The fundamental act of selling a product is perhaps the oldest and simplest form of business: you exchange an item for cash. To succeed, you must ensure the customer values the item more than the price you charge, while simultaneously making sure your development cost is lower than the sales price.
Those are the basics, but the difference between a thriving product business and one that struggles comes down to a more complicated art and science. Success often hinges on fine-tuning various factors.
Marketing is certainly part of the equation, but what you do after the initial sale is even more critical. Once you’ve made one sale, how do you ensure that customer returns for more? How do you capitalize on that first opportunity to convert it into multiple, lifelong sales?
Prioritize High-Quality Offerings The most crucial factor is the product itself. This is why it is so important to invest in researching, developing, or acquiring the absolute best products you can. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking only in the short term, focused solely on the single transaction. They fail to recognize the immense damage a poor product inflicts on their brand and reputation. Investing in quality means investing in your customers, transforming a one-off purchase into a relationship built on lifetime loyalty.
Design for Repeat Purchases If your ultimate goal is repeat buyers, you must sell products that either benefit from or necessitate multiple purchases. If you sell a television, the earliest you can expect another purchase is years down the line. Savvy businesses avoid this by creating complementary products that leverage the customer’s newfound trust and familiarity with their brand.
Harness Your Brand Equity This is the inherent benefit of having a strong brand in the first place. A good brand allows you to use the goodwill established by one successful product to sell many more. The strategy is to stick within a single, defined product category but create enough variation to encourage customers to “double dip” and keep returning for more of what they love.
Incentivize Loyalty with Rewards Finally, if you want to take your strategy one step further, why not offer an incentive to encourage customers to return? Providing discounts or exclusive offers to repeat customers gives them a powerful reason to choose you again over a competitor. When combined with a high-quality product and complementary offerings, this layer of rewards is the perfect way to cement lasting customer loyalty.