But, before we start, a couple of quick definitions.
A customer is someone who buys something once and you never see them again. A client is someone who keeps coming back and buying more from you, preferably for life - theirs!
It can take a significant investment to acquire a new customer. You're paying for advertising, referral fees etc. So once you've got the customer in the door it makes sense to keep selling to them, doesn't it? 
So how do you go about on-going sales? One strategy is to lock them in!
Take razor blades - Gillette Mach 3 or any other system FORCES you to keep buying the blades. And they're expensive! So Gillette almost gives away the initial pack - a razor and a few blades, knowing that the profit is in the back end. (I've been using Mach 3 for over 15 years - so I shudder to think how much I've spent on blades!)
Nestlé produces (in my opinion) some of the world's best coffee. The brilliance of the system is that the coffee comes in sealed capsules (one to a cup) that can only be used in certain machines (made by major manufacturers like Krups). So you buy the machine (and Nestlé prices it to sell) and you have to keep buying the coffee.
The add-ons are brilliant. Nestlé comes out with limited edition cups and other crockery, different flavours of coffee, and even a carry bag for taking your coffee machine on holiday!
Think about how much money they get on an ongoing basis from people who love their coffee!
Lets take a BBQ place - When I purchased our BBQ grill a few years ago, they should have started to market to me as soon as one month after the purchase. If they had done that, the could have sold me far more over the years... Tools wear out, gas cylinders need to be replaced, and the grill and burners rust. If they kept in touch with me, who knows how much more they could sell me?
Can you see how they're missing out on potential sales?
And you don't have to have physical product to lock people in.
A colleague of ours sells a marketing system to Beauty and Hairdressing Salons. The pack costs a cool $8,500 upfront. He only allows one client per postcode! Talk about creating scarcity.
There are people clamouring to get into his system - so he locks buyers in by forcing them to join a "membership program" for $35 a month.
The kicker is that if you let your membership slip, you lose your exclusive right to own the program for your postcode.
The memberships add quite a few thousand dollars to his bottom line a month!
What could you do for your business?
Over the last 12 months we've built over 100 membershipsites, and counting. Some of them are making well above $10,000 per month.
If you need some ideas, call me on +61 2 9499-7958or send me an email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and we can schedule a consultation. It may be the best money you've spent on growing your business.
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