Category: Small Business

๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ข๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐Ÿฑ ๐—–๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜€

๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ข๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐Ÿฑ ๐—–๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜€

๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ข๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐Ÿฑ ๐—–๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—˜๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—ฆ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น ๐—•๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ข๐˜„๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—™๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€

As a small business owner, you will face several challenges daily. From attracting and retaining customers to managing cash flow, these issues can be challenging to overcome. However, by taking the time to understand the most common challenges small businesses face, you can put yourself in a better position to succeed.

Try these helpful techniques:

1. Lack of capital. Starting a small business can be a daunting task, especially if you donโ€™t have a lot of capital. However, there are several ways to overcome this challenge and get your business up and running.

One option is to start by selling products or services online. You can reach a wider audience without having to make a significant investment in a physical space.

Another option is to start by offering consulting services or teaching classes. Offering additional services can help generate income while building up your client base and perfecting your product or service.

Finally, tap into your network of family and friends. They may provide financial support or connect you with other resources that can help you get started.

2. Time constraints. As a small business owner, you are likely to wear many hats and have multiple responsibilities. However, there are several ways that you can overcome this challenge.

One way is to set aside specific times each day or week to work on your business. It will help you stay focused and on track.

Another way is to delegate tasks to employees or contractors to free up your time to focus on the most critical aspects of your business.

Finally, create effective time-management systems to boost

productivity and reduce burnout. For example, use the Pomodoro Technique to manage your time effectively.

The Pomodoro technique can help you if you want to be more productive. The method is simple: you work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. After four of these sessions, you take a longer break of 20-30 minutes.

3. Attracting and keeping customers/clients. Acquiring new customers is essential, but many small businesses find attracting and keeping new customers challenging.

One way to overcome this challenge is to offer a unique product or service to help you stand out from the competition and attract new customers. Build your special offer by creating a compelling offer using the conversion equation. 

Another way to overcome this challenge is to provide excellent customer service to build customer loyalty and keep them coming back for more. To improve customer service, provide staff training and conduct regular customer service assessments.

Finally, market your business effectively. You will need to create a detailed marketing plan and budget. Allocate enough resources to marketing to reach your target audience.

4. Managing cash flow. One of the most important aspects of running a small business is managing cash flow effectively. Often companies that experience seasonal fluctuations face this problem.

Understand your businessโ€™s financial situation and develop a realistic

budget. Ensure that you have access to emergency funding in case of unexpected expenses by building business credit using your EIN.

Create a strict budget and stick to it to control your spending and avoid overspending. Monitor your cash flow regularly and make adjustments to your budget as needed.

Finally, invoice promptly and collect payments on time to improve your cash flow and keep your business afloat.

5. Competition. Small businesses often face stiff competition from larger firms. While this can be a challenge, there are several ways to overcome it.

Identify your unique selling proposition. Your USP is what sets your business apart from the competition. Once you know your USP, highlight it in your marketing and promotional materials. Ensure that you provide quality products and services to help you attract and keep customers. Consider implementing quality control measures to improve and monitor the quality of your products.

Finally, stay up to date with industry trends to help you expect changes in the market and adjust your business accordingly by hosting focus groups.

Small business owners face many challenges, but they can overcome them with some planning and effort. The key is to identify the challenges, develop a plan to address them, and take action. With perseverance and dedication, any small business owner can succeed.

๐Ÿฑ ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฆ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ณ๐˜† ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ข๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ช๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—–๐˜‚๐˜๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ข๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—–๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†

๐Ÿฑ ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฆ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ณ๐˜† ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ข๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ช๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—–๐˜‚๐˜๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ข๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—–๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†

Many people think that creativity and organization are mutually exclusive. You either have a messy desk and a cluttered home or an office that’s a flurry of productivity. But the truth is, there are ways to simplify your life without cutting out creativity.

The key is getting creative with managing devices, documents, project files, and other clutter in your life.

There are many steps you can take to simplify your organization.

For example, you can scan important documents to keep safe and store them digitally. If you’re working on a project, create a shared folder or file that everyone involved in the project can contribute. If you’re working from home, use a project management app like Asana to help keep your projects on track without feeling too cluttered.

Try these tips for simplifying your organization without cutting out creativity:

1. Avoid taking on more than you can handle. It’s natural to want to keep busy and have a lot of projects going at once. But you’ll only succeed if you can manage your time effectively.

