These days, the companies that will succeed will be those that offer superior customer experience. The value of a lifetime customer is immeasurable. So once you get a customer, how do you keep him?
Having confidence in yourself is one of the key criteria to creating a successful business.
Warren Buffet said, “I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.” Now that exudes confidence! It is not a coincidence that he was able to make it as big as he is today.
You can’t do everything yourself in your business. You need to have a team helping you who are experts in what they do, including joint venture partners who can help you grow your business. This is why it is so important to cultivate business relationships.
Meeting people in person is a great way to get to know people. Get organized and plan a schedule of attending events or other opportunities to network, along with following up and nurturing your new relationships.
The internet makes it easy to meet people and stay in touch, but face-to-face contact in person is still the best. Take advantage of any opportunity you have to network offline and interact in the real world with your contacts.
Before you set off to network or talk to a prospect, identify the skills, experience, expertise and other value that you can offer others. Take a good look at your resources and skill set to determine what you can do for others. Approach the new people you meet with confidence and let this value show
Don’t form relationships based strictly on what others can do for you. If you make each relationship mutually rewarding so that it’s beneficial for everyone, it will be much stronger. The other party will be more likely to do things for you when they’re also benefiting from knowing you.
A very important part of cultivating network relationships is staying in touch with those you meet. After I meet someone, I send an email saying it was nice to meet them, then follow up with a phone call.
For your new contacts, be proactive and offer to do something for them. Offer some kind of help they need that you can provide in just a few minutes. In my “nice to meet you” email I provide a link to a free report. This is a great way to follow up and keep in touch, and also boosts your relationship with goodwill. Your new contact will immediately see the value you have to offer.
Enter each of your contacts into a CRM and record as much as you can about them. Record all pertinent business information as well as any personal information you can, such as their hobbies, family’s names, etc. This data can clue you in to their needs and ways you can make connections with them. And with the CRM you can easily schedule follow-up calls or other tasks.
Although you want to establish a mutually trusting relationship, and some may grow into a friendship, your business contacts aren’t your friends at first. Keep the appropriate level of professionalism with your business contacts. Always correspond with them politely and don’t forget the say “please” and “thank you.”
Through each contact with your contacts, pay attention and listen closely. This is how you learn what they’re struggling with so you can offer ways to help. You also need to recognize if your contact with the person is intrusive and whether or not it’s valuable to them.
As much as possible, make your relationships valuable to the other person. Don’t make it all about what you need from them. If your contacts get great things by knowing you, they’ll be on the lookout for ways they can reciprocate and help you too. This is how you build long-term relationships.
Your turn: What are ways you build great relationships in your business?
Deidra Miller
Entrepreneur Strategy Specilalist
When it comes to convincing or motivating purchases, you can’t go wrong with credibility. When you’re believable and trustworthy, people will be more inclined to want to work with you. Your website is the hub of your online presence and is often the first way people learn about who you are and how you can help them, so it has to demonstrate credibility.
Make sure the claims and promises you make are backed up by evidence. Evidence can be in the form of testimonials, raw data, facts and statistics or reviews. Always back up your promises and claims and if you can’t back them up, don’t make them. Consumers are too savvy to buy into it.
When you want to hire a plumber for example, you want to talk to people he or she has done work for to make sure former customers were happy with the work. Your prospects would like the same peace of mind about working with you. Including testimonials and links to review sites on your website is a great way to show your website visitors that you can deliver on what you promise.
So how do you get testimonials, reviews and endorsements to put on your website? Sometimes customers are so pleased with your products or services that they happily offer them up. However, don’t be afraid to ask them for a testimonial. Send a survey or email or pick up the phone and talk to customers who you know had a positive experience. Continue reading
One of the biggest marketing mistakes business owners make is not knowing how to identify their ideal client. Many times this is a challenge for Solopreneurs who are just starting their business, but surprisingly, established business owners often do not know how to identify their ideal client.
The Challenge to Identify Your Ideal Client
The challenge to identify your ideal client often stems from the fact that you believe that your service or product is for everyone. “Everyone can use my health products.” Further, the training received from companies, especially in Direct Sales, foster the notion that “everyone” can benefit from your products.
While working in Corporate America, I discovered and fell in love with a line of skin care, which I still use today. I was a Consultant for 14 years and enjoyed sharing the products, as well as teaching skin care, because I saw the difference it made to enhance the natural beauty of a woman’s skin. In all those years I was taught that “every woman with skin” was my ideal customer.
In reality that was not the case. While there were products that could benefit girls from 12 years old all the way to older women with mature skin, I discovered, about 10 years in the business, that my ideal customer was a woman 40 and above (with specific criteria), who was concerned about aging skin and whose focus was on anti-aging products. It turned out that this description fit the women who had been my customers for over five years, and some from when I started my business. Continue reading
Since today is a very special day with a solar eclipse happening, I thought this would be a good day to think about mindset so all your cosmic forces can be in alignment!
Building a business is a fantastic and challenging experience. You can wake up exhilarated to begin your day and go to bed feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. The key to success is to maintain a positive, yes you can do it, mindset. Easier said than done, right?
Here are 5 strategies to help you create and sustain a positive mindset so you attain the success you desire.
When you’re passionate and excited about how your business can make a difference and help others, that will shine through. Showing your passion will help you connect with your customers emotionally, and have you all jumping for joy!
Most of us humans are emotional buyers. We just can’t help being drawn to someone who is so enthusiastic about their business that it’s contagious. One of my clients loves his business so much, he doesn’t consider it work, he’s just doing what he’s passionate about!
Even if we’re doing something that we were passionate about in the beginning, and still love doing, the “honeymoon phase” can wear off and we often find ourselves settling into a routine that can stifle that passion.
Writing effective email subject lines and blog titles is something of an art form. Even small changes can have a profound effect on open rates. Since the tips here apply to email subject lines as well as blog titles, for your ease of reading I’ll just use the term “title” here to mean both.
As the name implies, a sitemap literally acts as a map of your website. It lists the pages on your website and creates a link to each one.
