5
Ways to Grow any Business
--
www.peibiz.com --
This section
discusses five (5) sure ways to grow any business and increase profits.
Lets get started with the first method entitled "Get New Customers".
1. Get New Customers:
It may seem quite obvious but getting more customers will dramatically grow and strengthen your business. It is one of the most difficult challenges a business owner will experience. If you are already in business, then you know what I mean. Without customers your business will not survive. Yet very few companies have a fool proof strategy to generate leads and turn those leads in to paying customers. With this said, your task is to design, test and implement strategies that will get you more customers. The following discussion will help you with this process.
If you are like many companies, you probably have one method for getting new customers. If you are totally honest, the approach you use is probably the same approach your competitors are using. The method you have chosen most likely involves taking out an ad in a newspaper or radio to inform potential customers about your business. Occasionally, you may also send out a flier to a specific area to introduce your business to prospects and hope they become customers. Most likely the methods you currently use to acquire new customers don't work as well as you would like. And in most cases, you probably are unable to gauge the success rate of any of your promotional campaigns.
Fortunately, there are countless number of ways to attract new customers or clients to your business. You must be creative and provide attractive offers in order to generate leads (IE potential customers). Then the task is to convert those leads into paying customers.
Here's an example of how a hotel operator used a little creativity to acquire a listing of potential customers and then turned many of those leads into paying customers. Regularly, the hotel owner places 5 postcards with a nice photo of the hotel in each of the 100 rooms. When a guest checks in to the hotel, they are informed about the 5 free postcards and encouraged to fill them out, drop them back to the front desk and the hotel will send them out free of charge (IE the hotel pays for the postage). This gesture makes the guests feel special and valued and of course they will send all 5 postcards to their family and friends. The postage and postcards are free so the guests have nothing to lose.
Here's where the magic begins. When the postcards are handed to the front desk operator, the names and addresses on the postcards are entered into the hotel computer system and referenced to the guest who is sending each postcard. Each of the five families are now considered prospects and since each family receiving the postcard is considered to be in the guest's "circle of influence", it is much easier to convert them into paying customers.
Knowing this, the hotel owner sends to each prospect a number of promotional items such as sales letters, brochures, special room rate cards, free diner offers, and the list goes on. The offers within the promotional package is to entice the guest's friends and family members to the hotel the next time they plan their vacation, for example. Since the hotel owner and staff goes over the top to ensure everyone enjoys their stay, the odds that all guests were satisfied is high. And chances are the guests have and continue to highly recommend the hotel and the services they offer to those they sent the postcards to as well as others who they speak too. With 100 hotel rooms, it would be safe to say the hotel owner gets thousands of leads (prospects) each month and many become guests themselves.
As you can see, this example shows how simple it can be to acquire leads and turn those leads into customers (who eventually will refer other prospects). The hotel owner created this simply System and it works time and time again.
Please Note: I am in the final
stages of writing an extensive Guide entitled "How to
Get Tonnes of New Customers and Increase Sales". It will show
you methods on how to obtain leads (potential customers) and
then turn those leads into paying customers. The objective of the Guide is
to give you simple, yet effective ideas on how to dramatically increase your sales and profits to unbelievable
levels. If you would like me to notify you when I finish writing this
Guide, simply fill out the request form below and I will email you as soon as it's
complete. - Karl Johnston - www.peibiz.com
2. Design Referral Systems:
Creating
referral systems can be one of the most profitable ways to grow your business.
Referrals are actually an extension of getting more customers. Referral systems
can be designed with A) existing customers and B) with other businesses.
Both methods are discussed below.
A) Referral Systems through Existing Customers:
This type of referral program rewards existing customers for recommending others to your business. By rewarding customers who refer others, you are actually encouraging them to send more and more people your way.
A restaurant may give a free meal to those existing customers who refer three people to the restaurant. A computer company may offer a 15% discount to a customer on their next visit when his/her referral leads to the purchase of a complete computer system, for instance. An esthetician may provide a free manicure for every three people a customer refers.
Many companies
place a name on their referral system such as the "Bring a Friend Referral
Program". For example, an esthetician could design a program where existing
customers could "bring a friend" who has never used the esthetic service
before. Both the friend and the customer could be rewarded with free samples
of product. This strategy has five (5) main effects which
are.
Some
companies even hold a referral contest which is available to existing customers
only. It is usually positioned as a "new customer drive". Here's how a
"new customer drive" can work for you. For each referral, your customer
is automatically entered once into a contest to win prizes your primary
target market will find desirable. For two referrals, five additional ballots
are entered in their name. For three referrals, 10 ballots are entered
in their name, and so on. In essence, the more people existing customers
refer, the better their odds of winning the prizes. These referrals are
actually considered leads. When you collect all the leads, your task is
to convert the leads into paying customers.
With referral systems, you are simply encouraging existing customers to refer their family, friends, acquaintances and "circle of influences" to your business. This ultimately improves your customer base and therefore increases sales and the bottom line.
