Best prospects are existing customers

"FREE MP3 card reader with any new Starhub TV sign-up"

"FREE $50 Red House Seafood Voucher with any sign-up"

"FREE Pedicure set worth $188, necklace worth $58 for every new mobile phone package sign-up"

This morning's newspapers are littered with offers from companies trying to acquire NEW customers. In their pursuit for new customers, they forget one thing: their present customers are their best prospects.

1st, if a person is already a customer, it's easier to sell him again. You don't have to go through the preliminaries.

Sometimes, sales people get too cocky about a customer - they figure they've got him sewn up. But that's just the time someone else comes along and offers that extra service or attention, and the sales person loses out.

So in looking for new customers, I never ever forget the existing ones. As the saying goes: there's more gold in them thar hills!