Return Customers Typically Account For 80 Percent of Sales: If you are in sales, you will soon learn that your steady customers are your bread and butter. It costs much more money to acquire new customers than it does to keep regular customers coming back. Therefore, you don't want to be the equivalent of the music industry's "one-hit wonder," debuting with one great product, after which you sink into mail order oblivion. Instead, you want to constantly present new offerings after your customers have purchased your initial product or service. For example, if you plan to start with a no-spill coffee mug for car cafe latte aficionados, you'll want to follow up with a no-splootch jelly doughnut. Or how about a fast-food lap tray? Whatever you choose, you'll want a new item that will entice the same customers who bought your first product. Preparing your marketing for product No. 2, while product number one is selling, is crucial for ongoing success. Remember, repeat customers are the ones who make your business a success. So much so, in fact, that experts insist you don't make any money at all off your first sale--that it's the return customer who secures your profits. As you'll soon see, a lot of time, effort and money goes into finding those initial customers. To lose them after a single purchase is bad business.