07 Oct 08 Do you know your clearly customers
One of the hats I wear is as a consultant to businesses that are looking to use the Internet to find leads and customers. We recently got a new customer on a lead generation strategy on the Internet. This is a rather large internation company (Can’t even say the industry becasue they may see this post) and as usual I asked my normal questions.
- Who is a lead?
- What is a prospect?
- What is a qualified lead?
- How are leads moved to a buy?
and to my surprise I got this response. “We don’t know”.
I must admit I was floored. How can you find a lead if you don’t know what a lead is. Now mind you this is a large business (+$200 mil in sales) and their marketing department couldn’t define a lead, a qualified lead or an ideal customer. No wonder they are getting creamed in the marketplace.
If you own a business (my passion is small business) then you MUST define your ideal customer or client. Define what they look like (demographics) and what they want (Psychographics) as clearly as possible. Just the definition could help your business tremendously.
Dedicated to your success.
Tags: Business Management, Customer relationship, Lead generation
06 Oct 08 Avoid Financial Disaster, Leverage YOUR Business’s Social Network
Will your business face “Financial Disaster” For the first time in 4 years the DOW is below 10,000 and the world seems to be in financial panic.
So the question is “How do you avoid Financial Disaster?” How to do ensure that your business will prosper in these tough economic times.
A couple of posts ago I talked about using your existing social network. You know the customers that have decided they trust you enough to spend money with your business. Well these people, current customers could save you and your business from Financial Disaster.
How, using your relationship with those customers. These customers, clients know and trust your business. They have decided that their hard earned dollars are best spent with you when the want or need the product or service you sell.
So why not capitalize on them. What you say “I have no relationship!!!!” Well it’s time to start building one.
The reason many business owners can’t leverage their existing customer base as it turns out is many business owners don’t even know who these clients or customers are. Many don’t have any systematic way to stay in touch so they can’t leverage them. Many business owners never even talk to this powerful network, never even ask them what they want.
Well starting today, if you want to avoid “financial disaster” start talking to the 20% of your customers that provide most of your business, find out what else they want or need and sell it to them. Just that could save your financial hide.
Dedicated to your success….
Tags: Customer relationship, Financial Disaster, Social Networks
30 Sep 08 You already have a Social Network.. Just use it
Are you using your businesses “social network”? Not the online social network like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc but your businesses social network? Do you even know what your Businesses Social Network is and who is in it?
Well lets define “Social Networks”. I checked some definitions on the web and here is a list of definitions of social networks none of which has anything to do with computers
- The personal or professional set of relationships between individuals
- The extent to which individuals or groups are connected to or isolated from others, family, friends, work colleagues or schoolmates
- a social structure made of individuals or organizations that are connected through various familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close relationships
When you read these definitions they have nothing to do with computers. Social networks have existed for years and they live in your business.
This is no great mystery folks, every business that has customers, clients etc has a social network, you may not be using it but your businesses social network is the people that have evalutated your product or service and trust your business enough to spend their hard earned dollars with you. That is your businesses social network.
So you have a social network if you have clients or customers the question is are you using that network?
Dedicated to your business success
Next post - How to use your businesses social network.
