To grow your business, reward your customers and your salespeople.

Can you remember the last time you bought a pair of shoes? Chances are the salesperson recommended some products to go with your new pair of sneakers or high heels, like polish or insoles. While such upselling might be annoying, it often works. In fact, your business will expand dramatically if you can convince just one out of three clients to buy a little bit more.

But that’s not the only way to expand your business. Another strategy is to convince clients to remain loyal to your company.

How?

Well, there are plenty of ways to keep customers coming back, but premiums and loyalty programs work especially well.

For instance, chain stores like Sears have loyalty programs that reward customers for frequent purchases. In such programs, customers usually earn points for every item they buy and, as these points accumulate, they can be cashed in for discounts. As a result, the client will want to keep buying from the same store rather than miss out on this bonus.

Another way to make your business grow is to expand your client base by giving your salespeople a piece of the profits. For example, lots of companies pay their salespeople a percentage, say 10 percent of the profit from every sale they make. Naturally, the prospect of a commission incentivizes your staff to recruit new clients – but you can motivate your salespeople even more by letting them keep 100 percent of the profits from their first sale to every new client.

This might seem like a pretty big reward if a sale averages something like $200, but if the average client spends that amount five times per year, your total profit from them would be $2,800 over three years, even after the $200 bonus you gave the salesperson.

Not only that, but such an incentive can motivate sales staff to recruit ten times as many customers.