We all know that it's great when our customers are happy and spread the word, as I have discussed in other posts. However, we tend to just cross our fingers and hope for the best, rather than taking matters into our own hands to increase the chances of them referring more business to us. What, if anything, can we do? Be Great! You have to be worth people telling others about you. People will not refer others to boring businesses, or "just ok" businesses. They will however recommend businesses they think is great. So to start off with, you have to have a great product or service, but you also … [Read more...]
Your Most Powerful Marketing Question?
We all know that it's great to have happy customers that tell others about us. Those that hear about us this way are much more likely than others to do business with us, and sooner, than those that hear about us through other ways. We also know that referrals are one of the most powerful marketing tools out there, and can cover the marketing process and get the sale, even without anything else coming into play. All businesses, products and services can benefit from referrals in some way, but the general rule seems to be that the more expensive the purchase or the more personal the service, … [Read more...]
Customer Relationship Nurturing With Online Groups
We have all heard that it is easier to keep your current customers than to get new ones. And this is very true. However, we tend to forget this and neglect the customers we already have, whilst we offer the world to new customers and give them all our attention. For a while now I have been thinking how best to remedy this in my business and find ways to better maintain my relationship with my "older" customers. So I want to share with you what I am getting up to, and perhaps this is something that you could use in your business. I buy a lot of online courses. I have bought courses on … [Read more...]
You Need to Communicate
If I had a dollar, pound or euro for each time I hear people complain about a customer, how they just don't understand this or that, I could probably have at least one free meal a week (even if it is only a sandwich). I recently came across this quote: “If you've told a child a thousand times and he still does not understand, then it is not the child who is the slow learner.” (Walter Barbee). It might as well say: “If you've told a prospective customer a thousand times and he still does not understand, then it is not the customer who is the slow learner.” It is not the customer's … [Read more...]
Stop Trying to Sell!
Peter Drucker said: "...the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available." No one wants to be interrupted Despite this, there are always people out there who continue with salesmanship, à la used car salesmen. There are courses on salesmanship, sales techniques, closing the sale etc. etc. There are still people who you … [Read more...]