|
9 Ways to Grow Your Sales: Part III The economy is showing consistent signs that steady growth is underway. Given this, your current and past customers (and prospects) are going to have increased sign and graphics needs. Are you positioned to benefit from these? Are you on the top of their mind? Will they think of you when they need that next graphic or sign for their building, promotion, or other project?
This month we look at Part C of 9 Ways to Grow Your Sales
Part A. Finding New Customers (See the November 2003 Newsletter)
Part B. Close More Estimates and Increase Your Average Sale (See the December 2003 Newsletter)
Make Sure that You Get Your Customer Everything They Need the First Time, And that You Get Paid For It Part C. Increasing sales from existing customers. (In This Issue)
Part C. Increasing sales from existing customers
1. Stay on the Top of Your Customer's Mind When a customer that has bought from you previously goes to purchase the next sign or graphic, are they likely to think of your shop? Will your shop be on the “top of their mind?” If you think so, why? And are you sure? Remember that they’re likely to be as busy and chaotic as you are, possibly more.
Some shop owners are excellent about staying in contact with customers, and making face to face visits to prospects. Chances are that competitors are calling on your customers, just asking for a chance.
If you’re not sure whether you’ll be top of mind, or just want some insurance, here are some suggestions for getting started: a. Figure out which customers are on your 80/20 list. More specifically, figure out the 20% of the customers that contribute 80% of your revenues. Your numbers may vary, but the concept is the same. Who are your key customers? And don’t just go by your gut. Take a few minutes to look at your order records to make sure that you aren’t missing some. Focus on these customers first. b. Make sure you know how well you have performed for these customers. Were the jobs done right the first time? Were they done on time? Did the customers have any feedback once they received the product? Do you have someone in your shop that is assigned the task of calling customers after they have received the product to ask if it met their needs? Obviously, if there are any unresolved issues, personally contact these folks. c. Do your customers know what sets your shop apart from other shops? Do you? Does you staff know? Having a clear strategy on how you want to compete is critical. Do you want to compete on price? Or on rapid turn around, or quality, or creativity, and having the newest technology? Make sure your team knows your shop’s strategy, and then communicate that to your customer. d. Send a newsletter to your customers weekly, monthly, or on a cycle that makes sense for your business. Just think about what would be of value for your customers and prospects. Perhaps mention how the kinds of things that your business specializes in can help them solve problems. Perhaps include a case study of a job you recently did, describing how something special that you did made a difference for the customer. If you have new equipment, mention what it can do for your customers. If you’ve hired new employees, mention their expertise and how that can be of value to the customer.
2. Give Your Customer New and Creative Ideas on How to Solve His/Her Problems In addition to giving creative ideas in the newsletter or mailer, you may want to work with your sales folks and estimators to ensure that they are proactively questioning the customer to fully understand what the customer is trying to do with the sign or graphic. (Our software has built-in suggestions making it easy to train new employees to estimate, and increasing the consistency of estimates. And the owner can edit these suggestions or options, and adjust the prices).
It is critical to make sure the customer gets it right the first time. They’re not the expert in signs or graphics. By asking a few extra questions about how the customer is going to use the sign or graphic, you and your team can suggest alternative solutions that will work better for the customer. This makes sure that the customer is successful in what they are trying to accomplish, and makes you a trusted resource. And these suggestions, also called options or modifiers, can carry an extra price. Whether it’s a more appropriate type of mounting, lamination, or something like grommets or pole pockets, there is an opportunity for these to increase the total sale. Incidentally, our software keeps all these options in front of the estimator or salesperson. And since the owner can control the pricing, there will be more consistency in the pricing.
3. Deepen Your Relationships with Your Key Customers Deepening your relationship with your key customers helps to protect their business and position you to win more of their business. With that list of your key customers (the 80/20 exercise from above), think about their objectives and interests. The prior paragraphs mentioned ways to help these customers achieve their business objectives. This section touches on other ways to grow the relationships.
Taking customers to lunch is a good way to continue to grow the bonds, but always be on the lookout for the opportunity to do something special for them that they’ll remember forever. For example, if you and your customer are located in Florida, and he/she is a huge golf fan, yet has never been to the Bay Hill Classic, take them to the tournament. Simply put, find out what each key customer’s passion is and look for an opportunity to have some fun with them along those lines. With larger customers, look for ways to establish multiple relationships. Have the employees in your company that talk customers systematically work on building the relationship. Systematize the process. What are the 20 pieces of information that you should know about each of your contacts at each of your key customers? Figure out a systematic way to collect that information. Whether it’s on index cards or in our software, create a standard template to collect the information. And eventually, you should grow this system so that all of your employees that interact directly with these customers have access to this information. This is all part of servicing these customers better. 4. Sell for the Season that is Coming Can you pull a list at any time of the customers that purchased from you in the few years during the upcoming season so you know who to market to? For example, since we are in January, it might make sense to pull a list of the customers that purchased from you in the last 3 years during February, March, and April. Prepare a marketing brochure, or a creative piece that will give these customers some interesting and valuable ideas, and email or mail it out. Or perhaps, it this case you may prefer to have an employee call them to see what needs the customers will have for the upcoming season. This is just one suggestion for targeting your marketing. Regardless of whether this example applies to your niche, the question is do you have a systematic way to segment and target your customers 5. Customer Referrals Have you or your sales folks asked your customers for referrals?
The suggestions discussed previously will better position you to win referral business. Any of the following will increase the likelihood of getting referrals from your customers: · Having the customer know and value your strategy; · Being known as a valuable creative resource (for design, problem solving, or in other ways); and, · Having a solid relationships with the key contacts.
