Business owners have a goal, and that is to make money. There are two ways that you can go about doing this. You can bring in more customers, and not just to your brick and mortar operation, but to your website as well. The other thing you can do is to get customers to buy more, and do it more often on a regular basis. Selling to a new customer is obviously going to be much more difficult and expensive than your older customers, but, the time and money spent will be worth it when you see those profit margins rising. Here are five ways that you can increase the spending by your customers:

You need a USP: Without a unique selling proposition (USP) you are not going to get those sales you so sorely need to stay afloat and see a profit. Your USP is going to be the reasons why your customers should buy your product or service, and you should make sure that your list is filled with excellent reasons to use your products or services. Your USP will probably be in a constant state of flux, because you will always have to be one step ahead of your competition.

Have plenty for your customers to choose from: If you are limiting yourself to just selling one or two products or services, you may be limiting your profit potential as well. It is better that you have a wide range of products and services to offer to your customers. Offer upgrades, offering them more for their money too, and add that with a great and varied product line, you should see much more in the way of profits coming in. When you are offering more, you have a much better chance of customer retention.

Make them want to buy more: If you are just letting customers walk out the door without providing them with an incentive to make more purchases, you could be losing a lot of profits. Offer discounts, provide seasonal offers, give away gifts and promotional items, and you will be providing an incentive for customers to stick around a while longer and make more purchases.

Always be cross-selling: This is a way to get much more in sales from your customers. It is one of the most effective things you can do to make sure that your profits continue to rise. For example, if you are selling computers, offer a printer at a really great price. Customers will often buy the extras, as long as they are at the right price. Just make sure that you are up-selling with products that go along with the original purchase.

Create loyalty programs and offer benefits: Loyalty programs are all the rage these days, and this is a really great way to get your customers to buy more from you. If you start a program, offer customers a special discount card they can use whenever they buy anything from you. When they know they can get discounts, they will keep coming back over and over again to take advantage of the value you are offering them. You can try different programs, such as co-branded credit cards, purchase cards and even offer air miles.

Author's Bio: 

Andrew McCombe is the owner of Activate Your Business where they teach new and existing business owners to Start, Grow and / or Automate their business(es) with EASE, so they can live a life of EASE. For more information visit http://www.activateyourbusiness.com.au