A customer's next step is almost always the category right next to what they already bought. An owner who jumps straight to the biggest package misses the repeat sale he is after.

The first contact asks for little

The story starts before the purchase. The first time someone gets in touch, whether they ask a question, request a quote or buy your cheapest service, a file gets opened for them.

The source describes what happens at this stage, and it is modest. The inquiry or order goes into the file and is answered right away, with a nice letter asking how the person is getting along and whether there is anything more they would like to know. The material sent at this stage must stress only one thing, so the ask stays small.

Suppose an accountant gets a first inquiry from someone starting a business. He replies the same day with one question: has the person registered as self-employed with the tax authorities yet? He doesn't pitch an annual advisory package until he knows the answer.

Or take a design studio. Someone asks about logo design, and the studio replies with a single relevant sample and a link to book a short discovery call. The fifteen-year portfolio stays on the shelf.

The next category

After that first exchange comes the moment when there is something to sell. Here the source gives the sentence the whole chapter is built around:

“you try to sell each category the next category”

The instruction is the category right beside what the customer already bought. It is the next rung of the ladder, a step the customer is ready for.

This is where many small business owners go wrong. A customer buys one small service, and the owner immediately tries to sell the biggest, most expensive package he has. The customer has barely gotten to know him and isn't ready for that.

Suppose an auto repair shop tries to sell a private maintenance package, running into several thousand dollars a year, to a customer who came in for an annual inspection. That almost always fails. The same shop closes most of the time when, right after the inspection, it mentions only the small repair the inspector turned up, a leaking seal for example.

Or consider a dental clinic that pitches full orthodontic treatment to a parent whose child just had a routine cleaning. The answer is an automatic no. Suggest a check-up on the one molar where a crack showed up, and the clinic almost always gets a yes.

The source reads a business that works this way as moving into an enormous number of repeats. It calls that a good omen, a sign you are doing something right.

Call-in

Some customers have paid and still haven't received what they bought. The source gives the outreach to them a name: call-in. It means contacting a customer who has already paid and getting them to come in for their service.

Usually that is a person who has paid in full and needs to be brought in and delivered to. The source adds that it can also mean getting a partly paid customer to pay up in full and come in. In both cases you reach out on your own initiative.

Notice that the money has already changed hands. A call-in is a call to remind and to schedule. The one thing it needs is for the customer to arrive and receive what they're entitled to.

To know whom to call, you need files that are current. The source puts the person in charge of keeping them up to date and supervising them, so that each customer's category is clear and changes when it should. Without that, you can't tell who is owed a call.

Suppose a photography studio takes a deposit on wedding photos, then lets months pass before booking the session where the couple chooses their pictures. Call the couple within two weeks of the wedding and they come in sooner, and they order extra prints during that same visit.

Or suppose an HVAC contractor sells a service package with two maintenance visits a year, and nobody in the office tracks when the second one is due. A contractor who puts a date on the calendar for every such customer delivers both visits every year.

The four cycles

All of this belongs to a larger system. The source lists four cycles a business must engage in to be successful and prosperous: outreach, selling the service, call-in, and delivering an excellent service.

The first two happen before the customer pays, and most owners think of them when they think about sales. The last two happen after the money has changed hands. Half of the engine that decides whether the business succeeds runs after the sale is closed.

An owner who pours all his energy into new customers and neglects the ones who already paid gives up that half.

Suppose a coffee shop on a residential street pays for ads to bring in new customers. It keeps no record of who holds a loyalty card, and nobody reminds those customers to renew once the card is used up. The outreach works and the selling works. The other two cycles never happen.

What the booklet has on this

In The Second Sale, this chapter ends with two short exercises: the adjacent step, and who is owed a call. The chapter after it covers the moment when it's best to offer a customer the next service.

A customer who bought a small service has already chosen you once. When the next step sits close enough to what they bought, they can choose you again.