| |
| |
|
Sales Information |
|
|
|
How to Build A Steady Stream of Customers--Step One
The success of a small business depends upon a steady stream of good customers. To build that stream of customer a business owner must examine five critical points in their business operations. This is the first in a series of five articles that examines those critical points. Target Your Customers---The Key to Your Success The heart of every small business is getting a steady stream of good customers. Other things can be less than perfect with your business, but without a steady stream of good customers, your business will eventually die. If you worry about getting more customers to your business, you are not alone. The stress and worry of getting enough good customers is the number one reason small business owners lose sleep. (As a small business owner, you already feel this!) The surest way to move your business to the next level is to focus on "who" is your customer. Who is going to open their wallets to buy your product or services? I know you have heard this before and you may even be tempted to stop reading this article. Do not stop! If you make a mistake about your target population or if you don't fully understand the critical details about your target population, you are building your business on sand. No amount of product quality; no amount of customer service; no amount of sale skills can overcome the wrong target population for your business. They will not buy because they are the wrong customers. If you need more evidence, look at large corporations. They spend millions of dollars doing market research, creating focus groups, testing their markets and profiling potential customers. They do this before they begin doing product development or before they roll out a new product or service. They are successful because they understand and know their target customers. Lack of Money and Time! If you have at least read this far, I want to tell you there are solutions to the critical area of your target customers. The solutions don't involve the type of money or time the large corporations spend on market research. Time and money are precious resources to the small business owner. The following is an easy and fun exercise you can use to get a better understanding of the right customers for your business. Complete the exercise. Then each week for a month review and add more details to your results. Then review your results the first day of each of the month to confirm they are still valid. This will not require a lot of time. It will not require any money. It will require you to put on your thinking cap and be creative. The reward will be a stronger foundation for your future business. Profiling Exercise You have heard about racial profiling, criminal profiling, and terrorist profiling. I want you to have some fun and create a customer profile for your business. If you were an FBI agent, how would you profile the typical customer that fits your business? Here are some of the characteristics you must include in your profile: Demographics
Buying habits
Buying motivations
Follow up services
To help obtain the answers to these questions, think about your last ten customers, or ten of your best customers. If you want to add real depth to your answers, call up five of your best customers and ask them the question directly. Tell them you are trying to improve your business and you need their help. Give them some small token of your appreciation for helping you with this task. Let them help shape your business! They will be honored that you asked for their help. If you have other employees or sales persons in your business, ask them to complete the same exercise and put together a profile of your typical customer. There are level and levels of details to these profiling questions. That is why you periodically need to come back to the same questions and add more details. Conclusion To move your business forward, you must have a through knowledge of your buying customers. Completing the profiling exercise of your best typical customer is a fun and easy way to establish a solid foundation for the next stage of your business. For a longer, free report on targeting your customers, send an email to al@hanzal.com with the subject "Free Report on Targeting Your Customers." About The Author Al Hanzal helps small business owners make more profits by showing them how to create a steady stream of customers.
MORE RESOURCES:
Sales - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Get The Help You Need With Fund Raising Ideas There are many fund raising ideas on the market today for anyone that is looking for them. Fund raising ideas are easy to come up with and are very successful in some cases. The Secrets Behind Hypnotic Selling Hypnosis has been a taboo word for far too long. And many people see it in a mystical light. Selling for Beginners Speak to almost any self employed professional and most of them will say that they love their job but don't care much for selling their services. Here's some advice to help all those reluctant professionals who need to sell to clients. Do You Want to Know the 8 Tips to Selling More Products? So often sales men and woman are the very people that prevent themselves from obtaining additional sales and increasing their commissions. It doesn't matter if it's counter sales or door-to-door. Three Ways to Get More Referrals When you are in the business of sales, among the many key ingredients to your success is receiving referrals from as many sources as possible.Wouldn't it be nice if every morning you walked into your office and had a referral sitting there waiting for you on your desk?Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, but here are few suggestions that should help steer some referrals your way. Sales People have an advantage as entrepreneurs Zig Ziglar use to say in seminars and on tapes that nothing happens until someone sells something. I had never really understood how absolutely true that was until I got into franchising and saw how one franchise sale could add jobs to the economy, provide great service to a community and change the quality of life for the franchisee and their family. How to Sell High Tech Solutions Many companies are looking to improve upon the speed, security, and accessibility of business technologies, especially satellite and broadband connections to the internet. While customers are becoming more savvy, many don't speak 'tech-ese,' and they still are baffled by terms such as routers, IPSEC, T-1s, WIFI, and broadband. Handling Objections HANDLING OBJECTIONSSales presentation is not always going to be plain sailing. You must expect objections. Leave a Better Voice Mail Message Yesterday I received a call from a financial planner named Richard doing a cold call. My policy is to always return those calls which help me to understand why I would personally benefit from doing business with a sales person. Great Telephone Skills Having good telephone skills is crucial as the call may be the catalyst for a prospective sale or provide vital counseling for a member of public. However, since both parties may not see each other face-to-face, a telephone conversation may not lead to favourable results; on the flip side, it may lead to unintended misunderstanding. How To Take The Right Steps To Increase Your Selling Results Steps - it is unrealistic for most salespeople to expect to make a sale in a single step. Most sales don't end after a single phone call. Another Warm Lead Saturday morning, I sat in my pajamas, sipping strong, black coffee and petting Ms. Kitty Cat. Talking To A Prospect As If To A Friend While working with a new coaching client, I asked to hear her sound bite. Everyone needs a good sound bite. How To Get Rich Giving Away Something Free The best of all worlds is to have a product you can give away free and still make money. That world exists. What is Lead Generation? Lead Generation is vital to all businesses. All companies try to attract new customers, and this is a kind of lead generation. Winning Sales Proposals Your proposal is selling for you when you're not there, so it must reflect your standards of professionalism.Like it or not, sales proposals are a tool of the trade, and writing a well-crafted proposal can mean the difference between winning and losing a client's business, especially if you are selling to major accounts. Top 10 Ways to Sell your Product or Service While you Sleep - Part 2 Part one of this article is available at www.bookcoaching. Lock, Stock, and Barrel! The other night I was watching a classic western from 1969, Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West". There's a scene in this movie where an auction is being held for the widow Jill's land holdings. How to Set Appointments The Importance of setting appointments is crucial to running a business. They are the key to a successful business. Follow the Long Yellow Copy: Do Long Scrolling Sales Letters Work? Have you ever sat through a movie and got to the point when you counted the minutes till its ending? Unfortunately, you can't speed it up or leave it for another show (although, some people do try switching movies). When long Web copy leaves your eyes glazing in that same way, what do you do?As you read a long, scrolling sales pitch do you read it and make the buy? Read it and lose interest? Click away? Skim it and do nothing?Welcome to salesmanship in print.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