โ— Save time by creating a timeline for each project and focusing on the relevant tasks of that project.

โ— If you’re switching between multiple projects, prioritize them so that you’re working on the most important one at any given time.

2. Don’t marry your great ideas. You may have unique ideas. But making those ideas happen won’t happen if you don’t manage the details first. Also, you can’t expect to fulfill any of your thoughts if you keep switching between them.

โ— Try scheduling a few hours of your day to focus on one thing. If you have more than one project going on, schedule blocks of time for each project, so you can focus on getting it done and meeting your goals.

3. Arrange your to-do list. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the number of projects and tasks you have. By consolidating your lists into one place, you make it easier to stay organized.

โ— If you plan on creating a digital file that everyone involved in the project can edit, make a template to gather all of your needed information and work together on it.

โ— Create a central document with all your tasks for different projects arranged logically. This type of document helps you see each project from a bird’s eye view and identify any issues that might arise.

4. Break your tasks further down into weekly items. To further simplify your organization, break down each project into weekly deadlines. Breaking down tasks gives you a strong sense of what’s coming up and what’s over. It also helps you target specific tasks and ensure that theyโ€™re completed on time.

โ— Check in with yourself at the beginning of the week. Try to see how much work is left and how much time is left.

โ— Remember to stay realistic. Don’t expect to go from 0 to 100 overnight. It takes time to achieve your goals, so adjust your timeline accordingly based on the work that’s left.

5. Make the most of your greatest asset. There’s no way around knowing that time is one of our greatest assets. It’s the only thing that we can’t get back. So, use it wisely.

โ— Try not to overschedule yourself, or you’ll find that you’re busier than ever with little to show for your efforts. Also, remember that every decision you make wastes a small part of your time.

โ— The more decisions you have in a day, the less time is left for actual work. So, try to avoid micro-decisions that don’t rely on logic and streamline your daily task list.

If you’ve found yourself struggling with organizing your tasks while maintaining your creativity, this guide may help you simplify your system. But they’re not enough to guarantee success. The one thing that all of these ideas have in common: time management.

Time management is the lynchpin for any productivity-related endeavor. If you’re too busy to manage your time correctly, then things slip through the cracks – no matter how organized you are otherwise. So, if you hope to achieve new heights of organization, remember that time management is critical – first and foremost!

#skills #work #productivity

5 Tips For Retaining Your Staff During Difficult Times

5 Tips For Retaining Your Staff During Difficult Times

Whether youโ€™re a team leader, manager, or business owner, your team is one of the most valuable assets your company has.

Without dedicated members of staff, you wouldnโ€™t be able to complete necessary projects, inspire your customers, drive sales, or build your brand presence.

Unfortunately, many companies spend so much time focusing on their customers and profit margins that they forget to retain and engage their staff. Around 3 million Americans quit their job each month in search of better opportunities. 

Now that remote work solutions are making it easier for staff to find new roles anywhere, itโ€™s even harder to convince your people that they should stay with you. 

With difficult times on the horizon for most businesses, here are some of the top strategies you can use to retain your employees and team members. 

Get Salary and Benefits Right

Although thereโ€™s a lot more to having a happy workforce than offering them the right salary, it pays to provide a decent wage. Most of the talented team members that are looking for jobs right now know how much their skills are worth. If youโ€™re not willing to pay your employees what theyโ€™re worth, theyโ€™ll find another company that is.

Around 56% of employees say that healthcare and insurance concerns also keep them at their job. If you canโ€™t offer the most competitive salary in your area, maybe you can make the job more appealing by offering additional benefits.

Everything from better flexible working options to access to private healthcare can boost your chances of getting and keeping the talent you need. 

Listen To Your Team Members

The easiest way to ensure that youโ€™re going to keep staff members around is to give them a voice and listen to what they have to say. Employees are more likely to feel invested in a business that takes their opinions and insights seriously. 

With that in mind, ensure that your company culture encourages feedback and regular discussions between members of staff. If your employees arenโ€™t happy with the way youโ€™re currently running things, give them the opportunity to make suggestions about things they might like to change. 

Listening to your team members, even if that just means giving them a way to give anonymous feedback to your leaders, could mean that you become aware of significant issues much faster. This way, you can fix issues before they grow too large. 

Create Leaders, not Bosses

Everyone dreams of being the boss at their company. However, the reality is that it means a lot more to become a memorable leader. The unfortunate truth is that most of the employees in the current landscape donโ€™t leave their business at all โ€“ they leave their manager. 

