Harry started his business a few months ago. He had done a lot of research into his field, asked lots of questions and saved up money to prepare for anything. He had mastered fashion designing and opened a shop in a remote part of his city. He spoke to a few friends, and they patronized him.
He delivered good work, his friends invited a couple of their friends, and that was all. Later on, he was advised to open a website to market his goods. So a couple of months down the line, he did precisely that, but Harry was barely making sales five months into his venture.

You, like Harry, probably have a problem making sales and expanding your customer base. If not, why else would you be out searching for how to get more customers for your business?

Like Harry, I would guess you also deliver high-quality products and services, but your customer base always seems to stagnate no matter what you do. In this post, you will be getting sure-fire ways to unlock an endless stream of customers to your business. I dare say when you put these methods into practice, your results would seem like magic.

Why does your small business need to get new customers?
New Customers help validate your product.
More customers equal more sales.
Having more customers motivates you to grow your business.

7 proven ways to attract more customers and make sales.
Invest in delivering quality.
Know your potential customers.
Build Communities.
Be deliberate about referrals.
Provide new customers with discounts and promotions.
Participate in community meets.
Create and properly optimize your website.

What do you need to do next?

Why does your small business need to get new customers?

The answer to this question might seem fairly obvious. But, in truth, many small business owners do not know why they need more customers; as a result, they settle for whatever inflow comes in naturally. Here are three major reasons why your small business needs more customers.

New Customers help validate your product.
Take a deep breath, pause, and imagine that you have created a product that can solve all of the problems in your field. You have invested so much time and effort into a product that would transform the lives of your ideal client, and after months of attempted sales and peddling your product, you do not make sales. What do you think would happen? Of course, with time, you would begin to doubt the authenticity of your product, more so if you are a business person that really loves his product and cares for his customer. The more you sell, the more you feel like your product touches lives. Bottom line: More customers help validate your product.

More customers equals more sales.
Why do you need more customers? Because you want to make more sales. For a business to remain profitable, there is a need for that business to sell. Who are you selling to? People. You need customers to sell to increase sales. If you are not in business to make sales, you should not be in business at all. Katherine Barchetti, a very successful saleswoman, puts it aptly,
"Make A Customer, Not A Sale."

Having more customers motivates you to grow your business.
Business growth goes beyond making sales; it involves increased professionalism, catering for other services the customers would need, and lots more. Having more customers does not just help you make sales; it pushes you to grow your business more. For example, a person who sells kitchen wares out of his garage would be motivated to have a more presentable location as his customer base grows. An increase in customers would therefore motivate the growth of your business.

7 proven ways to attract more customers and make sales.
Now that you know why you need more customers, what should you be doing to get these customers?

Invest in delivering quality.
Know your potential customers.
Build Communities.
Be deliberate about referrals.
Provide new customers with discounts and promotions.
Participate in community meets.
Create and properly optimize your website.

Invest in delivering quality.
How you make your customers feel when they use your products would determine the ease at which your product would market itself. Let's track back to Harry, if Harry delivers a dress to a customer, and the dress makes the customer look and feels like a celebrity, you can be sure that Harry has won the heart of a customer and now has access to other people who would inevitably come in contact with that customer. Quality service often speaks for itself. On the other hand, if you market well and gain more customers and all they meet is substandard goods and services, they would not remain customers.

Know your potential customers.
How do you sell a good or service to a person without knowing what would trigger their appetite for what you are selling? To make a customer out of a stranger, you would have to study the stranger, know what he likes, what makes him happy, and what troubles him. This would help you identify what type of customer you need. The goal is not just to increase quantity but also to secure quality customers. You can do this by asking questions, taking surveys, and observing your customers. The benefit of this is that you can tailor your services to your ideal customer base.

Build Communities.
One sure-fire way to secure new customers and make them repeat customers is to make them feel like they are part of a community. This exclusivity keeps old customers and creates a desire for new customers to join the community. The more active your community, the more people would want to join in. You can create communities via social media. A community also helps promote your brand image. This would help your business resonate with customers with the same or similar ideologies.

Be deliberate about referrals.
At the initial stage of a small business, word of mouth is a powerful weapon for bringing in new customers, and as in the case of Harry, it could be very effective at the early stages, but what so many small businesses fail to do afterward is focus on referrals.
Nielsen report that 92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family more than advertising.
Your present customers are usually the best people to toot your horns; when you have loyal followers, all you need to do is ask for referrals. Under some circumstances, you might need to offer some incentives. Still, those would be little compared to the customers you will gain from referrals. You can set up referral packages that do not emphasize monetary rewards only but those that foster loyalty to your brand.

Provide new customers with discounts and promotions.
Quite recently, I jumped on an offer for a router with a service provider I was not using. Why? They offered a discount that I could not resist. Discounts help customers get familiar with your products and services without taking too many risks. They are able to experience how well you deliver your services, and more often than not, customers tend to stay after a discount. You should apply wisdom while running promotions and discounts to prevent misrepresentation of the quality of your products and services. Read more on the art of discounting here. There are several platforms that can help automate your discounting and promotion process to make it easier and faster, one of them is Bumpa.

Participate in community meets.
To get customers, you have to put your business out there; this would include attending both online and offline community meets, as this is usually where your customers are looking to find solutions to their problems. At these meets, networking is key. You have to set yourself up to solve your potential customer's problem. The moment a customer is able to see you as a problem solver, they get sold to you. Go prepared. You should be ready to sell yourself at a moment's notice. According to recent surveys, people prefer to spend money with local and small business owners. they get to find these small businesses at community meets. You should also consider joining a different online business marketplace.

Create and properly optimize your website.
If your business is not online, you are losing many customers and leaving money on the table. No one wants to leave money on the table. You might think, like Harry, that once you open a website, all your problems disappear, that is not the case. There is still a lot of work to be done to get your business on the lips of the internet. Social media and digital marketing are compulsory in this case. Setting up social media accounts and free website are good ways to start. With the availability of platforms that support free websites without coding, you really have no excuse. Try Bumpa to create free business website in few minutes. Bumpa has made this easier as they can help you automate sales, track orders, receive payments all in one place for you; this space also acts as your website, a pretty sweet deal, right? You can improve your chances of landing new customers by optimizing your website through these helpful tips.

So for Harry, what smart solution can he employ? Rather than sticking with a traditional website, he can get a free business website from Bumpa that would be easy to locate on the internet, and would make selling and marketing a lot easier for him.

What do you need to do next?
Start with your product, make sure you deliver quality, and ensure that your services are memorable. Then do your customer research, build fun and engaging communities, create referral reward systems, Provide new customers with special benefits, Participate in local and online community hangouts and meetings and create websites that make things easy both for you and your customers.
If you can follow this roadmap, you will have high-value customers at your doorstep every time.