Grow your numbers - Increase your transaction frequency

Anna Stubbs • June 3, 2025

Have you ever done the maths on your average spend per customer?
That is, how much your customers spend (on average) each time they buy from you. Simply take your total sales for any period (e.g. 12 months) and divide this by the total number of transactions or invoices for that period.


When you know your average transaction value, you’ll start to see the value of getting your customers to buy from you more frequently. If only 50% of your customers buy from you one more time per year, your sales will increase significantly.


Consider the example of a house maintenance business that does window cleaning, house washing, and gutter care. Imagine the business has 500 customers and turnover of $130,000. There are 460 invoices for the year so the average spend per transaction is $283. Some customers are vigilant about getting their house and windows washed and others leave it until the mould and leaves in the gutters are causing leaks.


If you are able to get one more transaction per customer per year, then sales will more than double (500 customers x $283 = additional turnover of $141,500). More importantly, you will be able to prevent an unmanageable flood of job requests after each rain storm!

Here are 10 ideas to increase transaction frequency:

  1. BAMFAM: Book A Meeting From A Meeting. When finishing a job, discuss the value of doing the job again and book it in then and there.
  2. Articulate the benefit of doing the additional work and the potential consequences if it’s not done.
  3. Follow up your customers if they don’t book in the next job when recommended.
  4. Network and attend events where your existing customers hang out.
  5. Create a service plan with monthly payments to lock in a commitment for repeat work.
  6. Offer a loyalty or frequent buyer programme.
  7. Surprise and delight your customers by sending them the occasional gift, e.g. if they refer you work.
  8. Widen your product offering and promote this to your customers.
  9. Visit, call, or send helpful content to your customers.
  10. Talk to us about specific ways you can increase the transaction frequency in your business.

Repeat customers become more loyal as you build your relationship with them. So, as long as you do a good job and send the right signals (that you have capacity for more work), they will buy more frequently and become your advocates. Advocates endorse what you do and give you referrals, and referrals are the cheapest way to grow.


"It’s not the customer’s job to know what they want." - Steve Jobs

The Man on the Moon Principle

By Anna Stubbs • October 22, 2025
In 1961, President John F Kennedy famously announced his goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth before the decade was out. As we know, in July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon, and were brought back to Earth safely, achieving JFK’s goal.  At a time when most people hadn’t even been on an aeroplane, landing on the moon would’ve felt unachievable and overwhelming. However, such a massive goal united people with a purpose; the story goes that even a cleaner mopping the floor at the space station said his job was to help put a man on the moon. So, how did they make the goal achievable? They broke it down into milestones, with each one taking them closer and closer to achieving their ultimate goal. The first milestone was to achieve lift off. So, they set about resolving this challenge. The next milestone was to reach orbit, so they had a team working on this milestone. Then, they had to reach the moon’s atmosphere, land safely on the moon, take off from the moon, enter Earth’s atmosphere and land safely back down to Earth. You can see how breaking the goal down into milestones gave everyone a more achievable objective to focus on which was less overwhelming. Those milestones were then broken down into the actions which needed to be completed. Each action was essentially a small step towards reaching the ultimate goal.

5 signs you’re undercharging

By Anna Stubbs • October 22, 2025
Are you undercharging for your services? It can be hard to tell, particularly if you’re in a niche industry or you’re a contractor. Costs have been rising, so it may be time to rethink your own pricing.

Understanding your revenue drivers

By Anna Stubbs • October 22, 2025
For your business to make money, you need to generate revenue. You produce revenue through your usual business activity, by making sales, getting your invoices paid, or taking cash from paying customers. So, the better you are at selling your products/services and bringing money into the business, the higher your revenue levels will be. But what actually drives these revenue levels? And how do you get in control of these drivers?