How much business did you lose today?

Do your customers know what you do?

Have you ever heard one of them say “I didn’t know you did that” or “wow I wish I would have known you did that I just had it done by someone else.”

It’s hard to hear that.

Why does it happen?

Two reasons mostly:

1. You haven’t clearly communicated to your customers what you do
2. You don’t consistently communicate to you customers what you do

We’re all busy, and I completely understand that, but we need to be vigilant in our dialogue with customers. New customers are hard to find and very expensive to win over. Your current customers can be one of your greatest sources of new sales.  They already know who you are, they already like you (hopefully) and they have had a good experience with you (again, hopefully).

Unfortunately most small business owners focus most of their time and money on new customer acquisition, while they’re missing opportunities right in front of them.

My good friend and colleague Neil Thornton says “you need to re-connect with your customers on a regular basis.” He is bang on.

While you do need to find new customers, you also need to focus on the ones you have and build your business with them. This is called increasing your share of customer.

How to determine share of customer:

1. Estimate what you believe a customer would spend on your category in a single year?
2. Of that total, how much do you estimate you are getting?

That’s your share of customer.  This number will be different for different types of customers, but you’ll quickly see that you’re missing opportunities to increase sales.

To ensure my clients customers know what they do I use something called a “Drip campaign”. This is where you target specific customers for mini campaigns and keep your message in front of them in a consistent manner.

To try your own drip campaign follow these steps:

1. Who do you want to target? If you sell clothing perhaps you target past customers that have never purchased a coat from you.
2. What tactic do you want to use? Does this audience respond well to email? Maybe a postcard or a phone call.
3. What is your offer? How will you persuade them to take action? Perhaps a sale or a coupon or a bundled offer.
4. What is the frequency of this campaign?
5. How will you measure success?

A drip campaign can be an inexpensive way to generate new sales from existing customers. If you get this working properly, then you can add in a new customer acquisition program.

Clarity

When I’m designing a communications piece for a client, whether it be in print, audio, video or the web, I’m always searching for clarity. I want to be sure I am clear about what the prospects pain is. I want my message to clear and persuasive and I want it to be clear to the prospect.

Finding clarity is what my client hire me for, and it’s what makes great marketing. The pursuit of clarity is a journey that usually ends up with increased sales and a better overall customer experience.

So how do you find clarity?  It’s not easy, nor should it be.

I focus on three things:
1. The prospective customer
2. The competition
3. My client’s capabilities

From here I work to gain insight into how the prospect derives value and what their buying process is. I look at how the competition is positioned and what they’re dominate at. And lastly I take an unbiased view of my client’s business and uncover how they can best compete.

If you spend time on this first, you’ll find it much easier to develop creative that works.

How to give clients a compelling reason to buy from you

In a recent meeting with a colleague we were discussing cold calling and if it worked.  We also discussed what was better, cold calling on the phone or email.

In the end, the only conclusion I can say for certain is that if you don’t have a compelling reason for the person on the other end of the phone or email to talk to you, it’s a waste of time.

With a compelling reason you speak about something your prospect finds important and relevant to their lives or current situation.

For example, if you were to call a car dealer in the hope of securing a meeting to discuss the possibility of you providing services to them, how would the call go?

It could go like this – “Hello, my name is Larry, I own Trigger Marketing, and I’m calling you because we offer the best solutions for small business owners to improve their conversion of prospects to customers….. Click!

The prospect would hang up in 5 seconds or less. No one cares about me, no one cares about what I do.  They only care about themselves and making their lives better.

A better cold call might go like this:

Hi, my name is Larry Anderson, I own Trigger Marketing. We work with small businesses throughout Niagara helping them increase sales and reduce wasted spending.

I’m calling because there is a great opportunity to accelerate the growth of your company.

By dividing your current customers into groups with similar profiles, we may be able to help you increase the amount your customers spend as well as increase the number of times they buy from you.

We’ve helped dozens of other Niagara companies do the same.

Would you be available next Tuesday at 10am to discuss this?

Now, this is by no means the perfect script, but it speaks to the customer and benefits they may achieve.  What it really comes down to is, if you connect with the pain the prospect is feeling, they will let your message in.

Help your community

The last law, #10 is helping your community.

When times are tough – be helpful. Lend a hand to other business owners that need help, help local charities in your community. Help your customers and help your staff.

People will remember this and if you ever need help, they’ll be there for you.

Utilize Online Tools

There is a tone of discussion about social media and online technology. Most of what I have read is very pro for these new tools.

I enjoy some of these tools as well. I have a facebook page, you’re reading my blog and I’ve built micro-sites for some of my clients.  I’ve had a web site since I started my business and I send out a monthly email newsletter, but ultimately, these are just tools, they are only as good as they are relevant to your audience.

The nice thing about many of these new online tools is that they are free or low cost, but you still need to make sure your message is relevant to who you’re trying to attract.

The same rules of marketing apply to these new tools. Speak to the reader, be relevant and have a compelling offer.

My advice to you is this; you need to have an online presence. Everyday more and more consumers are looking at a company first online before they invest their time to physically visit you. Also online tools are a great way to deliver information in a very cost effective manner, but don’t get caught up in the hype.  Pay attention to what the tools are doing for your business and how they help you communicate with your target customers.

It’s all about who you’re trying to reach and how they like to be communicated with. You’ll probably need a mix of online, social, traditional and direct marketing tools to make a real impact with your audience.