Customer Share vs. Market Share

Customer Share vs. Market Share

If you are guilty of focusing more effort on getting new customers than selling to your existing customers, rise up to the following challenge. Pledge that, starting today, for one month, you will stop thinking about market share. Instead start thinking about customer share.
Think of the products or services that your customers need and are buying from other businesses right now that are related to your products and services.  Identify the ones from that list that they could buy from you — if you offered them to your existing customers.
Some of these related products and services you can offer and deliver yourself.  Those are the ones that hold the most potential to dramatically grow your revenue and even more importantly — your profit and cash flow. For these products, your marketing costs are much lower than selling to a new customer.  Your business has already incurred the high expense and borne the effort of identifying and attracting them the first time.

The natural resistance and barriers to change are largely eliminated when you are approaching and talking to your existing customers. By focusing your marketing efforts on your existing client base, and prospects you already know, you will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

There are Several Advantages to this Approach:
You already know who, specifically, these people are (you DO capture customer contact details, don' t you?)
You know what they purchased previously so you have insight into their needs.
You know how profitable they are for your business.

They are already familiar with your business, its personality and style, its products and services, and the benefits of dealing with you compared to another competitor of yours.
And, as a result of a, you will be able to close more sales and select customers who are most likely to be highly profitable.

You will also find you need to spend far less time and money than you might have thought.
When it comes to marketing and increasing the profits of your business, remember share of customer trumps market share.
The truth is that, depending on your goals for growing your business, you might just have all the customers you need.