The people in your team responsible for leading others should have all the characteristics of an inspirational and motivational leader.

Look for people who can handle challenges calmly and think outside of the box.

Provide your leaders with training that will help them to manage positive and negative feedback and support their teams in achieving their goals.

A good leader doesnโ€™t just dump the responsibility for mistakes onto staff members and scream at people until work gets done. Genuinely incredible leaders are the people that keep the team moving forward, even in times of trouble. 

Invest in Your Employeesโ€™ Future

If youโ€™re not going to invest in your employees, why should they invest their time in your company? How can you invest in making your staff members more skilled in their roles? 

Most team members want to see a future for themselves in your business, which means that they need to continue developing their knowledge and talents. Offering training and educational opportunities is a great way to ensure that your staff members feel as though theyโ€™re moving consistently in the right direction.

You can even build mentorship programs so that employees can teach each other. 

If youโ€™re not sure where to get started when it comes to offering training opportunities, try having one-to-one meetings with your staff. This could be a great way to develop individual plans for each of your team members. 

Make Them Proud to Work for You

Finally, weโ€™re living in an age where employees donโ€™t just want a great salary and lots of benefits from the ideal job. Your team members want to feel like theyโ€™re working for a company thatโ€™s making a positive difference in the world.

In todayโ€™s activism-fueled environment, youโ€™re either part of the problem, or part of the solution.

Find out what your team members are passionate about and get involved. This could mean that you create a new green living strategy for your business where you can cut down on your carbon emissions. Another option involves getting involved with local charities and non-profits or investing in your local community.

The more you show your employees that you care about more than just money, the more theyโ€™ll feel happy working with you, and the more likely it is that theyโ€™ll stay with you for the long term.

Quick Networking Tips for Entrepreneurs Short on Time

Quick Networking Tips for Entrepreneurs Short on Time

Networking is one of the most valuable things you can do as a business owner.

Studies suggest that networking at events can gain companies up to 20% of their new customers, and a networking strategy can also be the key to finding new investors and partners that will help to grow your business.

Unfortunately, it isnโ€™t always easy to network successfully.

Not only do you have to get used to the awkward initial introduction phase when youโ€™re trying to make connections with others, but youโ€™ve got some serious time constraints to worry about too.

Building connections takes time. But, as every entrepreneur knows, time is money. So how do you ensure that youโ€™re still working on your networking strategy when youโ€™re strapped for time?

Try these strategies…

Make It a Daily Habit

The more you practice networking as a daily habit, the more naturally it will fit into your day.

Rather than setting aside an hour a week where you can go and talk to people who could help your business to grow, you use five minutes each day. Start the morning by sending emails to others online and connecting with your peers on social media.

Put phone calls with potential partners and investors into your calendar and work through them every time youโ€™re stuck in traffic or waiting for something else to happen.

If networking is as much of a habit as brushing your teeth or your hair, then it starts to feel more natural.

Whatโ€™s more, when networking becomes a habit, it also emerges as something that you force yourself to make time for. Youโ€™re less likely to make excuses that you donโ€™t have a moment to spare.

Leverage New Connections

Networking isnโ€™t just about building new relationships.

Thereโ€™s a good chance that you already have some quality people in your existing network who could help to introduce you to important figures in your space. A great place to start building your network is in the workplace.

Get to know your teams and learn about their background. Grab lunches with staff when you have the opportunity and look for chances to get to know new people through them too. You might discover that your internal network has a lot more value to offer than you originally thought.

Getting to know your team could also reveal that certain employees have hidden talents that you could be utilizing better in your business.

Use Existing Activities

If you already take part in social activities from time to time, why not use those as part of your networking strategy? If you regularly volunteer at non-profit organizations, then you can strike up conversations with people in this environment.

Even if you donโ€™t gain any valuable connections, making the time to connect with others and practice your networking skills will benefit you in the long term. You can chat everywhere — from your gym to your laundry place.

Getting practice into your day where you can work on your ability to build emotional links to others is a lot more valuable than most people realize.

Schedule Important Events in Advance

If you do want to make time for a specific in-person networking event, then itโ€™s important to prepare well in advance. Chances are that you wonโ€™t be able to attend most events at the last minute, but you can go to the important ones by staying organized.

