Is your service a key factor in setting you apart from your competitors?
Does it frustrate you that while others claim to give service, you deliver better service, quality and value?
Most businesses perceive their competitive advantage to be their ‘outstanding service’, ‘better quality’, or ‘understanding the customers needs’
But almost to a person, they believe they are not communicating this service excellence effectively.
They express a strong sense of frustration that if only they could better communicate what they offer, their business would grow in leaps and bounds.
Remarkably, less than 25% have a programme in place to systematically follow up customers and extend further services to ‘nurture’ them into long term loyal clients. Very few ever write to their customers after the sale.
What is most interesting is that most of these businesses are generally successful, growing, and run by very switched on people.
So why do switched on people not do things they clearly know they should? Certainly, there is a time constraint. We are all victims of the ‘trying to do everything at once’ syndrome.
But more so, I strongly sense it is our tendency to invest time and energy in areas we know and understand, steering clear of areas unfamiliar to us or outside our ‘comfort zone’.
And while what you're doing works, there's a temptation not to extend past that, even though there may be vast untapped new business waiting outside the comfort zone.
Comfort zone or not, the facts are irrefutable: A concerted approach to effective marketing (and by that I mean all its facets including advertising, joint venturing, staff training and communication generally) is the most powerful form of leverage available to you.
Literally without spending an extra cent, focussing in this area can revolutionise your business.
For example, think about the way you and your people convert enquiries on the telephone. If your conversion rate is currently 1 in 4, and you were to focus on training that allowed your people to lift conversions to 1in 2, you've just lifted profits by 100%. It makes investing your money in stocks and bonds pale into insignificance, doesn't it!
Think about writing to your customers. If you haven't done so, you may literally have millions of dollars in latent business just waiting to be tapped.
So how can we integrate these insights into the power of marketing?
Well, here are 8 ways to package your excellence ...and turn all that energy and commitment into sales.
Of course, the temptation will be there to say, ‘I already know all this stuff’ however whether you know it or not is not the point. It's how consistently and effectively you do it that counts
1. Don't assume your clients recognise or appreciate your excellent service.
You might know how fantastic your service is are and how committed to the client you really are but only by constantly reinforcing it (using specifics where ever possible), will the likelihood grow that clients and prospects will fully appreciate it.
If you are fanatical about your quality and service you have a potent marketing tool waiting to be harnessed.
For example how does your letterhead remind or inform people how good your service is. What statement captures the reason they can depend on you.
How does your distribution system advertise the benefits of your company to others? When you send out product does your packing slip say, ‘We are proud that our products are of the very highest standards. If this does not meet or exceed your expectations in every way, simply return it for an immediate replacement or refund. And thank You ...for being an ABC Pty Ltd client’
2. Keep in touch ...more often than your competitors.
This isn't earth shattering stuff either. It certainly isn't the first time you've heard it. Yet in our experience, hardly any of the businesses have a policy of writing to clients after the sale ...or sending some other value adding information on a routine basis.
Now you may tire of reading all those letters and handwritten notes to clients but to your client, it's new. They'll be pleasantly surprised and delighted that you care. When it comes to doing more business or referring others, who will they think of first?
Few business people will ever disagree with the logic behind this ‘keep-in-touch’ approach, yet almost unanimously, they'll rationalise that they are too busy -or don't have the facilities to do it.
In fact, no business can afford not to practise these vital steps.
The trick lies in having a system.
It doesn't matter if your system entails scribbling X number of notes every night, or handing over names and addresses to a computer bureau together with a stack of your letterhead and a standard letter.
What matters is that consistently following the ‘I keep-in-touch’ programme will guarantee that your great service-and hence your future profits, are being proactively nurtured.
3. Harness your reservoir of good will.
If you're as good as you think, then you'll have a lot of people impressed with your service. You already know ‘word of mouth’ is your most powerful form of advertising. Help them to make you even more successful by helping them talk to others about you.
Do a bit of soul searching. Ask yourself: Do you make it easy for your delighted clients to advocate you? Can you even imagine what it would mean in terms of new (and quality) business if you could grow referrals by say 10%?