Three
final points. Whatever reward system you decide upon, be sure you can accurately
track the customers who are making the referral. Secondly, be sure that
all customers are aware of your referral system. By doing so, each customer
clearly understands the rewards and benefits they can receive. Finally,
the same rewards should be offered to those new customers who you gained
through the referral campaign. As a result, these new customers will refer
even more people to your business.
B) Referral Systems through Existing Businesses
The second type of referral system consists of "partnering" with existing businesses. Such systems are also known as cross promotions, joint ventures or strategic alliances. Joint venture marketing involves joining forces with non-competing businesses who share similar target markets. The process generally involves creating a relationship with each other's customers and ultimately selling to them. Joint ventures are usually born by creating package deals, great offers and contests. Examples of possible joint ventures may be formed between:
No
matter what type of company you own, you can easily form joint ventures
with other existing businesses. There are two methods you can use to select
companies to partner with. 1) Make a list of businesses who have complimentary
products or services. 2) And make a list of non-completing businesses who
share similar target markets.
Please Note: the company you decide to partner with should share the same integrity, views on customer service and ethics as you. Furthermore, the campaigns you design should be a win-win-win situation. In other words, your company, the partnering company and the customer all should benefit from the joint venture campaign.
Now lets look at an example of how a computer company can develop a joint venture with a residential cleaning business. You might ask why would a computer store want to partner with a cleaning company. It's simple. If you think about it, during the normal cleaning duties, the cleaner knows whether a household or business has a relatively new computer, an old computer system or no computer system at all. The computer store could design several 15% discount cards (with an expiration date) which can be used towards a new computer, a computer upgrade, new software, computer accessories or whatever. The discount cards would be given to the to the owner of a small cleaning company who would leave them with her existing customers as an appreciation for hiring her cleaning service.
That's how simple it is to create a joint venture. And most importantly, it's a win-win-win situation. The computer company gains new customers, and the cleaning company wins since she is strengthening her relationship with her customers by giving them a special discount card that is not available anywhere else. The customer wins since they receive a discount from the computer company.... plus the customer feels special and appreciated by the computer company and the cleaning service.
To end this section, remember this: The purpose of any joint venture is to introduce the partnering company's customers to your business and vice-a-versa. Then the objective is to convert those people (prospects) into life long customers. By doing so, you are increasing your customer base and ultimately your sales and bottom line.
By the
way, the Guide I spoke about earlier called
"How to Get Tonnes of New Customers and Increase Sales"
is filled with tonnes of creative referral programs/examples you may use to grow
your business. Once again, if you would like me to notify you when I
finish writing the Guide, simply fill out the form below and I will email you
as soon as it's completed. - Karl Johnston - www.peibiz.com
3. Increase the amount customers Spend with you:
Another method to increase sales and the bottom line is to get customers to make larger average purchases. In order words, get them to spend more money when they buy something from you. This is probably the easiest and most profitable method to grow your business. How can you get customers to buy more from you when they are at your place of business?
Look at the fast food industry and how they mastered the method to get more money from us each time we purchase. When we order a beverage and a sandwich, the employee asks "would you an apple pie or fries with that". This is called a "cross sell". Another technique the fast food industry uses is called an "upsell". When you order a combo meal, for instance, the employee asks "would you like to up-size your fries and beverage for only 59 cents".
These methods used to increase the amount a customer spends during their purchase actually costs the fast food company nothing in terms of promotions (just words and phases said by the front line staff). Moreover, the customer is already purchasing something so they are already in the purchase mode. The worst a customer can say when presented with a upsell or cross sell is no. But interesting enough, many say yes to the question and therefore, more money is collected from the customer during each of their visits. And the only reason why customers says yes to the "up-sell" or "cross-sell" is because a suggestion has been made to them. It's that simple. So if you are aware of something your customers might want, but not ask for, you can dramatically increase your sales by simply making a suggestion or making an additional offer. Besides the cost of the actual product/service, there are no additional costs to you... so it's complete profit (IE there are no acquisition costs or marketing costs).
Another technique used by the fast food industry is called bundling. Think about the 'Happy Meal" which consists of a burger, fries, beverage and perhaps a toy or free gift. What types of products or services can you bundle so that the customer buys the bundle opposed to one or two separate products? I am sure you can think of many ideas.
It's really
amazing how many businesses spend so much time and money on trying to get
more customers and neglect to consider the technique of increasing the
customer's order or purchase. When you think about it, the only reason
why business owners promote to get more customers is so that the customer
will spend their money at their establishment. So why not spend a portion
of your time to create upsells, bundles, and cross sells that will entice
your existing customers to spend more on each visit. When you have solid
strategies to attract new customers and tactics to entice all customers
to purchase more each time they buy from you, then sales and profits will
go through the roof.
4. Increase the number of times customers buy from you:
The fourth way to grow your business is to increase the number of transaction customers have with you. In other words, you must design strategies and techniques that will increase the frequency in which customers do business with you. Give them reasons to do business with you. Provide offers that customers can not pass up. Continuously inform and remind them of the exceptional business you have and how they can benefit by taking you up on your offers. In addition, continuously build and nurture your relationship with customers so that they keep coming back over and over again.
