Of course, you’d like to increase your company profits. The lessons for creating and increasing an entrepreneur’s profits are pretty much the same as for any company: to be successful, you have to turn a profit. It’s that profit that allows you to expand, improve your products, hire good people, etc.

But generating more sales doesn’t just involve selling a lot more services or merchandise. Due to expenses and other factors, having sales doesn’t always translate into more profits; and that’s a hard lesson to learn when you’re in business. You have to be street smart in that regard.

How Do You Increase your Company Profits?

There are a few ways that companies can turn bigger profits without spending more. Some of the biggest names in the business industry, like John Hailer, have used these tips to make the companies they work for profitable.

Get Existing Consumers to Buy More

While companies work on ways to get new consumers into their stores, they should also look for ways to get current customers to spend more money. These are customers who are already using the goods or services. As such, it’s no longer a battle to get them into the store, just to get them to spend more while they are there. By cross-selling, for example, companies get consumers who buy certain products to buy adjacent products.

This is why it’s a good idea to put like-minded products together. For instance, if customers are buying paper, try selling other office supplies to them as well by putting those products close together. Also, rather than bundle products together, split the items into separate products so that consumers buy more.

Get Old Customers to Refer New Customers

The best way to spread word of mouth about a company is to get customers to talk about it. Having customers send in referrals is the most honest way of getting new customers. This can be done by joining social media networking sites and getting consumers to “like” products that you post. Also, offer consumers discounts or coupons when they refer their friends or family members.

Another great way is to encourage bloggers to write about products. For example, if a company has a new product that it wants people to know about, the company could send the product to a review site or blogger or even existing customers, so the individual can test and write a review for that product. While it costs the company a bit of money to send out free products to select people, it encourages those people to write reviews and articles about the new products.

Increase the Value Add for the Product

This might sound contrarian, but actually is essential. Why? By imbuing your product or service with top quality, you can create a quality/pricing distance with your competitors in the marketplace. This seems obvious to do, and it’s a strategy that well-known companies like Apple employ to great effect.

Adding value can be done in multiple ways: extra downloads from your company’s website, extending warranties on products, improving service response, even just packaging your product a little smarter than the competition! There is no limit to the value you can create just by improving the presentation, too.

Develop Relations in the Community

One of the reasons that businesses do outreach work in the community is to develop relationships with those people who live or work nearby. Simple outreach can be working with charities, providing financial or material support to groups in need, or even organizing simple events that focus on issues of the day.

Also, holding events to bring people into the premises can be a great way to build interest. Whether you turn those people into customers or not doesn’t matter at all. Why? Because you just never know who the visitors will tell or even when they will sign up. In our business, we’ve found that people tuck the information away for ages before acting on it. Do note: you should avoid the hard sell at these events… that will only create antipathy. Be genuine, be sincere to all.

Treat your Customers Right

Following these tips can help increase your company profits, as well as those of nearly any company. Entrepreneurs will do well to remember, however, that treating consumers right is the best way to get them to buy their products in the first place, and improves the likelihood of gaining their business again.