TupperGal
04-21-2005, 03:16 PM
The customer is your business
By Joseph Anthony
It's the Holy Grail for small businesses: Finding a
foolproof way — hey, even just a better way — of
getting and keeping customers.
If yours is like most businesses, you have confronted or will confront the challenge of
building a customer base. Not to mention the challenge of keeping that base and making
it grow, whether your sales and appointment tools include a loose-leaf notebook, an
online database manager or a digital (or perhaps a human!) personal assistant.
High-tech and traditional tactics both work
The first step, of course, is to get potential customers interested in what you can offer
Depending on your business, you might embrace a range of approaches, including:
• Making cold
calls.
• Posting
descriptions and contact information on your business Web site.
• Advertising in
telephone books or newspapers, both print and online versions.
• Listing your
company with Internet search engines and directories.
• Distributing
leaflets to potential customers.
• Running
banner ad campaigns on the Web.
• Using
telephone telemarketers.
• Speaking at
public events.
Whether you're using traditional or high-tech tactics, methods for getting customers fall
into the same time-honored categories: advertising, public relations, direct client contact
and so on.
Verdict: It's the customers who bring you new business
Interestingly, it's plain old word-of-mouth that's considered the most popular, not to
mention the cheapest, way for small-business owners to get new customers.
Word-of-mouth ranks at the top of the list of methods by which small businesses get new
customers. In a recent Dun & Bradstreet survey, 76% of small businesses reported that
they relied on word-of-mouth to attract new customers. The second-most popular tactic,print advertising, was used by only half as many businesses surveyed.
If you're looking at line-item costs, word-of-mouth might indeed be the cheapest way of
getting new customers — it's rare for a small business to create a budget item for "wordof-
mouth expense."
"I've never spent a dime on advertising," says Hugh Gundry, owner of a custom furniture
frame business based in North Bend, Wash. "My clients are scattered all over the states,
and they've all placed the first order because they heard about my work from other
customers."
Gundry admits that he spends a lot of time working with those customers to ensure the
work he does exactly matches their specifications, which can vary wildly from job to job.
He says he's the first to agree that good word-of-mouth is the result of a significant
investment on your part as a business owner: the time, energy and, yes, some of the
money you spend cultivating relationships with potential and current customers.
And you'll be making this investment whether the client came to you via a referral, a
search engine listing or a cold call. So while word-of-mouth isn't a cash outlay, it's
nonetheless an expense — in time.
Sales: a resource for learning customer relations
Folks who specialize in sales don't just wait for good word-of-mouth to develop — they're
out there actively doing things to land those clients or customers. They're promoting,
soliciting, advertising, schmoozing — in short, selling. And the word-of-mouth they
develop isn't just about their product or service; it's also about the fact that they are
good, honest and helpful salespeople.
It's almost a given that the practices used by good salespeople can be embraced or
adapted by business owners. For some insight on what goes into successful sales, I
talked with a source I'll call "Deep Closer." Closer is an excellent salesperson with a long
track record — at one point in the 1980s, she was the top salesperson west of the
Mississippi for a technology-related company.
"In retail sales, I learned at my father's knee," she told me. "You have to establish the
customer's need, urgency, authority and means."
Establishing need and urgency seemed straightforward: Find out if and when the
customer needs or can use your product. Use persuasion within reasonable bounds. But I
asked what she meant by authority.
"Oh. That means the wife will let the husband buy the thing."
Laughter. OK — and means?
"That's when you establish that they've got the dough, Joe."
That's when I established I was in the hands of an expert. So I'm going to step out of the
way and offer up Deep Closer's basic rules for successful customer relations.
1. Find out if the customer's in a position to buy. Establish the customer's need,
urgency, authority and means.
2. If they aren't, get to know them anyway. If the customer doesn't meet those four
requirements, get that person's phone number and address and follow up later.
Things can change for the better.
3. Think long-term relationship. Remember that you don't want just a one-time
sale. It's a relationship over time, and what's going to make or break that
relationship is establishing trust in you.