There may be literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in good business waiting for you if you develop a packaged system for letting your clients refer you.
Why not get your team together and mind map the ways you could package up the referral process in order to make referrals easier for your clients and alliances. Also think about ways you might measure the effectiveness of your strategies.
Instructions on how to mind map Click Here
4 Make your literature work harder
What do you do with the brochures that cross your desk every month? Mostly you toss in the bin without even a cursory glance, right?
Why do company brochures hit the bin so fast? For one, they are an arms length communication that are impersonal and therefore easy to discard without any sense of guilt.
Secondly, most brochures are a company ego trip. They talk only about the company and not the needs of the of the reader or prospect.
The cold truth is, no one gives a damn about the company, only what the company can do for them
Does your brochure commit that sin?
Put it to the test. Put it on the carpet as you would a salesperson, question its presentation, and make sure it justifies its existence.
5. Document & duplicate what works.
There is almost always a better way to convert leads to clients.
It still costs you the same in your selling effort whether the person buys or not. And when you look at the dynamics of lifting conversions by even 15%, it could return you vastly more profit than thousands of dollars supplementing your ad campaign.
Again it’s about developing systems that you can measure and continuously refine. How does your best sales person do it? How can you package up the methods he or she uses and pass them along. Can’t be done? Then how come McDonalds can motivate my 14 year old to consistently produce awesome service all day every day for as little as six bucks an hour? They have a great system(s).
The key here is to not try and improve by 100% in one jump. Remember if each of your sales channels or people improved overall conversions by only 15% your profits are on the rise through better utilisation of your existing resources.
6. Actively seek out others who'll endorse you to their clients.
This strategy is one of the most powerful yet under-used means of generating profitable new business and a wealth of new clients.
You have a colleague in a like but non-competing business. Your colleague has invested perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars in acquiring and building trust with his or her clients. Imagine the potency of that colleague marketing to his or her list with a letter that talks about you.
It talks about how valuable your service has been to them and that of all the people they've come across in your profession, you have consistently shone in every way. Perhaps that in one project alone, you saved them $15,000 because of your in- depth knowledge of your subject. And because they (the person reading the letter) are such a valued client, your colleague has bought them an hour of your consulting time ...or they've sponsored the reader for some sort of sampling of your wares.
Of course, you give the hour's consultation or the sample to your colleague without cost.
It is a good deal. A wonderful opportunity for your colleague to be seen to be doing something valuable for their clients.
And a wonderful opportunity for you too. It doesn't matter that you're giving your time or a sample away. It brings you into contact with a new circle of prospects who'll be pre-disposed to you! List down three alliances who you could network with in this way.
1)________________________________________
2)________________________________________
3)________________________________________
7. Publicity – It’s Free Advertising
You may be amazed at how receptive the media is to your story .If you have been performing well for clients, and your clients love you for it, tell your story to the business magazines and the daily press. Of course, they won't be interested in something that is a straight plug for you. Justify using a theme... Like small business making a success ...winning against the odds ...helping others to succeed ...then that is news.
When you are written up, you'll get a boost to your profile and your credibility and, perhaps some new clients. But the potential doesn't stop there.
Reproduce the article (first obtaining permission and citing the publication) and use it in every way you can ...mail it to your clients, to your prospects, along with the testimonials on your testimonial sheet
8. Commit To A Client-Oriented Newsletter.
This is hard. Writing a newsletter on a regular or even occasional basis demands discipline and commitment. Few companies ever sustain that commitment. And of those who do, most make the fatal error of focussing the content on themselves and their achievements, not on the customer's needs. Believe me, a well written client- focussed newsletter to your clients is a wonderful and powerful tool for keeping close to them
Like I said, it's hard. In fact, none of these 8 ideas is particularly easy. The key is to pick one ...or a few ...and work them hard until you have them ticking over successfully ...then start on another. That way your guaranteed to win
What four things would you write about if you had to issue a newsletter at the end of this month?
1)________________________________________
2)________________________________________
3)________________________________________
4)________________________________________
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