Most of the time customers would gladly refer you if you have performed and are trusted. This shortens the sales cycle, and reduces your selling costs, and enables you to leverage your fixed costs better. In other words, this will increase sales and profits.
Tips for getting started: · Contact the customers that you have performed well for, and ask them who they know that would value your service. · When your employee calls them to ask how their latest job was, have your employee ask for the referral. Get started now. You can improve as you go.
- This Month's Humor Mill entry comes to us via the Internet from Anonymous. 8 Ways People Confused Santa Claus Now that the Holidays are over, it's safe to bring out the Santa Claus humor. Enjoy:
1. Instead of milk and cookies, leave him a salad, and a note
explaining that you think he could stand to lose a few pounds.
2. While he's in the house, go find his sleigh and write him a
speeding ticket.
3. Leave him a note, explaining that you've gone away for the
holidays. Ask if he would mind watering your plants.
4. While he's in the house, replace all his reindeer with exact
replicas. Then wait and see what happens when he tries to get
them to fly.
5. Keep an angry bull in your living room. If you think a bull
goes crazy when he sees a little red cape, wait until he sees
that big, red Santa suit!
6. Leave a note by the telephone, telling Santa that Mrs. Claus called and wanted to remind him to pick up some milk and a loaf
of bread on his way home.
7. While he's in the house, find the sleigh and sit in it. As
soon as he comes back and sees you, tell him that he shouldn't
have missed that last payment, and take off.
8. Take everything out of your house as if it's just been robbed. When Santa arrives, show up dressed like a policeman and
say, "Well, well. They always return to the scene of the crime."
Think you have the next "Joke of the Month"? If your joke is selected, you win $50 off your next purchase. All you have to do is click the link and e-mail us your name, e-mail address, and name of your business to enter.
The economy had its best quarterly showing in almost 20 years. Growth was driven by strong gains in consumer spending on autos, houses & electronic goods, government spending, business spending on capital goods & equipment and low interest rates. The outlook for employment also improved. After years of cost cutting, companies need to expand payrolls to satisfy increased demand. Increased global demand is driving up the price of raw materials and many companies are finding they have the ability to raise prices -- something they haven't been able to do for years. The stock market's advance continued in the fourth quarter as the Dow Jones Industrial Average pushed past the 10,000 mark, a key milestone. A staggering 30 percent increase in third quarter year-over-year profits supported the advance. Economically-sensitive areas such as technology, industrial and consumer stocks were strong performers. Drug company stocks picked up in the fourth quarter after Congress added a drug benefit to Medicare. Speculative, small-company stocks continued to lead established, large-company stocks.
New Tangible Tax Benefits for Intangibles The U.S. Treasury Department is turning one of the most complex areas of our tax law on its head. Learn how to save yourself some money this tax season.
How are my midnight snacks affecting my health? Unfortunately, these late night eating binges can have a more negative influence on your fat loss than anything you eat during the day. Not only are you more likely to overeat at night out of stress or boredom, but your body has less immediate need for the food you do eat. With that in mind, here are some tips to help limit those late night snack attacks. 1) Determine when your cutoff time will be. A good guideline is to stop eating two or three hours before bed. This doesn't allow you enough time to get hungry and has the added benefit of helping you sleep better, since you're less likely to get heartburn from lying down with a full stomach. 2) Find other ways to spend your evenings. Much of nighttime eating tends to be mindless munching, so find something else to do while watching TV--or, better yet, find something else to do besides watching TV. If you're stressed from your day at work, take a walk or run, listen to music, or complain about the boss to your wife or buddy. When you find yourself reaching for a snack, that's a sign that what you really need is something to keep you busy. 3) Eat less in the evening so you'll be hungrier for breakfast. When you scale back on food in the evening, you'll be hungrier in the morning. 4) Eat several moderate-sized meals throughout the day. Eating often throughout the day lowers the volume of the food you want to eat, keeps you from getting too hungry, and keeps your metabolic rate and energy levels up all day long. 5) Have a healthy, but not huge, dinner. You can scale back your dinner portions, but also cut out starchy carbs such as bread or potatoes and replacing them with more fibrous carbs, such as salad (sans fatty dressing), broccoli or a piece of fruit.
6) If you absolutely have
to eat something at night, make it light and healthful, and portion
out the quantities so you're not just mindlessly chomping away until
the food runs out.
That means a cup of popcorn instead of the whole bag. Once you've gotten
used to eating a proper breakfast and small, nutritious meals and snacks
throughout the day, even these late-night cravings should no longer
be necessary.
Serious Problems / Cyrious Solutions Each month, we will raise one common problem in the sign and graphics industry, and demonstrate how Cyrious Software directly solves this problem:
Q: Is there a lot of double entry and re-writing of information? Is it hard to find old orders when a customer calls for a re-order?
A: With Cyrious Software, you enter the information once, with no re-writing. You can find an old order in seconds, copy it and have the computer re-price it automatically. The software also gives you a warning if the customer has a past due invoice. It is easy to search for orders and customers because all the information is in one place. You can also print the estimate, work order or invoice in seconds without any re-writing.
"Happiness
is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Cyrious Software will be holding online seminars on the following dates and topics: (all times noted are Central Standard Time)
January 27, 2004 @ 11:00am(CST)January 28, 2004 @ 4:00pm(CST)February 13th, 2004 @ 4:00pm (CST)February 25th, 2004 @ 4:00pm (CST)
February 10th, 2004 @ 4:00pm(CST)February 24th, 2004 @ 4:00pm.(CST)
|