How to increase revenue: practical ways to grow sales

Published Wednesday 25 March 2026

Table of contents

• How to plan for revenue growth
• Encouraging more purchases from existing customers
• Finding new customers
• Expanding your range of products or services
• Upselling to increase revenue
• Lifting prices to increase revenue
• What not to do when increasing revenue
• Understanding the costs and challenges of revenue growth
• Revenue growth works best with clear financial insight
• FAQs on increasing revenue

Key takeaways

• Focus on existing customers first by making buying easier through online ordering, direct debit payments, and flexible billing options like subscriptions or retainers, as they already trust you and are faster to convert than new prospects.
• Implement bundling instead of straight discounts to protect your profit margins, since a 20% discount can completely wipe out a 25% markup while bundling spreads the discount across multiple items.
• Calculate your current margins and understand all costs before pursuing growth, as revenue increases mean nothing if your expenses rise faster than your sales and destroy profitability.
• Ask existing customers for referrals and feedback on what else they'd like to buy from you, as this provides the lowest-cost path to both new customers and product expansion opportunities.

How to plan for revenue growth

Revenue growth requires preparation. Before diving into tactics, take stock of where your business stands and what it can handle.

Understand your current position. Consider these factors:

• Know your baseline revenue: What are you earning now, and from which products, services, or customers?
• Calculate your margins: Use our gross margin calculator to see how much you keep from each sale
• Review your costs: Identify fixed and variable costs so you can predict how they'll change with growth

Assess your capacity. Ask yourself these questions:

• Time: Do you have hours to spare, or are you already stretched?
• Staff: Can your team handle more work, or will you need to hire?
• Cash flow: Can you cover the upfront costs of growth while waiting for revenue to arrive?

Choose strategies that fit your situation. A business with loyal customers but a limited marketing budget might focus on upselling and referrals. A business with spare capacity might prioritise finding new customers.

Accounting software gives you a real-time view of revenue, costs, and margins, so you can make informed decisions about where to focus.

Encouraging more purchases from existing customers

Existing customers are your fastest path to more revenue. They already know and trust you, which makes them easier to sell to than new prospects.

Focus on maximising sales with current customers first. That way, when you do add new customers, they'll be worth more to you too.

Make buying easy

Remove any obstacles that might stop people from buying. Here are some options:

• Offer online ordering: Let customers get what they want without travelling or calling
• Set up standing orders: Regular customers receive products or services at agreed intervals without having to reorder
• Use direct debit: Automate billing so payments happen automatically
• Accept card payments: Customers can buy on credit while you get paid straight away

Customer-friendly billing

Flexible payment terms help customers say yes. Just like you, your customers avoid purchases that strain their cash flow.

Spreading payments over time makes it easier for them to fit you in their budget. Consider these options:

• Flat fee billing: predictable costs customers can plan for
• Retainers: regular payments for ongoing services
• Subscription models: smaller recurring charges instead of large one-off payments

Relationship marketing

Staying in touch keeps you top of mind. Add customers to a database or social network and contact them about relevant products, services, or news.

Keep your communications balanced:

• Avoid spam: don't clog their inbox or social feed
• Provide value: share content that's useful or entertaining, not just sales pitches
• Stay relevant: focus on what matters to your customer, not just what you want to sell

Sales promotions

Promotions work best when they protect your margins. Everyone loves a bargain, but straight discounts can destroy your profitability.

Bundling is a smarter alternative. Instead of discounting a single item, bundle several products or services together. The discount spreads across multiple items, so you sell more while keeping healthy margins on most of what you sell.

Finding new customers

Expanding your customer base opens up new opportunities for revenue growth. Here are practical ways to reach more people.

Up your referral game

Ask your customers for referrals. It sounds simple because it is. Your existing customers can be powerful advocates, and they tend to refer people just like themselves. Good customers send more good customers.

Build a referral request into your regular customer communications. Service businesses often find this makes a big impact, but it works for retail and hospitality too.

Experiment with marketing

Monitor your return on investment and shift spend when results plateau. Every marketing channel eventually reaches a point of diminishing returns where you've tapped out the available audience.

When a strategy starts flatlining, experiment with new areas. Social and digital marketing offer low-cost ways to test what works.

Get affordable tips in our guide How to do digital marketing.

Grow your footprint in real life or online

Expanding your footprint puts your business in front of new customers. You have two main options:

Open a new location: Setting up shop in a different area gets you in front of fresh eyes and a new pool of potential customers. This works well but requires significant investment, and some businesses find larger sites help generate more revenue and benefit from economies of scale.

Start selling online: Reach a wider audience without the cost of physical expansion. This works for retailers and many service businesses too, as plenty of professional services can be delivered remotely.

Learn more in our guide How to start an online business.

Review your sales channels

Where you sell matters as much as what you sell. Expanding your sales channels puts your products or services in front of customers who might never find you otherwise.

Consider these options:

• Online marketplaces: platforms like Amazon, Etsy, or eBay give you access to established customer bases
• Partnerships: team up with complementary businesses to reach their customers
• Resellers or distributors: let others sell on your behalf in exchange for a margin

Each channel has trade-offs. Marketplaces charge fees but bring traffic. Partnerships require relationship management. Distributors reduce your margin but expand your reach without extra work.

Start with one new channel and measure the results before expanding further.

Expanding your range of products or services

Adding new products or services creates more opportunities to sell. You can expand your range without overextending yourself or taking big risks.