To help improve your chances of regularly networking, attempt to attend at least one each month โ€“ even if itโ€™s an online event. Make a list of the events that you most want to attend and add them to your calendar, so you have plenty of time to prepare.

Be selective about the kind of events you choose. Ideally, youโ€™ll want to visit an environment where you can reach people who are going to benefit you and your business.

Use Social Media

Finally, social media is one of the most popular and convenient ways to network these days.

Make a little time each day to go through your LinkedIn connections and reach out to those who might be valuable to your social circle. The key to success with social media networking is ensuring that you donโ€™t let it eat up too much of your day.

Set a specific amount of time aside so you can avoid getting distracted for too long. If you have multiple social accounts, consider consolidating them with a social media marketing tool, so you can share content more easily and attract potential connections to you.

Looking Forward

Networking is vitally important for your success and that of your business. Keep these tips in mind to enable you to perform critical networking activities without it taking time away from the rest of your business.

About the author:

Michelle Salinas is a well-versed Consultant with 20 years of experience in client relations, sales, marketing, and project management.

She helps c-level executives and business owners find $100,000 or more of additional revenue in their company without having to spend extra dollars on marketing or advertising. She has found $10 million dollars of additional revenue in the businesses she has assessed.

Download her book at https://TheDigitalEdgeInc.com/book

Follow her on social media at https://MichelleSalinas.co

#instabiz #success #studies

Are You Aiding & Abetting E-Myths?

Are You Aiding & Abetting E-Myths?

We are going to embark upon a journey through the world of e-myths and debunk them to help you avoid falling into the e-myth trap.

First, letโ€™s take a minute to talk about what an e-myth is. An entrepreneurial myth, or e-myth, is an assumption that anyone can succeed at business with:

  • Desire
  • Some capital
  • Projected a targeted profit

This sounds great, but it just not realistic. Think of starting a business as a marathon. Sure, everyone starts out of the gate at record pace, but after a few miles people start slowing and some drop out entirely. Building a successful business takes stamina and agility.

The reality is that there are many different facets to a successful business and none of them can be ignored if you plan to find success.

Letโ€™s take a minute to talk about entrepreneurial seizure. This defines the roller coaster of emotions that comes with starting, nurturing and the potential failure of a business.

The emotions that occur, in order, are:

  • Exhilaration
  • Exhaustion
  • Despair
  • Sense of self-loss

This is usually cause by the e-myths and assumptions we talked about. You can get your hopes so high on instant success that even the smallest lag and you are sent into an emotional tailspin. This is also brought on by the stark realization that you canโ€™t do it all and will need help in the areas where you donโ€™t have the knowledge. Now, faced with limited choices you may feel like you need to back out and hide, but donโ€™t do this. Use our GUIDED TOUR to get the business coaching you need to avoid feeling overwhelmed and defeated.

 

๐Ÿ”บ READY TO TAKE A TEST DRIVE?

Download my FREE e-book โ€œThe Hidden Profitsโ€ at https://MichelleSalinas.com

Attend a FREE webinar for proven strategies and actionable steps to increase your cash flow!
Register at https://thedigitaledge.clickmeeting.com

Telemarketing is NOT the Anti-Christ!

Telemarketing is NOT the Anti-Christ!

Today youโ€™ll learn how to use direct mail marketing and, yes, telemarketing to your full advantage. I know, the word โ€œtelemarketingโ€ might as well be four letters, but there is a way to help customers feel like they are getting personal attention and keep them from blocking your number!

With the success direct mail marketing has had and the availability of computers, these can be used as a powerful marketing tool for your success. Telemarketing is best for high priced, high margin products/services.

Here are the key steps to putting together a highly effective direct mail marketing program:

  1. List all benefits customers will get from the purchase of your products and services.
  2. Pick the single most powerful benefit out of that list.
  3. Build an attention-getting headline around that benefit. Remember to use emotion-fulfill the desire to be young, wealthy, desired, popular or successful.
  4. Develop a sales letter using the headline you created to grab attention, provide information and motivate customers to act.
  5. Put together supplementary items, such as a brochure, order form, reply envelope or note that encourages them to read the letter.
  6. Rent or purchase a mailing list.
  7. Compare cost of mailing vs. cost per order.
  8. Continue to test and refine your direct mail marketing plan.

You can see how direct mail marketing can help you find a local or even country-wide target market to send letters or postcards to and draw in new clientele and customers. Fine-tuning your marketing campaign will bring better results and therefore lower the overall cost of the campaign.

