Over and over again companies are out there releasing marketing material that serves no other purpose beyond getting immediate sales. They're so focused on getting people to just buy a product that they aren't really considering what their long term goals are going to be.



The sale is by nature your short term goal. This is what you need to do in order to keep up revenue and keep your store in business, but you have to also have long term goals if you also want your business to grow.

The long term goals need to go beyond just the sale itself to what you want to do once you have the sale. Here's the thing to consider: a person who just bought something from you is going to be more likely to buy something from you again. If you keep treating them like any other customers and just keeping pushing for more sales, then you aren't going to make them feel very appreciated, and you want have as good of a chance at getting more business from them.

The best way to develop long term customers is by understanding what you need to do once you have your first sale from them. As soon as this happens you need to move them into a different category than they were in before.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Say you're using full color postcards to send out an overall message to everyone about an upcoming sale. Now, you keep careful track of to whom you sent your postcards to and who responds to them.

After a few weeks you should have a good idea of who it was that took interest and came in. Once you have that information you create a second batch of names for your color postcards. For the first batch you just keeping sending them out like you have been, but for the second list you design a different postcard for them.

This one thanks them for their business and gives them a coupon or some form of discount on their next purchase. Only people who bought something from your first run of postcard mailing gets this special deal.

What will the end results be? The people who were already going to be more likely to come in and give you business again are now given an even greater incentive to do so. You're also showing them that you care about your customers enough to reward them for helping you out.

I'm listing one method here for following up on your sales, and there are others. Take the time to sit down and figure out how you can look beyond the sale to loyal customers. No business can survive forever if all they're thinking about is one sale at a time.