So I was talking to a business owner about their current situation. They ran a furniture store. Pretty good inventory and a decent location because it was near some new housing and not too far from a military base. They were drowning. As I spoke to them more they said “we don’t understand the new way of business.” That resounded with me because a lot of small business owners are thinking this, but won’t say anything. They were used to the old school ways of people having extra cash and buying the most expensive things or referrals being their life blood
THE GLORY DAYS ARE OVER!
(at least for now)
As I spoke to them they also though the newspaper was still a viable form of marketing………..
Therefore, I wrote this blog to let you know the simple, inexpensive tips I bestowed upon them to get them going now. These are sales and marketing tips that can be applied to any business format.
1. Business is getting a customer and keeping them for life. This needs to be a way of life. Unfortunately businesses lose an average 10% of their customers each year for various reasons. A way to curtail this is to realize that you began a relationship when they spent their money on you. Target will never know me. Though they try withemail marketing. Why don’t you? Send thank you emails. Ask them a bit about their lives. Yourself is your favorite topic. Your clients feel the same way about themselves. Indulge them. Who knows, you may develop some genuine relationships like people did in the good old days.
2. Don’t throw a lot of money at advertising if you can’t or unless you’ve exhausted other means. The place I dealt with instantly thought about the newspaper. That costs money. Do you have a Google page? No. Do you have a Twitter? No. Do you have any web presence? No. So how will the Sunday paper help you?! Unless your audience is only seniors, forget about the paper. About 90% of people say that online reviews impact their purchases somehow. If you’re not involved online then you’re missing 90% of the people shopping! That’s huge, isn’t it? Try the free means of advertising before you blow money you’re losing. IT’S FREE FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!
3. Do not every begin the relationship with your customers based on budget. I know that is hard to hear for some people, but it is a proven no no that great sales people live by. A lot of small businesses can’t hire a sales force or the one they have isn’t stellar. In this furniture store they developed a habit of asking “what is your budget?” This cripples you. You should approach with as many open questions as possible. What are you looking for in particular? Where will you be using it? Tell me about that area. How long did you have your last __? Budget becomes a last piece because if they give you all of the emotional reasons of why they are even looking for something then the logic will come into place. It reminds me of a time when me and my wife were in a hotel and needed to just get some lotion. We stopped at one of the seemingly unattended cosmetic booths and used some lotion. A young lady approaches and starts to ask if we need any facial products. We say no, but then she asks what are you using now? This opens up a whole conversation of what we tried, what did or did not work, what success she had with her product versus others. Needless to say, our innocent stop for lotion led to a cosmetic purchase because she appealed to our emotions. We rationalized the price afterwards. Most of your clients behave in the same manner so live by emotions not logic.
4. Look at things from your client’s eyes. All of us forget that there are 2 sides to business some times. We get so hung up on what we want and how great our business is that we forget that our customers often have limited resources. This doesn’t mean treat them like scum, but instead show empathy and figure out how you can genuinely help them. If you sell any physical product, really figure out what your product will mean to them and convey that back. If you sell a service, try to really understand how your service will improve THEIR LIFE. We often times know we have a great product that we know everybody needs, but people need it for different reasons. A lot of purchases happen because people feel comfortable with the salesperson. You, as a small business owner need to develop that skill until you can hire somebody that comes with that.
In short, your customers are people too and the internet is one of businesses greatest tools. Few things we do are done with total logic. A large majority of our decisions are emotional. Print and television advertising is dying. Print is losing about 39% of advertising, television is losing about 7% per year, and internet advertising is growing at least 10% each year. Catch the wave!
PS – I hope these tips help your business grow.
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