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Know your customers and increase your profits
Every wonder how your business can improve? Or, do you see your competitors striving ahead while your business gets left behind! There is a simple fix and it all begins with knowing your customers.
There Is Such A Thing As A Free Lunch!
Do you know how you can build word of mouth buzz about your company and get a free lunch out of the deal. Use this great method for marketing your business locally. What is the worst that can happen; you get a free meal out of it?
Increase Sales by Understanding Your Sales Process
As a business coach, at some point early in my relationship with my clients I'll ask them to map out their sales process and it never ceases to amaze me that some of those really smart businesspeople have never sat down to look at how they sell, how they train their people to sell, and what works - or doesn't! I'll often get the response, "Well, we just sell it to them", which doesn't give one much traction when it comes to assessing or improving sales. The first two things you need to know in order to be able to assess your selling process are real answers to the questions, "Why do people buy what you sell?" and "Why do they buy it from you?"

Increase sales by optimizing your sales funnel
Businesses sell but are rarely as intentional as they should be about it. While a business might do a lot of things to market and sell their products, they might be doing too much! Even more success with less effort is possible by taking a closer look at the sales funnel. Use these strategies to optimize your sales funnel and get more people buying from you faster.
I'm a Customer, Damn It
With each passing day, businesses who covet my dollars seem to want me, the supposed customer to do more of their work and to give them money for that privilege!
Is Your New Customer Bucket Full of Holes?
Most small business owners focus most, if not all, of their marketing efforts attracting new clients-and hardly any on following up. That’s like pouring water into a holey bucket. Find out how to plug those holes with simple customer retention strategies in this helpful article…

10 Ways to Break it to them Gently - Diplomacy tips that keep customers
The task of giving bad news goes with almost every job. Employees may have to inform their customers of a price increase, of a product being out-of stock, or that their children aren't allowed to use the company's coat racks for rappelling practice. Employees facing these scenarios worry that the customer could become defensive, offended, or worst of all -- simply take their business elsewhere. That's a scenario where everyone loses. Employees get stressed, absenteeism and turnover increases, and customer retention plummets. Fortunately, there is hope.
Honest To Goodness Sales And Marketing
The best sales and marketing happens when you are honest.
Environmental Sales And Marketing
Sales and marketing is about creating an environment in which your customer feels comfortable – even compelled - to do business with you.
Where Did The Trust Go?
Have you lost clients because of bad customer service or because you broke promises to them? Are you trying to reinvent yourself as a business who offers excellence?
Share of Mind Leads to Share of Wallet
The link between customer loyalty and stock price performance is the ability to create incremental purchase behavior --- how share of mind leads to share of wallet. The more loyal a customer is in any industry, the less likely they are to purchase from a competitive brand. That is why even brands with high engagement scores and loyalty metrics are constantly looking to improve on them.
Why Social Networking Your Way Won't Build Your Business
In an era dominated by ever-expanding technology and social media pressures, always remember that personal connections, referrals, and earning trust count most...
IN THE CONTEXT OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY, NEW NIKE-TIGER WOODS COMMERCIAL IS ON POINT
While some may think that the new Nike/Tiger Woods commercial is a bit strange, in the context of customer loyalty, engagement and true “Voice of the Customer” it is actually spot on.

Brand loyalty drives higher ROI and stock price
Given the direct impact of brand loyalty on ROI and stock price, where does that leave Toyota?
If you don’t take care of your employees… they won’t take care of your customers
Delivering the brand from the inside out ---- ensuring that every employee is engaged and motivated to consistently deliver on your brand’s promise ---- is crucial to driving customer loyalty.
Consequences of Embracing Technology
As companies embrace various technologies to serve guests better, increase productivity, or work more efficiently, employers must realize that these systems must work correctly ---- or there will be bottom line consequences.
How not to make a prospecting call
A woman from Australia recently called me on a cold call. She started by calling me ‘Sharon.' For those of you who know me, I refer to myself as Sharon Drew. Folks who call me ‘Sharon' are either making a cold call, or haven't read my books or blogs. I have a long history with this problem, so playfully said, "Ah. You don't know me well. I call myself Sharon Drew and I use both names." [Note: for those of you who study Buying Facilitation® I suggest you begin calls with strangers by giving your own name, saying it's a 'sales call' and then asking who you are speaking with, even though you may have a name in front of you.]
No One Should Be Indispensable... So Plan For the Unexpected
Recently, a client called me in somewhat of a panic mode. It seems that a key designer in their engineering firm had arrived that morning, sat down across the desk from her boss, and tendered her resignation... effective immediately! Could they prevent the departure? Should they sue? What else could they do?