Diversify your products and services

Here's how to identify what to add:

• Ask your customers: find out what else they'd like to buy from you
• Suggest complementary products: if customers don't have ideas, propose items that pair with what you already sell
• Research competitors: check what similar businesses offer that you don't
• Talk to suppliers: retailers can ask suppliers for product ideas that sell well

Start small to reduce risk. Test new services with select customers, or display new retail items in small quantities before committing to large orders.

Offering more without actually offering more

Repackaging what you already do can open new markets. You may be able to sell to a wider audience simply by positioning your service differently.

For example, a landscaper serving single-family homes could pitch the same services to holiday homes, retirement villages, or public venues. The work is identical, but the packaging speaks to different customers.

Upselling to increase revenue

Upselling moves customers towards premium products or services with better margins. Done well, it increases the value of each sale without adding new customers.

Follow these tips to upsell successfully:

• Position premium options alongside standard ones: place higher-spec products next to cheaper alternatives and highlight the extra features
• Understand what matters to your customer: build a compelling case based on their priorities, not just the features you want to sell
• Be patient, not pushy: test your messaging with a sceptical friend to make sure you're not putting people off

Try introductory deals. Let customers experience premium products or services at a reduced price. Once they see the benefits, they're more likely to pay full price when the offer ends.

Offer add-on services. User training, maintenance calls, or support packages create extra revenue while building customer loyalty and opening the door to repeat business.

Lifting prices to increase revenue

Raising prices is one of the most direct ways to increase revenue, as long as changes don't scare away customers. The process requires more thought than simply adding to your price tag.

Follow these steps to raise your prices effectively:

1. Understand your current margins: Calculate the difference between what it costs to provide your product or service and what you charge. Your margins have probably shrunk since your last price change because inflation pushes costs up.
2. Set a sustainable target margin: Once you know your current position, decide on a new margin that covers your costs and supports profitability. An accountant or bookkeeper can tell you what's normal for your industry.
3. Review your estimates: If you provide quotes, look at where past estimates went wrong. Build those recurring overruns into more realistic pricing models.

Calculate your current position with our gross margin calculator.

Learn how to communicate price changes in our guide How to increase prices.

What not to do when increasing revenue

Discounting can destroy your profitability faster than you'd expect. What sounds like a modest discount can wipe out your entire margin.

Here's how discounts affect your markup:

• a 20% discount wipes out a 25% markup
• a 25% discount wipes out a 33% markup
• a 33% discount wipes out a 50% markup
• a 50% discount wipes out a 100% markup

Bundling is a safer alternative. You discount one item but maintain regular margins on everything else in the bundle.

Understanding the costs and challenges of revenue growth

Revenue growth comes with costs. Before pursuing higher sales, understand what it will take to achieve them.

Higher operating costs

Growing sales typically requires additional spending:

• More stock: inventory costs rise with sales volume
• More people: staff or freelancers to handle increased demand
• More marketing: investment to generate those extra sales

Plan how you'll cover these costs while waiting for the extra revenue to arrive.

Extra capital investments

Growth often requires capital investment in tools, equipment, locations, or technology. While traditional loans are common, alternative funding is growing, with peer-to-peer lending supplying the equivalent of 13.9% of new bank loans to UK SMEs in one recent year.

Before committing, answer these questions:

• How much will it cost?
• Where will the money come from?
• How long will it take to earn that money back?

Oh, and more work

More revenue often means more work. You may need to put in longer hours, or hire and manage new staff.

Ask yourself: do you have the capacity for these extra commitments? If not, consider whether improving profitability might be a better path than chasing revenue growth.

Revenue growth works best with clear financial insight

Revenue growth only matters if it improves your bottom line. Most small businesses asking how to increase revenue really want to know how to increase profits.

Your costs will rise as you grow. The key is making sure they don't rise as steeply as your revenue. Track your margins carefully and aim for economies of scale that improve profitability as you expand.

Follow these practices to ensure growth improves your bottom line:

• Track margins in real time: Accounting software like Xero lets you monitor profitability at the click of a mouse, using data analytics, which is an area of high demand for 43% of leading accounting firms
• Capture all your costs: Many costs are hidden. An accountant or bookkeeper can help you see the full picture.
• Understand the risks: Know what growth will cost before you commit

Get one month free and see how clear financials help you make smarter growth decisions. Or find an advisor in Xero's advisor directory.

For more on improving your bottom line, see our guide How to increase profits.

FAQs on increasing revenue

Here are answers to common questions about growing your business revenue.

What does it mean to increase revenue?

Increasing revenue means bringing more money into your business through sales. Revenue is your total income before you subtract costs. It's different from profit, which is what remains after paying all expenses.

What are the four main ways to increase revenue?

The four core methods are:

• Attract more customers: expand your customer base through marketing, referrals, or new channels
• Increase purchase frequency: encourage existing customers to buy more often
• Raise transaction value: upsell premium products or add complementary items to each sale
• Increase prices: charge more for what you already sell

This article expands these into five strategies by separating product expansion from customer acquisition.

What is the formula for revenue growth?

Revenue growth percentage = (Current period revenue − Previous period revenue) ÷ Previous period revenue × 100

For example, if you earned £80,000 last year and £100,000 this year, your growth is: (£100,000 − £80,000) ÷ £80,000 × 100 = 25%

How long does it take to see results from revenue strategies?

Timeframes vary by strategy:

• Price increases: immediate impact on the next sale
• Upselling and promotions: results within weeks if you have existing customer traffic
• Finding new customers: typically takes months to build momentum
• New products or services: depends on development time and market testing

Should I focus on increasing revenue or profit?

Focus on profit. Revenue growth only helps if enough of that extra money flows to your bottom line. Growing revenue while margins shrink can leave you working harder for less. Track both metrics and make sure your costs don't rise faster than your sales.