want to steal customers from under the nose of much larger or a tougher competitor then be creative. Offer your customers some thing that they perceive to be of high value.

The good news is ? you do not need to have freebies to give away. There are solutions already available that can be given away and they do not cost you any thing at all. The great thing is that customers regard them very highly and have a . For example, would your customers like free vacations that would normally cost them $2000 each? Or a $1000 spending spree? How about if it doesn't cost you any thing at all?