Are you looking to increase your sales fast in order to get ahead in your business? It's actually easier than you might think and the great part is that most business owners all look at this the wrong way.

In today's economy, most businesses are in a fight or flight mentality and scarcity is in the minds of most small business owners.

You don't have to think this way and you can increase your sales if you do the opposite of what most business owners are doing and stay away from the following top 3 mistakes that I see all the time.

Mistake #1 - Spending all your time, effort and money on finding new customers.
Most small business owners are always scrambling with one single focus all the time. To get new customers. Now this is always important in any business and should never be ignored BUT, you should spend a large amount of time with your existing customers too. You don't want your existing customers thinking that you you don't care about them any more. Plus these are the easiest people to sell to. As long as you've provided great service to them in the past, it's much easier to sell them something else that they need.

Mistake #2 - Not offering additional products that make sense.
If you buy a CD player, you need batteries right? If you have lawn care, you need to re-seed right?

These are all additional products that you need to get the best experience from the main product you bought.

You need to have these products and services in place in your business too. The customer needs these items and most of the time, they don't even think about them until it's too late. It's your job to educate them about everything they need and make sure they have the best experience possible. Plus, this is an easy upsell in any industry. These small items may not be much by themselves but it doesn't take any real work on your part to sell them and it can add up to a nice increase in your sales over time.

Mistake #3 - Having tunnel vision with your sales.
Who says that all your sales have to come from selling your own products?

If you know of another business owner that sells products or services that compliment your business.

See if you can work out a professional referral program with them. If they send you referrals, you pay them a commission. If you send them a referral, they pay you a commission.

You help the customer find everything they need, the other business gets new customers and you have another way to increase your sales. You don't even actually have to sell the product. Just tell the customer how great the other business is and that they have what the customer needs.

If you can keep away form these 3 mistakes that most business owners make on a daily basis, you can easily outsmart your competition and increase your sales without a lot of extra effort and without a lot of extra advertising costs.