Pricing One’s Products and Services
Setting one’s prices is a never-ending struggle for business owners. Buyer’s behaviors change nearly as fast as the weather. But, by better understanding how and why customers value and purchase products may take some of the pricing dilemma away.
All Metrics Will Be Gamed
The dynamics that are in play within the business and team must be understood. Lin Yutang in The Importance of Living (1998) very succinctly puts it "In short, my faith in human dignity consists in the belief that man is the greatest scamp on earth." It is only natural that people will try to take advantage of a measure in a business to 'game' the system - to interpret it in a way that makes it easier to achieve the number, or easier to obtain reward and recognition. As humans, we will try to take advantage of any interpretation that we can to help ourselves.

Efficiency versus Effectiveness
Everyday we are confronted with the message, to be more efficient. We could have the best measurement systems in place to measure the efficiency of the operations, but be producing the wrong thing or focusing on the wrong area - as a result, the business could fail, though it was highly efficient. What is going to build the future of our business does not come through efficiency; it comes through effectiveness.
How to Make Your Customers Feel Welcome
In this excellent article the author shows you and your employees how to create the kind of atmoshphere that makes your clients and customers prefer to do business with you over the rest of your competition. Too often small business owners blame the economy and the government for their slumping business. If they would only look a little further they would identify a major cause of their business decline-their own attitude towards their clients and customers.
Treat Little Customers Like Big Customers
Learn how to create lifetime customers by using some simple but critcal strategies.
Explode Your Business with This Internet Marketing Campaign
Are you wishing you had a business like many other internet marketing guru’s? I am getting ready to give you a step by step process that will allow you to explode your business with a simple and practical internet marketing campaign. If you are happy or content, then please stop reading this right now! This is only for people that want to be in the top 3%.

How Not to Communicate with Your Customers
This article will give you the "don'ts" of not participating with your customers. A must read for all employees and managers.
Should Social Media Replace Cold-Calling?
Has social media led to the abandonment of time-tested elements such as cold-calling & meeting face-to-face with customers or they can co-exist & be profitable.

Does Volume Make Up for Low Price?
Your ability as a salesperson is not in how much you sell, but in how much you earn for your company...Here’s how to ensure you are not only protecting profit, but also ultimately in a place to increase it!

Who is your customer?
Marketing is not about chasing any customer at any given price. You have to decide which groups of customers (called segments) are most attractive to the business and are most likely to boost profits.
Simple Steps to Capture More Sales
The most basic models for successful selling require that a business pulls together what they do best with what the prospects want most. But knowing which is which requires care and planning. Here are some simple steps to help you capture more sales.

Business Opportunity in the Internet Jungle
Business opportunity online can sometimes feel like a jungle. Jungles entice the adventuresome to experience an awe-inspiring mixture of fantastic creatures and vegetation that teases and tickles our mental imagery of gliding through the air on a vine. In reality, the jungle is fraught with danger for the uninitiated who venture into its depths alone. Embarking on a safari into the jungle without a pathfinder or a guide would simply not be a smart decision. A guide will ensure that your journey through the jungle will be a safe and enjoyable experience.

Intellectual Capital and Your Sales Career
To determine the success or failure of a business... we need to challenge conventional thinking and challenge ourselves to go outside of our comfort zone to seek diverse opinions and ideas.