To be successful in telemarketing you need to:

  • Put together a plan, so you know exactly what you want to accomplish during the call.
  • Develop a list of topics to discuss and the questions you want to present around these topics.
  • Input verbiage checking to see if you are calling at a good time.
  • Include enough questions to keep the conversation interesting, but not too many to sound like you are interrogating.
  • Start with broad questions and narrow your focus as the conversation continues.
  • Offer feedback to show them you are paying attention and appreciate their time.
  • Donโ€™t insult their intelligence or manipulate them.
  • Listen first, talk second.
  • Be relaxed and conversational.

Telemarketing doesnโ€™t have to be the trauma itโ€™s made out to be. You can put together an honest, personal and effective telemarketing campaign that is endearing, informative and gets the job done. Think of how you would want to be treated on a marketing call. Ask your friends and family what they hate most about the telemarketing calls they get and work hard to craft your plan in a better way.

โ€œWhen selling by telephone, you have approximately thirty seconds to convince the customer to listen to you. You need an opening statement that captures their attention, conveys who you are, what you want and why the prospect should listen.โ€Jay Abraham

Itโ€™s easy to see how direct mail marketing and telemarketing can positively affect your business by bringing in new customers and increasing the level of awareness about your products, services and company branding. Our GUIDED TOUR offers the resources and tools you need to work through these processes and put together the best marketing plan you can.

 

Turn Prospects into Customers Overnight!

Today Iโ€™d like to talk about how to turn prospects into customers and retain them for future marketing. While, your marketing is doing its job, you need to be working on turning those prospects into customers. There are a few key ways to draw them in and seal the deal. You need to be:

  • Inviting
  • Informative
  • Enjoyable

The biggest fear of most new customers is the dread buyerโ€™s remorse. You want to avoid this at all costs, and this should be mitigated if youโ€™ve provided a quality product/service that delivers on the marketing claims youโ€™ve made.

However, this can still occur. There are two ways to deal with this:

  • Offer to refund money-no questions asked
  • Offer a bonus they can keep even if they return the product

These offers alone will also mitigate buyerโ€™s remorse because the customer will trust you more, just for offering these things.

There are number of other ways to turn a prospect into a customer:

 

  1. Offer a special price as an opportunity for you to test the market.
  2. Offer a lower price with the reason of pushing inventory to pay a tax bill, for your kidโ€™s’ braces, or another tangible reason. Customers love that this makes you feel so much more human.
  3. Offer a referral incentive.
  4. Offer a smaller, more inexpensive product first to build trust.
  5. Offer package deals.
  6. Offer to charge less for their first purchase if they become a repeat customer.
  7. Offer extra incentives-longer warranties, free bonuses if ordered by a set date.
  8. Offer financing options, if applicable.
  9. Offer a bonus if they pay in full.
  10. Offer special packaging or delivery.
  11. Offer โ€œname your own priceโ€ incentives.
  12. Offer comparative data or other comparison tools.
  13. Offer a trade-up or upgrade to something they already have.
  14. Offer additional, educational information to help them make the decision.

 

The options really are as limitless as you make it. You can use these or other ideas to find what works the best for your business, products/service and target market. Remember thisโ€ฆ

โ€œBy making it inviting, easy, informative, non-threatening, educational, inspiring and fun to do business with you, youโ€™ll loft your company above the competition.โ€ย Jay Abraham

Need help with figuring out the best strategy for converting prospects into customers? Ourย GUIDED TOURย gives you exclusive access to the mountain of resources and tools, along with information from some of the greatest marketing minds on Earth.

 

Kick Start Your Marketing

Today Iโ€™d like to teach you about the three most important start up marketing tools you need to get and keep new customers.

  1. In person: Itโ€™s essential you meet with customers/clients in person whenever possible. This shows you respect them and take the time to work with your clients to give personal attention to each of them.
  2. Follow up letter: Always take a moment to send a follow up letter about what you talked about, new agreements or partnerships made and to thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Likewise, you should always send thank you letters or small gifts to partners you find success with.
  3. Phone call: Use a telephone call to follow up with them to talk again about the matters you talked about in your meeting and offer any assistance you can to help their business run smoothly and more successfully.

None of these will work if you donโ€™t have a quality product/service to back you up!

