In our report, the second top issue facing Ontario’s businesses is business development, or finding new customers.

The owners we spoke with said:

Of the companies that were doing the best, we found that they had one major thing in common.  They had everyone in the business involved in creating and executing the vision of the company.  It wasn’t a top down mentality. It was circular – it came from everyone.

This made a huge difference in the way people felt about the company. They felt like their contributions mattered.  They mattered more than just doing their jobs, they felt part of the big picture and because they were part of it’s creation, they felt compelled and responsible to see that vision come to life.

This type of culture is very attractive to great people.  They thrive in this environment and usually over achieve.

And the best part is, its easy to d.  It doesn’t cost anything to get your people involved and contributing.

When the recession hit, the companies that had been already doing this, we’re in a good position and didn’t feel the crush nearly as much.  The firms we spoke with that didn’t have this in place, but embraced it early on also came out of the recession in good shape.  However, some of the companies we spoke with waited too long and are still trying to recover.

So at the end of the day the moral to story is, get all of your people involved in the creation and execution of your corporate vision.  People are what gives a company it’s life, not your products and services.  When you engage your staff and have real and open dialogue and let them feel part of where the company is going they will surprise you and you’re company will be that much better for it. And great people will find you irresistible.

The report is free and can be found here.

We were also interviewed for a TV show that you can see here.

Over the next few days I’ll dive into each of the five issues in more detail. But the biggest revelation was not what the 5 issues were, rather that they are common to all companies no matter what your size or industry, and no matter what the economy is doing and that if you get these right, it takes care of almost everything else.

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
-  Earl Nightingale

Next I asked “do you know the top 20% of your customers?”, again the answer was no.

We tend to spend most of our time and money trying to find new customers. This can be an expensive and time devouring endeavour.  It can take up to 12 contacts to get a prospects attention.

I suggest you take a look at the customers you already have first.  They can be a great source of additional sales.

The first step is to categorize them.  I suggest a simple segmentation of A/B/C.

“A” customers are your best customers. They usually account for about 20% of your customers, but they generate about 70-80% of your revenue
“B” customers represent about 60% of your customers and they account for about 15-20% of revenue.
“C” customers represent about 20% of your customers and probably less than 5% of your revenue. They are also more than likely your least profitable. They also tend to complain the most and eat up a lot of time

The next step is to ensure that everyone in the company knows who your “A” customers are.  Losing one of these customers could be worth 10 of your B & C customers and could even mean layoffs.

Some of your B accounts have potential. Hidden amongst them are A’s in waiting.  You need to nurture them and grow them into A’s. But be careful, because there are also some B’s that are just C’s in disguise.

“C” accounts can be troublesome.  Some of them may even be costing you money.  Do a careful analysis of each C account because you might have to fire a few.

I suggest you do an analysis of your accounts quarterly.  Establish a criteria for what is an “A” account, what is a “B” and “C”.  Ensure your people know this as well.

Finding new customers is always a big part of growing a business, but we have to remember to keep and grow the ones we’ve already worked so hard to get.

I know what you’re thinking; engineers can’t sell.

Well you’re wrong, they can…sort of.

You see they are extremely smart and passionate about what they do. Plus they are really good at what they do.  That’s the problem.  They’re too focused on themselves.  They’re so excited about their ability to help their customers that they talk about it.  But what the customer really wants to talk about is themselves.

So here is a sales tip. When you are prospecting, do everything in your power to not talk about your products or services.  That’s right I said it.  Don’t talk about what you do.  Talk about the results of what you do.

Remember, people don’t by the drill bit, they buy the holes.  People don’t buy engineering services, they buy what those services do.

Their customer didn’t wake up this morning and say “boy I need some engineering services”.

Here’s another tip.  To help you start off the conversation, focus on what you believe your prospects top 3 issues are.  You could say something like “when you’re working on (project type) we’ve found that these three issues typically come up (name three issues). What affect are these having on your current work?”

This does a few things:

1. It keeps the focus on the prospect
2. It shows you understand their business
3. It shows you’ve done this kind of work before
4. It qualifies the prospect (If they say that these issues don’t come up, you can follow-up with “Ok, what kind of issues do come up?”)

I’m glad you’re passionate about what you do. So is your prospect. After all selling is the transference of confidence.  But you need to build trust and rapport before you’ve earned the right to talk about you.

So try this technique and see what kind of difference it can make.

I truly believe this.

There are so many boring, same old, me too companies out there, that by simply raising your game just a little bit will cause your market to notice you.

We tend to settle for good enough.  ”Hey I just want to pay my bills”. “I can’t afford to deliver special services”. “My margins are tight as they are, I have to run lean and mean”.  I hear these excuses among others a lot.

I’m not talking about coming up with some new great service or product. I’m talking about what can you do with the people and resources you have now to make your customer’s experience better?

When was the last time you looked at your business the way a customer does?  The answer is probably never.  Try it, if you can’t do it yourself, have some people you trust mystery shop you and really listen to what they say.