Process Mapping: Ten Tips for Success
Mapping your organization’s processes makes good business sense as well as lays the foundation for a motivated and productive workforce. Leslie Allan shows you how you can use process mapping to engage your employees and why it works so effectively.
Attract More Clients By Dumping the Junk – Your PITA Clients!
By focusing on bad customers, business owners lose the opportunity to use those resources going after and servicing the phenomenal clients they want and need to make money...
Unselling What You Just Sold
When the buyer gives a buying signal, close the sale and leave. As a sales person don't allow your egos and pride to get in the way...
Why Buyers Don't Like Salespeople
Most salespeople bring to their buyers only information. At the end of the day, you as a salesperson must ask yourself, "Am I merely a conduit of information?" If you are, then you're wasting your time, your company's time, and your customer's time.

The Art of Up-Selling
Gary explains what up-selling is and how you can implement it in your business.
Are your listening skills costing you or making you money?
Who is really listening? … Genuinely, sincerely and honestly listening? I’m noticing a lot more telling and a lot less listening lately. You only have to watch the ABC program ‘Q&A’ to see the number of politicians who have great trouble listening – to anything except themselves. They interrupt others giving answers to questions that were never asked. No wonder we are a bit jaded and cynical.
What Does Your Customer Really Value?
As a salesperson once you learn what the customer’s value expectations are, you will do more than just close the sale...

Customer Service Starts with a Can Do Attitude: Five Secrets to Winning, Creating Repeat Customers
Whether you work in a restaurant or office environment, serve internal or external customers, or work in an environment that expects results, the following are five essential secrets to developing a "can do" customer service attitude and creating repeat customers.

Identifying Your Websites Target Audience
Many times, websites are created without any thought given to exactly who the website is for and how (or even if) the website reached the intended audience. Knowing your audience may just be the most important consideration in website design and search engine optimization.
Are You Giving Away Your Profit?
Protect your profit. Protect your sales motivation. Both are too valuable to toss aside, all in the name of making a sale.
Your Customer's PIR: Price Investment Ratio
If your customer can't see the return on investment, they won't invest - they won't pay the price you want to get... help frame their expectations...

The Best Information Comes From Short Questions
If you want to actually learn something about the customer's needs, you will get there quicker by asking short questions... allow the customer to do all the talking and they'll tell you their goals and will reveal a level of information you need, to determine how to best serve them.

There is Tons of Untapped Money In Your List
Growing your business and increasing your profits by finding new customers online and upselling your existing ones.
Why You Need to Be in The Business of Collecting Data
How to automate your website so it because your primary sales force.

How to Expand Your Customer Base
Depending what industry vertical you are in, there will be different techniques to expand your customer base. Growing our customer base has become an art for us. How did we do it? How could you do it?

Advantage of special skills in Business blogs
There are many easy ways to make cash online. You don’t need any special skills or any qualifications to take advantage of this. All these methods here require just a couple of hours of time everyday, invested in the potential developing these businesses hold. They can greatly supplement your income,and in some cases these can become so rewarding that you will consider giving up your job .
Discounting to Create Cash Flow? Be Careful.
Before you consider discounting your price, make sure that the customer fully understands the value proposition you offer and that you fully understand the customer's needs and wants...

8 Tips to Tune Up Your Business
A business service adviser can help your business run smooth and avoid future breakdowns. Whether it's preventive maintenance or a major repair, get an expert to fix it right the first time. Here are 8 tips to perform a business tune up.
Selling Your Business Plan: Tips for Hitting the Homerun
Now that you have written your business plan, what next? You have to sell it! Yes as a business owner with the next best idea, you have just become a sales person. You may have thought, “But I’m the thought leader and must develop the product/services for the market. I just want the lender or investor to give me the money I need to get to market.” This isn't enough. Your business plan must be a persuasive document that catches the lender's eyes and thoughts in the first 30 seconds. The first couple of sentences must grab his attention and beg him to read further. You must get the lender to say "Ah ha!"
What did you learn from the last sale you lost?
Your ability to be professional and appreciative in listening to what the customer shares with you will help ensure you have a good relationship going forward with that person.

6 Do's and Don'ts of Using an iPad on a Sales Call
Make a wise decision regarding the use of an iPad in your next meeting - remember that you aren’t going to impress anyone with any gadget – unless you have a valid reason for having it there in the first place...