4. Be a trusted advisor. A lot of times, the key to a sale is that the customers enjoy
spending their time with you more than with any other salesperson. You're more
informative and more interesting. You're aware of the customer's needs and
you're a great resource. If you're in a technical field as a salesperson, you can't
possibly know about all the technical issues, but you'll be an advisor — not just a
salesperson — if you know to whom the customer should refer for more help and
expertise.
5. Show them a good time. Why is golfing so big? Because it's an acceptable way to
get lots of time to talk with businesspeople about everything except business. The
same goes for client lunches. In a relaxed social situation, a customer can decide
that you are (A) trustworthy, and (B) more fun than the other sales guy. Then the
customer feels safer, more alive and maybe even happier. And then they give the
work to you, rather than to the other person.
6. Err on the side of courtesy. Return phone calls within 24 hours — within the same
day, if possible. And always send thank-you notes. Do you realize how few people
send thank-you notes anymore?
7. Respect yourself and you'll be respected in turn. You know the joke about the
difference between a car salesman and a computer salesman? The car salesman
knows when he's lying. Seriously, why is the status of people in sales so low? It
doesn't have to be that way. If you're doing the right things, such as following up,
treating people well and doing things that help them, you're going to be
respected. And you're going to do well, too.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Keep in touch
As Ms. Closer points out, getting and keeping customers are not separate events — they
are two points on the same continuum. For many businesses, keeping a current customer
often matters more than getting new ones, because maintaining a base of repeat
business determines long-term success or failure. Gundry's custom frame business is an
example.
"All my business is repeat business. I still get work from my first client, who came to me
in 1992. It's a specialized niche, so my customer base is pretty limited — if they don't
come back, and more than once, I'm under water," Gundry says.
Not every business depends on customers returning again and again, of course. As one
divorce attorney says of his practice, "It's not like work where you might interact with
clients regularly over several years. When a client comes to me and we are working
through the divorce, I am absolutely the most important individual in that person's world.
But from the day the divorce is finalized, I no longer exist. It's very rare that there's any
kind of an ongoing or long-term relationship with a client beyond the divorce."
True. But most divorce attorneys still need good word-of-mouth if they're to get referrals,
so the link between developing high-quality client relationships and running a successful
business still holds.
By Joseph Anthony
It's the Holy Grail for small businesses: Finding a
foolproof way — hey, even just a better way — of
getting and keeping customers.
If yours is like most businesses, you have confronted or will confront the challenge of
building a customer base. Not to mention the challenge of keeping that base and making
it grow, whether your sales and appointment tools include a loose-leaf notebook, an
online database manager or a digital (or perhaps a human!) personal assistant.
High-tech and traditional tactics both work
The first step, of course, is to get potential customers interested in what you can offer
Depending on your business, you might embrace a range of approaches, including:
• Making cold
calls.
• Posting
descriptions and contact information on your business Web site.
• Advertising in
telephone books or newspapers, both print and online versions.
• Listing your
company with Internet search engines and directories.
• Distributing
leaflets to potential customers.
• Running
banner ad campaigns on the Web.
• Using
telephone telemarketers.
• Speaking at
public events.
Whether you're using traditional or high-tech tactics, methods for getting customers fall
into the same time-honored categories: advertising, public relations, direct client contact
and so on.
Verdict: It's the customers who bring you new business
Interestingly, it's plain old word-of-mouth that's considered the most popular, not to
mention the cheapest, way for small-business owners to get new customers.
Word-of-mouth ranks at the top of the list of methods by which small businesses get new
customers. In a recent Dun & Bradstreet survey, 76% of small businesses reported that
they relied on word-of-mouth to attract new customers. The second-most popular tactic,print advertising, was used by only half as many businesses surveyed.
If you're looking at line-item costs, word-of-mouth might indeed be the cheapest way of
getting new customers — it's rare for a small business to create a budget item for "wordof-
mouth expense."
"I've never spent a dime on advertising," says Hugh Gundry, owner of a custom furniture
frame business based in North Bend, Wash. "My clients are scattered all over the states,
and they've all placed the first order because they heard about my work from other
customers."
Gundry admits that he spends a lot of time working with those customers to ensure the
work he does exactly matches their specifications, which can vary wildly from job to job.