Customer service is so average in most businesses that this is an easy way to stand out.

Saying thank you goes farther than you’d think.  Think about the last time you shopped somewhere what would you have done if the manager or owner came up to you and said “I wanted to thank you for shopping with us. I know you have a lot of other choices, but you decided to give us your business and we really appreciate it”.  This is a lot better than “have a nice day”. A real and sincere thank you will blow people away.

So don’t let today go by without taking a fresh look at your business. You’ll easily find ways to make the experience better and it probably won’t cost a dime.

As business owners/managers our job in to find and keep customers. That’s why our companies exist.  But you can’t get a new customer if they don’t know you exist.  So you need to let them know about you, and how do you do that?  Traditionally you interrupted them.  You purchase advertising of some kind or cold called and said “hello, we’re (insert company name), we specialize in (insert your specialty) and we can help you.  Well guess what, there are 4,999 other companies doing the same thing to your potential customer everyday.

How many of those 5,000 messages, how many do you think your potential customer remembers, or even more important; acts on?

The answer is close to zero.  How many billboards do you remember seeing on the way to work today?  How many radio commercials?

A person only takes action to change something when what they’re currently using no longer works.  So before someone will pay attention to you, they first have to be interested.  They have to have a pain.

So this means you can’t talk about you.  You can’t talk about your products or services either.  Don’t talk about your customer satisfaction awards, your longevity, your market leadership or how much you spend on R&D.  NO ONE CARES!!!

You need to talk about one thing.  PAIN.  The people in the marketplace that have that pain will pay attention to your message, everyone else will ignore it.  As human beings we block out information that is not relevant to our current situation, but we let in what is.  Here’s a test.  Have you purchased a car recently?  I bet that before you became interested in buying a new car you didn’t really notice anything about that car – from advertising to how many of them are on the road. But once you were interested you started seeing that car everywhere as well as their advertising.  Your brain lets in what’s relevant and blocks out the rest.

This is main reason you need to market your company everyday, On any given day only a small percentage of the market will be interested in your message. Not to complicate things, but there are also two other factors at work: Urgency and Risk.

While someone may be interested in your message they will only take action if they have urgency.  If they do have urgency, they still need to trust (RISK) that you can deliver.

So here is a simple formula for talking to potential customers:

1. Talk about their pain (Interest)
2. Identify the consequences of what the pain can lead to (Urgency)
3. Tell what happens when the pain is removed (no product pitch – talk results) (Urgency)
4. Let others tell how great you are (testimonials) (Risk)
5. Offer a no risk opportunity to learn more (Risk)

One last tip.  Less is more. Keep your message simple and get to the point.

My definition is different. I believe your brand is the sum total of your actions – good and bad.  Everything you do is your brand. And at the end of the day your brand will never be just one thing. And your brand is not 100% within your control.

Your actions are received by your customers. They in turn “perceive” you based on their experiences, both current and past, good and bad.

Your brand is fluid. It changes with each customer.

Your job is to build in consistency to that experience. What kind of experiences do you want your customers to have?  How many touch points do you have with your customers?  Are you delivering a consistent experience at each one?

When I hear a company say “we’re going to re-brand” or “we’re re-branding right now”, I don’t understand that.  In order to rebrand they need to first understand what their brand means in the mind of their customers.  Next they have to drastically alter everything they do to create a new perception with their customers.  Not easy.

My advice is to stop focusing on branding, and instead focus on experience.  Give your customers a reason to want to come back. Give them a reason to want to talk about you in a positive light. Give them a reason to want to use you over your competitor. It’s all about creating the best experience you can on a consistent basis.  Don’t come out of the gate guns-a-blazing and then fizzle out.  Consistency is the key.

Remember the only reason you have a business is to serve customers. Anything else is a hobby.

Reason #1: A deficiency of knowledge – you don’t know what to do
Reason #2: A deficiency of execution – you don’t do what you know you should do

That’s it.

This eliminates 99% of excuses.  You either didn’t know what to do, or you didn’t do what you knew you should do.

The sad thing is I hear things like this every day:

“I didn’t have time”
“I was too busy”
“I thought someone else was taking care of it”
“I was waiting to see what was happening in the market”
“I (insert excuse here)”

I’m not saying making mistakes are a bad thing. Some of the greatest learning experiences I’ve ever had were the result of me making a mistake. I’m talking about deliberate failure.  When you don’t know what to do, you will either make it up or do nothing.  I can almost live with that. But when you know what to do and you don’t do it, that’s unacceptable.

I encourage my clients to let their employees make mistakes, but I tell them to fire people who don’t keep their word.

The same is true of your customers. They will usually forgive you of a mistake that was done honestly. But not doing what you said you would do, or that you know you should have done is unforgivable. But they don’t usually make you fell bad about it, they just leave and you never see them again.

So, look at your business.  Take a step back and really look at your business.  Are you making mistakes or are you making excuses?