There's no lack of ideas for companies about how to find new customers. New surefire sales and marketing tactics and programs seem to crop up daily. However, if you invest your time and do a bit of homework, you can learn a lot about your best (i.e. most profitable) customers and how to find more just like them.
What business professionals need to do is get back to the original, traditional, two-step basics which are:
Find out exactly where you stand with your customers. Meaning, find out how much they like doing business with you?
Understand everything there is to know about your customers and make them feel important.
Customers are the foundation and lifeblood of your business. It takes time and commitment to understand what's on their minds, what new problems they are having and how you can help. In other words, it takes time to build solid customer relationships.
So, how do you go about doing this?
1. Ask your customers the single most important question a business owner can ask a customer: Would you recommend our company to others?
The answer to this question will tell you the most about how you're doing in your customers' eyes. Only delighted customers are willing to recommend your products and services to family and friends. If they say "Yes! I would recommend you,"
2. Ask them for a referral.
The best sources of new customers are referrals from happy, existing customers. Why? Well, referrals from happy customers are free! All you have to do is delight your current customers with great products and services.
3. Survey your customers about what they like and don’t like about doing business with you.
Find out how they like your products, the buying process, packaging, hours of business, everything. Then, and here's the hard part, make the necessary changes in your business based on your customers' feedback. We're so busy providing day-to-day service that we sometimes lose touch with how our customers actually feel about us. After you've learned what they like and don't like, make improvements in your business. Customers like it when they see changes made as a result of their feedback.
4. Identify your most loyal customers and put them to work for you!
Give these loyal customers special value coupons that are good for their friends and associates. Be sure to make it easy for your loyal customers to send you referrals.
5. Create a dialogue with prospects to help them become customers, clients.
Successful marketing is a two-way communication. Old, over-used tactics are not effective; just ask your friends how many people 'skip/fast forward' through television or radio commercials. By asking the right questions and then listening to the answers you can drastically improve your ‘prospect-to-customer’ conversion rate.
Provide solutions.
Understanding the specific concerns of your target customers is the missing piece of information you must have to offer solutions to their problems. It's your job to determine what those problems are. Listen. Listen. Listen… it pays.
Partner up.
Don't miss the often overlooked opportunity to partner with other businesses. In doing so, you'll provide better service to your existing customers, enlarge your sphere of influence, and bring in new customers at the same time. By partnering with other companies you exponentially grow your sphere of influence, with a lot less energy. This allows you to offer more services to your customers and grow your business at the same time.
Cynthia Trevino can be contacted by email at [email protected]. Contact Terry Feike by email at [email protected].
What business professionals need to do is get back to the original, traditional, two-step basics which are:
Find out exactly where you stand with your customers. Meaning, find out how much they like doing business with you?
Understand everything there is to know about your customers and make them feel important.
Customers are the foundation and lifeblood of your business. It takes time and commitment to understand what's on their minds, what new problems they are having and how you can help. In other words, it takes time to build solid customer relationships.
So, how do you go about doing this?
1. Ask your customers the single most important question a business owner can ask a customer: Would you recommend our company to others?
The answer to this question will tell you the most about how you're doing in your customers' eyes. Only delighted customers are willing to recommend your products and services to family and friends. If they say "Yes! I would recommend you,"
2. Ask them for a referral.
The best sources of new customers are referrals from happy, existing customers. Why? Well, referrals from happy customers are free! All you have to do is delight your current customers with great products and services.
3. Survey your customers about what they like and don’t like about doing business with you.
Find out how they like your products, the buying process, packaging, hours of business, everything. Then, and here's the hard part, make the necessary changes in your business based on your customers' feedback. We're so busy providing day-to-day service that we sometimes lose touch with how our customers actually feel about us. After you've learned what they like and don't like, make improvements in your business. Customers like it when they see changes made as a result of their feedback.
4. Identify your most loyal customers and put them to work for you!
Give these loyal customers special value coupons that are good for their friends and associates. Be sure to make it easy for your loyal customers to send you referrals.
5. Create a dialogue with prospects to help them become customers, clients.
Successful marketing is a two-way communication. Old, over-used tactics are not effective; just ask your friends how many people 'skip/fast forward' through television or radio commercials. By asking the right questions and then listening to the answers you can drastically improve your ‘prospect-to-customer’ conversion rate.
Provide solutions.
Understanding the specific concerns of your target customers is the missing piece of information you must have to offer solutions to their problems. It's your job to determine what those problems are. Listen. Listen. Listen… it pays.
Partner up.
Don't miss the often overlooked opportunity to partner with other businesses. In doing so, you'll provide better service to your existing customers, enlarge your sphere of influence, and bring in new customers at the same time. By partnering with other companies you exponentially grow your sphere of influence, with a lot less energy. This allows you to offer more services to your customers and grow your business at the same time.
Cynthia Trevino can be contacted by email at [email protected]. Contact Terry Feike by email at [email protected].