He says he's the first to agree that good word-of-mouth is the result of a significant
investment on your part as a business owner: the time, energy and, yes, some of the
money you spend cultivating relationships with potential and current customers.
And you'll be making this investment whether the client came to you via a referral, a
search engine listing or a cold call. So while word-of-mouth isn't a cash outlay, it's
nonetheless an expense — in time.
Sales: a resource for learning customer relations
Folks who specialize in sales don't just wait for good word-of-mouth to develop — they're
out there actively doing things to land those clients or customers. They're promoting,
soliciting, advertising, schmoozing — in short, selling. And the word-of-mouth they
develop isn't just about their product or service; it's also about the fact that they are
good, honest and helpful salespeople.
It's almost a given that the practices used by good salespeople can be embraced or
adapted by business owners. For some insight on what goes into successful sales, I
talked with a source I'll call "Deep Closer." Closer is an excellent salesperson with a long
track record — at one point in the 1980s, she was the top salesperson west of the
Mississippi for a technology-related company.
"In retail sales, I learned at my father's knee," she told me. "You have to establish the
customer's need, urgency, authority and means."
Establishing need and urgency seemed straightforward: Find out if and when the
customer needs or can use your product. Use persuasion within reasonable bounds. But I
asked what she meant by authority.
"Oh. That means the wife will let the husband buy the thing."
Laughter. OK — and means?
"That's when you establish that they've got the dough, Joe."
That's when I established I was in the hands of an expert. So I'm going to step out of the
way and offer up Deep Closer's basic rules for successful customer relations.
1. Find out if the customer's in a position to buy. Establish the customer's need,
urgency, authority and means.
2. If they aren't, get to know them anyway. If the customer doesn't meet those four
requirements, get that person's phone number and address and follow up later.
Things can change for the better.
3. Think long-term relationship. Remember that you don't want just a one-time
sale. It's a relationship over time, and what's going to make or break that
relationship is establishing trust in you.
4. Be a trusted advisor. A lot of times, the key to a sale is that the customers enjoy
spending their time with you more than with any other salesperson. You're more
informative and more interesting. You're aware of the customer's needs and
you're a great resource. If you're in a technical field as a salesperson, you can't
possibly know about all the technical issues, but you'll be an advisor — not just a
salesperson — if you know to whom the customer should refer for more help and
expertise.
5. Show them a good time. Why is golfing so big? Because it's an acceptable way to
get lots of time to talk with businesspeople about everything except business. The
same goes for client lunches. In a relaxed social situation, a customer can decide
that you are (A) trustworthy, and (B) more fun than the other sales guy. Then the
customer feels safer, more alive and maybe even happier. And then they give the
work to you, rather than to the other person.
6. Err on the side of courtesy. Return phone calls within 24 hours — within the same
day, if possible. And always send thank-you notes. Do you realize how few people
send thank-you notes anymore?
7. Respect yourself and you'll be respected in turn. You know the joke about the
difference between a car salesman and a computer salesman? The car salesman
knows when he's lying. Seriously, why is the status of people in sales so low? It
doesn't have to be that way. If you're doing the right things, such as following up,
treating people well and doing things that help them, you're going to be
respected. And you're going to do well, too.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Keep in touch
As Ms. Closer points out, getting and keeping customers are not separate events — they
are two points on the same continuum. For many businesses, keeping a current customer
often matters more than getting new ones, because maintaining a base of repeat
business determines long-term success or failure. Gundry's custom frame business is an
example.
"All my business is repeat business. I still get work from my first client, who came to me
in 1992. It's a specialized niche, so my customer base is pretty limited — if they don't
come back, and more than once, I'm under water," Gundry says.
Not every business depends on customers returning again and again, of course. As one
divorce attorney says of his practice, "It's not like work where you might interact with
clients regularly over several years. When a client comes to me and we are working
through the divorce, I am absolutely the most important individual in that person's world.
But from the day the divorce is finalized, I no longer exist. It's very rare that there's any
kind of an ongoing or long-term relationship with a client beyond the divorce."
True. But most divorce attorneys still need good word-of-mouth if they're to get referrals,
so the link between developing high-quality client relationships and running a successful
business still holds.