Even successful businesses get snarled up in a rut now and then — a vicious cycle of status-quo marketing and current-customer dependence. If you’re nodding your head thinking, “Yeah, that’s our company,” maybe it’s time to take action to help pump up the volume on sales and profits.

Here are five tips to get you on the right track:

1. Ask the right questions. Good customer relations don’t depend on the answers you give them. They depend on the answers they give you. Learn to ask the right questions so you can best help your customers with their needs.

2. Pull out all the stops. Always surprise your customers by going above and beyond their expectations. Beating deadlines can turn you into their hero.

3. Give them their money’s worth. What makes you different from your competitors? That’s what prospective customers want to know, too. Focus on the value your products and services can offer them. Don’t talk about prices or fees initially — that can come later, after they realize they can’t get along without you.

4. It’s not about you. It’s about your customer’s profits, not yours. If you can help them make more money this year than last year, they’ll keep coming back for more.

5. Into the future. Your customers are interested in where they’re headed — not where they’ve been. Focus your sales and marketing activities on helping customers appreciate how your products and services can contribute to their financial success.