Here are the key steps for putting together your start-up marketing tools:

  1. Research potential customers, buyers, competitors and their preferred methods of distribution.
  2. Talk to potential customers. Take a hard look at your product from a customerโ€™s perspective and see what it needs to be successful.
  3. Follow up with your 3-step process from above.
  4. Develop systems for contact follow through, quality control standards and customer service.
  5. Develop post-sale follow up system to keep lines of communication open is customers and build on your current relationship which increases future purchases.

โ€œMarketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costsโ€ Peter Drucker, management consultant

Hereโ€™s another one I love from an icon:

โ€œIf there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other personโ€™s point of view and see things from that personโ€™s angle as well as from your own.โ€ Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

This lesson has offered you the tools to put together a start-up marketing plan that can be used over and over again to help your customer base and business grow in a manageable way.

Stop Wasting Your Resources!

Today youโ€™re going to learn how to find a target market of potential customers so you arenโ€™t wasting precious resources on blitz marketing. So, the two questions you have to ask yourself are:
  • What do people really want to buy from me?
  • What related products are they already buying?
Once you figure this out you will know who is more predisposed to purchase your products/services. Then, you find other businesses with the same customer base who you can customer share with. Come up with an incentive and great arrangement to encourage both of your customer bases to shop at both of your stores. The basic concept is this: You want to find existing businesses who have the customer profile that you are looking for to market your products/services to. Then strike up a relationship with those business owners to work out an incentive for customers to purchase from both businesses. As a result, you have an audience to market to and they generate an added value from their current base. So, how do you figure this out? There is a great formula from Jay Abraham you can follow with great success. LV = (P x F) x N โ€“ MC Hereโ€™s what it all means:
  • LV is the life time value of a customer
  • P is the average profit margin from each sale
  • F is the number of times a customer buys each year
  • N is the number of years customers stay with you
  • MC is the marketing cost per customer (total costs/number of customers)
Once you know how much you need to spend to attract a new customer, you will know how much of an incentive you can offer to a business to help attract new customers. So, hereโ€™s your step-by-step process:
  1. Find companies who already have the customer base you are looking for.
  2. Negotiate an incentive for them to share that customer base with you.
  3. Focus your marketing resources to this group of predisposed customers.
If you need help working through this process, please contact us and we’ll set you up with the most comprehensive system of marketing tools and resources.

Educate Your Customers

Educate them about what, you may be thinking. Well, consider this, many businesses focus solely on attracting new customers, but you NEED to spend a good chunk of your time retaining current and former customers. These are people you already know to be a good sales potentialโ€ฆtheyโ€™ve already bought from you!

Take the time to market and sell new products to your old customers and less time trying to sell old products to new customers and you will see a drastic change in your sales, customer quality and branding position.

Here are a couple of key elements to use to retain your current customers:

  1. Stay in contact: This means by phone, email, e-newsletter, in person-by pigeon if you have too!
  2. Post-Purchase Assurance: This means you need to follow up with customers. Your customers need to feel like they are being supported for their purchase and with the item they purchased. How many times have you purchased a product, then felt completely abandoned? Something as simple as a Thank You note with your contact or customer service information can go along way in retaining a great customer.
  3. Deals & Guarantees: Always offer your current customers the best deals and guarantees you have. Show them you appreciate their business or even come up with a club specifically to reward loyal customers. You can also do this with a preferred pricing option.
  4. Integrity: Using good business practices and simply upholding integrity, dignity and honesty go along way with customers. Letโ€™s face it, thereโ€™s a lot of swindling and crap out there and the safer and more confident you make your customers feel, the more they will trust you and that makes for an amazingly supportive and loyal customer.

There are three cornerstone ideas to a successful business:

  • Quality product/service
  • Offering useful products/services that solve a problem for or enhance the life of a customer
  • Offer subjects your customers find interesting

Use this approach of educating your customers and offering them real information and insight and you will be rewarded with loyalty and success.

Stop wasting all your time on new prospects while your current customers fall by the wayside!

As Jay Abraham says, โ€œYour best prospects are your existing customers. If youโ€™ve been putting all your marketing efforts into acquiring new customers, stop and diverts some of your resources into reselling, upselling, cross-selling to those same customers. In every ways possible โ€“ through package inserts, regular mailings, special offers โ€“ stay in touch with those customers and get them used to buying from you.โ€

So, there it is! Remember, we can help you put together the resources and tools to do exactly that. We can help you educate your customers and you can watch the benefits pay offer many-fold.