Some methods to increase the number of purchases customers have with you is to offer a frequency buyer card, a reward card, a free gift on their next visit, a discount sale, a "buy one get one free offer", a sale around special occasions, a contest, a free trail membership, a customer appreciation event, and the list goes on and on. A restaurant, for example, might present a customer with a free dessert coupon which can be redeemed on their next visit. This entices the customer back to the restaurant sooner rather then later.
A system which tends to work well is to first get the customer into your store by offering something free such as gift. When the customer comes to pick up the free gift, they are informed of other specials or products which they might (should) find desirable. For example, a computer company might give a free spindle of 25 disks to their "valued" customers. The disks can be picked up during the customers next visit, at which time, the computer company would inform the customer about the remarkable sale on a new line of printers that just arrived.
Service-based businesses that do not have a store front such as a mobile plumbing company may offer existing customers a free inspection on all plumbing fixtures. During the inspection, the plumber may uncover a few problem areas with the prospect's plumbing system. In this case, the free inspection will increase the sales for the plumbing company and the customer will be happy since the plumbing problems are resolved.
It doesn't stop there, however. The "smart" plumber would go the extra mile to ensure, the customer calls him the next time a plumbing problem occurs. To do this, the plumber must strengthen the trust and relationship between him and the customer. For instance, the plumber may make a follow-up call (out of the blue) to ensure everything is working properly. He may send the customer some valuable information on how to avoid the top 10 plumbing problems. He may also send the customer a genuine letter, thanking them for the business. Of course, the smart plumber would place a sticker or two on the customer's furnace and other plumbing fixtures, depicting the name and telephone number of his company. By doing so, the customer never has to search through the phone book to find a plumbing company should a problem arise.
No matter
what type of company you own, you can come up with strategies to increase
the frequency in which the customer does business with you. If you don't
already have measures in place to increase the number of times customers
visit your place of business, then it's safe to say that you are losing
out on major profits. Because, the longer your customers go between purchases
with you, the more likely they will shop at your competitors. But remember,
it has to be a win-win situation for you and your customer. You benefit
by increasing sales and the customer benefits by giving them exceptional products,
services and solutions that solve their problems.
5.
Get Your Business on the Internet NOW!!!
As I mentioned many times throughout this web page, it is so important that
you take advantage of the power of the internet to increase your sales and grow
your business. It does not matter what type of company
you own, the Internet has the potential to amazingly increase the profitability
of your business to unbelievable levels. Most people
just don't realize how important it is to have their business online (on the
internet). I have used the following example in other sections of this web
site to illustrate how a business owner can use
the Internet to increase sales.
Let's assume you own a Hair Salon in Charlottetown. Therefore, you would cater to a local market and not a global market which the internet is mistakenly known for. The question is... how can you use the Internet to Increase Sales and improve your chances of staying in business.
If you are a smart business owner, every time a customer comes into your salon to get their hair permed, for instance, you would get their email address as they are paying (please note: there are hundreds of strategies to collect the customer's email address). You would also write down the date the customer used the salon and what service he/she received. So what can you do with this information?
Well, in three weeks when business slows down,
the smart entrepreneur would send an email to customers that might say something
like this.....
Dear (customer's name goes here):
I just wanted to send you a short note to Thank You for visiting our hair salon to get your hair colored on November 9, 2006. I truly appreciate your business!. I also wanted to let you know that we are offering a special 15% discount to our valued customers from December 18 through December 22. To qualify for this special discount, you must book your appointment within the next 48 hours. This will guarantee a time and date that best suits your schedule.
Once again, thank you for your business and I look forward to seeing you between December 18 and December 22.
Kind Regards,(Your Name)
(The Name of the Hair Salon)
That's it.... Now in the next 48 hours, do you think the phone will be ringing of the hook? Of course it will because you would have sent this email to all your "valued" customers.
Think about it, these new sales would not have been made without the use of the internet. And most importantly, this approach doesn't cost a red cent. Furthermore, the hair salon owner wouldn't have to place an expensive ad in the newspaper or on the radio in order to generate these new sales.
This example illustrates only one of hundreds of ways to use the internet to increase sales. "The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet" and "Secrets to Email Marketing", written by the Internet Marketing Center, are two of the best Internet resources I've ever come across. Combined, these resources outline everything you need to know about using the internet to make your business succeed. Further, these two (2) resources describe hundreds of strategies and techniques that will drive sales through the roof, no matter what type of business you own or plan to own!
For your convenience, I have also identified other highly useful Internet Tools and Resources under the section entitled "Getting Your Business on the Internet". These internet tools and resources will kept you in business and ahead of the Competition! I use them each and everyday. So, use these Internet Resources to get online today so that you can increase sales and grow your business by well over 500%! --- Karl Johnston - www.peibiz.com ---
This concludes the discussion on "How to Grow and Expand Any
Business". Below lists the five (5) steps discussed above.
1. Get New Customers
2. Design Referral Systems
3. Increase the Amount Customers Spend with You
4. Increase the Number of Times Customers Buy from You
5. Get Your Business on the Internet NOW!!!