How to Manage Perceptions so They Work For You not Against You
60 seconds is not a long time. Yet that is all it takes for a customer to gain a quick perception of your store and of you. This perception then becomes a reality to the customer. All in 60 seconds. It doesn't seem like much of a chance. Yet, if we know it only takes that amount of time, why don't we manage that time better?

Tending Your Client Garden
Have you ever wondered why a relationship with a client who loved buying your product or service falls through the cracks? Do you want to learn how to bring an old client back into the fold, or breathe new life into an existing business relationship? The solution to re-establishing those valuable connections is a lot simpler than most people realize.

The No. 1 Secret To Sales and Cash Flow Success – Offer A Canadian Vendor Financing Program & Customer Leasing Plan ! Sales = Cash !
Information on why a vendor financing program for your customers improves sales, cash flow and profits . Why a Customer leasing plan might make sense for your firm . A no cost growth solution for companies in Canada.
Today\'s \"rant\" - insubordination
Many broadcasters long for the past where stability was the norm.Our customers (advertisers, viewers/users, stockholders and employees) are looking for much more from us. They are begging us to defy the past and invent the future to drive their success. That, by definition, forces us into instability, experimentation and the willingness to fail.
Why Your Customer Doesn\'t Like Your Price
The one and only reason your customer doesn't like your price is because they have failed to see enough value in what you are offering to warrant paying the price.

Business Networking: How to build your value through relationships.
Do you promote your business, make new contacts, and develop beneficial relationships? How do you get referrals? Networking is a vital business development and marketing tool that should be in your repertoire for business growth. Here are some recommendations for building your successful networking plan.

Mistakes to Avoid When Opening Your Own Business
Starting a business can be rewarding but you need to be aware of these common mistakes. Avoiding them can help you and your business be a success.
Deal sites that benefit small businesses
Deal sites can be a blessing or a nightmare for your business. They can send the wrong message or be targeted to just the customer you desire to build loyalty. Fortunately, the field is expanding to improve your options. Bloomspot, Womply, and Google Offers are emerging options or companions to the giant, Groupon.

Satisfactory Customer Service is No Longer Acceptable
Unfortunately, the bottom line is that most organizations provide satisfactory customer service and they think they are doing the customer a favor. They think they are doing something great. They create all kinds of measurements and talk about it all the time. Pat themselves on the back.

Customer Service Consistency
Do you have it in your organization – or do you just think you do? Does everyone answer the phone – the right way? You might and should have a written policy. But if it is not followed – how good is it?
How to Sell Anything to Anybody Face to Face
Selling, more than any other profession is s learning game. Doctor's and lawyers often refer to what they do as a "Practice." Selling is also practice. Product knowledge, phrasing, time management, flow of information, presentation skills are all part of the learning process of sales. Selling is not manipulation. Salespeople should think of themselves as "assistant buyers" to their customers or clients not a competitive adversary.

Developing Personas to Help You with Targeting
Create personas for your target audiences to better position your marketing efforts. It will help you decide where to spend your ad dollars, and what types of messaging you use. Break down your customers or guests into different categories and create fictitious lives to represent each group. Decide everything from their age and gender to where they get their news and what kind of car they drive. This is a creative and helpful practice that my agency recommends highly.
That dog won’t hunt
Here we are at the end of March already. I was talking with a friend the other day about an old farmer’s adage we used to anticipate in March regarding the weather: “In like a lamb, out like a lion.” Or “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” The expectation was that if we had harsh winter weather at the beginning of March we would have mild weather at the end – and vice versa. I have no idea why that is expected but it reminds me of all the little clichés that we accept as reality. As farmers we also used to cite, “Red in the morning, sailors warning; red at night, sailors delight.”
You Screwed Up - Now What?
All businesses make blunders. Here's a solid, step by step methodology to getting you back in your customers' good books.
Debunking the perfect sales process myth: Three steps to help you to better meet the unique needs of every customer or prospect
“How do I build the perfect sales cycle or the perfect sales process?” I’m often asked this question and my answer tends to disappoint those who are looking for quick answers to challenging problems.

