If there was a magic bullet to guarantee success, the art of the sale would cease to have meaning. For years, business people, coaches, and writers have discussed what customers want, and how to give it to them. While a lot of highfalutin jargon often pads these discussions, there are a few truisms that aren’t likely to go out of fashion anytime soon.

Good customer service
Customer service is as much a sales technique as any other. Retaining and keeping customers happy drives sales and brings in new business to boot. In an internet-enabled world, that’s doubly true.

As Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon notes:

“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”

Your business might not be in the position to employ a full customer service team, but you can pay for someone to man your social media platforms. Facebook even rewards you for this with an icon that says you normally respond within a certain number of hours.

The quicker you are, the more likely you are to attract prospective customers browsing your page – and the more likely you are to keep existing clients happy.

Email/newsletter marketing
Customers who want to hear from you are more likely to sign up for a newsletter than follow your brand on Facebook.
And this stands to reason.

On social media, customers are following a page alongside hundreds or thousands of other people.

Over email? They’re receiving a personal message to their inbox.

Sure, you won’t be the only brand with a newsletter, but if you get your subject line to do the heavy lifting, you’ll be in a better position to grab someone’s attention.

Use a tool like MailChimp to track how many people are opening your mailers and don’t be afraid to experiment from one to the next. You’ll start to get a picture of what works, and what doesn’t, based on the open rate/bounce rate statistics MailChimp makes available.

Invest in a smart website – not a shiny one
A website that’s beautiful, well-designed, and attention-grabbing is one thing.

But if it takes an age to load? Or doesn’t load at all on slower connections?

Just about useless.

“A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last,” said Jeff Bezos.

What’s better than shiny? Being effective.

An About page and a Contact page should be front and center. Include a postal address and a telephone number, in addition to the usual email form. Your website should cut to the chase, letting someone find out about you in a few seconds flat.

Small things, like an up-to-date date at the bottom of the page, are other signs you’ve got your finger on the proverbial pulse.

Be generous
Some of the biggest brands in the world – from Netflix to Amazon – let you try their service for a month without charge.

If they do it, so should you.

For one thing, it demonstrates confidence in the product you’re selling.

But it also means you’re thinking about the long-term success of your service, rather than worrying about immediate access to capital.

Most importantly, it treats the customer with respect. Yes, you’ll have a handful of people who try your service and then never end up paying for it. But your transparent approach to doing business will win over the people you need as well.

An even more progressive approach? Giving out a portion of your product free of charge – forever. The majority of your customer base will plumb for this, but with a well-priced premium alternative, you’ll attract devotees as well.

In the end, prioritize a good deal. Never try and pull a fast one.