What is the secret of business success? You may think it is to sell your product at the highest price to the most people. Think again - you can actually make more money by giving your product away!

The Secret of Successful Business

This is a technique which reveals the secret of practically every successful business. It relies on repeat sales, built up from the initial purchase of the product. The problem of generating the initial purchase is overcome if the product is free, so eventually you should be left with legions of loyal customers and you can hardly fail to make a fortune.

The Benefits of Repeat Sales

Before we explain this in more detail, take the example of Coca Cola - a company whose business has been based on the success of basically one drink. How far would the company have grown if they had sold a can to everyone in the world, but nobody bought another one?

The success of the company is, of course, built on repeat sales. Coca Cola drinkers don't just buy one can, they buy lots of them, over years and years. The success of the business depends on gaining a customer, providing them with a product they are satisfied with, and then reaping the benefits of repeat sales.

Brand and Company Loyalty

This doesn't just apply to consumable, low cost items. A motorcar is a very expensive purchase, and an infrequent one. Yet the fortunes of motor manufacturers are dependent on selling not just one car to a customer, but several over their lifetime.

Why does the Ford company continue to prosper, and why is the Ford Escort still a number one seller? Those with rose tinted spectacles would like to think it is because Ford produce the best, most reliable car with the greatest range of features and benefits, at the best price. Most independent observers would differ from this view, pointing to the cars coming from Japan and Europe.

At one time, however, Ford did produce this type of car, and this is the point. Once customers start to buy from a supplier they are notoriously hard to move. Put simply, if they bought Ford last time they are likely to buy it again, irrespective of any arguments to the contrary . The Initial Sale

The phenomenon of brand and company loyalty is very important and explains why companies spend such huge sums of money in order to persuade someone to try out their product. The initial sale forms only part of the benefit of advertising, and is often little more than incidental. If MacDonalds only encouraged people to enter their restaurants once, never to return, their advertising expenditure would be wasted and they would quickly go out of business.

Gaining Customers

So what does this mean to you? Whatever business you are in, it is likely that it actually costs you money to gain a customer. There may well be no profit in the initial sale, which will be swallowed up in marketing costs, whether advertising, direct mail, telesales, personal representation, or whatever.

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