Get Out of Your Box to Attract Ideal Customers
If you’re a business growth junkie, you’ve heard a million times that you have to know your target market. Most companies can spit out a profile of their ideal customer but nothing about it feels personal. You’ve got to get intimate with them.

Other customer Related Articles

Six Keys to Creating Wow Customer Service Experiences
Creating Wow customer service experiences increase customer retention, loyalty, and profits. Exceptional customer service is all about creating the Ultimate Customer Experience.
Become a Customer-Focused Leader
In my recent articles, “To Be (Customer-Focused) … Or Not To Be…” and “Why Customer Focus Differentiates” I offer a number of compelling reasons for the strategic importance of making Customer Focus a critical business strategy. If you found these reasons compelling or you already knew in your gut that Customer Focus is strategically essential, then your goal must be to create a customer-centric culture throughout your company. If this is the case then you will need to embed customer focus into everything you do. This article describe t leadership qualities needed to create a cutomer-focused organization.
Customer Service Made Easy
There is a mystery around customer service. Most consumers think that customer service has gone downhill. Most businesspeople think that their customer service is good. How can this be possible? If you can solve this puzzle then you are well on your way to delivering great customer service.

Calculating Customer Lifetime Value
Do you know what an average customer is truly worth to your company? By calculating your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), you'll be able to answer that question. CLV is the amount of profit a customer delivers to your company for as long as the customer is buying from you. It's typically calculated as the net present value (the value in today's dollars) of the profit you'll earn from all of a customer's purchases over time.

Motivate Your Customer Service Team for Outstanding Customer Service: Six Secrets of Customer Service Motivation
Providing outstanding customer service is one of the most rewarding yet challenging activities within your organization. Exceptional organizations that provide outstanding customer service will experience the following benefits: * Increased customer satisfaction * Increased revenues * Increased repeat and referral customer traffic * Less employee turnover * Increased profits So how do we support and motivate our customer service team to give outstanding customer service? The following are six secrets to motivate your customer service team to give exceptional customer service to your customers.
Sales and Customer Service are Just Like Steriod Use in Baseball
Sales is just like Steroid use in Baseball. If a customer attacks, complains, whines, demands or points fingers and you simply say, "you're right. I'm sorry," the issue goes away. However, if you get defensive, place blame, make excuses, deny the issue or fail to apologize, your customer will never forget and as a result, may no longer be your customer. The customer is always right - even when they're wrong.
GIVE CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT
Finding out what customers want, and then setting out to meet their needs, provided it can be done at a profit, is what helps prevail in the marketplace. Demonstrating to customers how a product or service can satisfy their wants and desires will strengthen the holding glue between the customer and your business. The wise business owner is always aware of customer wants. Many businesses make the mistake of assuming that a customer’s number one priority is low price. But before price even becomes a factor, the customer wants other things. The customer is looking for ways to improve their quality of life, their productivity, to become more profitable, or to increase their competitive advantage. Meeting one or all of these fundamental wants will add value and move the customer forward.
Three Strategies to Keep Your Clients Even in a Bad Economy
One of the CEO Rule for small business owners is: “The Transaction is the Result of the Relationship.” Every business owner wants to build great customer relationships but what happens when the customer calls with a money problem? If the relationship is first in your mind, your options are endless. Find a way to keep the customer today and you are well on your way to keeping that customer for life.
The 3 Step Sales Process: Feature, Function, Benefit
Learn how to streamline your sales process and create a winning sales presentation. This 3 step sales process will not only help you to close the sale you are working on, it will ensure that you are selling the right product to the right customer. Making the right sale promotes customer satisfaction which is key to customer retention, and attracting new clients through customer based referrals. A “feature, function, benefit” focus results in a happy customer. A happy customer will provide you more advertising, marketing and promotion than money can buy, resulting in increasing your sales and generating a constant revenue stream.
Are You A Good Customer?
There are great books on the market about customer service: Raving Fans, Contagious Customer Service and Exceeding Customer Expectations. All good books, however, none address a core issue required for receiving great customer service from vendors and suppliers: be a good customer.

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