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1. Settle On The Right Way Forward
The purpose of your promotions is to get more sales, not to
soley enhance the image of you or your company. As a salesperson
you must understand this right at the beginning or you will be
wasting your's and every one else's time.
You must be enthusiastic about the product or service you are
promoting. If you're not why should the customer be?
Communicate with the customer on their level and talk about what
they want from your offering. Its a simple enough way forward.
But how often do you not hear this being done?
2. Start To Target Your Customers
Not all customers will buy your product or service. The skill is
in targetting those who are more likely to. The end result is
more sales and reduced costs for contacting them. Amongst
customers there are good ones and bad ones.
The good ones are repeat buyers; those who have bought before
and are happy to use their favorite supplier. Unfortunately,
this type of customer is least likely to be swayed by
advertisers lile yourselves and therefore hardest to win over.
Conversely, the bad customers are far more likely to respond to
advertisers, including you, then move on to another advertiser,
leaving you behind...and they always complain and want more and
more for less and less.
You want more business...the right sort of business... the
profitable sort. To be as exact as possible is very important.
Finding the best ones for you; Apparently only the top 20% of
potential customers are very profitable and the bottom 20% will
lose you money.
Therefore, depending on where your company stands in relation to
the above there are diferent strategies to use; - If you
are not currently selling to the top 20% then you could increase
your market share of customers and make good profit. -
concentrating on the top 20% means less customers need to be
obtained. - If you are already selling to the top 20% then any
increase in customer numbers (market share) means less overall
profitabilty
Finding repeat customers: Apart from new customers, the
obvious source of more sales is existing customers. This is
often forgotten and the costs are small in comparison to getting
new customers. Customers who have bought before are less likely
to be wooed by competitors, as long as they are happy. Or should
I say, kept happy.
Some budget should be set aside for existing customers and
establishing or reinforcing some 'Loyalty' strategies or scheme.
You know the sort..Discounts for existing customers and repeat
purchasers.
3. Supply Customer Satisfaction
If you can convince your customers that they will be more
satisfied than with your competitors then you will win. But to
do that you need to know;
a) what satisfaction they want b) how you can provide it and c)
how to tell them.
Customers are satisfied when all their needs are fulfilled. But
it would be practically impossible to satisfy everyone's needs
in one communication...there will be so many. And mass marketing
rarely hits on the most profitable segment.
That it why it is important to target specific groups who have
similar needs with specific advertisement messages.
4. Identify Important Customer Groups
Large companies can afford to send out separate promotions to
lots of different customer groups, addressing their specific
needs exactly.
Smaller businesses can't do this but there may be common needs
amongst their customer groups, albeit not primary ones for all
of them, but enough commonality to be effective for one
promotional publication.
This one publication should wherever possible combine the
customer groups and their satisfied needs into its structure
(story). e.g. Combining the primary manufacturer customer group
and secondary retail customer group, the producer and the seller.
5. Use People Who Can Make Things Happen
Identify those who can help you in your promotions.
- Directors of other companies who can recommend to
departments within their control. - Press release about your
product/service - Product/service review by recognized
authority. - Establish referral system (you pay a commission
or similar for sales/work obtained)
Incentives for all
your 'helpers' will vary and need to be judged carefully. But
remember, your competitors will be doing the same and maybe to
the same people you are dealing with. Its promotion after all,
so bear that in mind.
6. Find Out How Much Your Customers Know About You
You need to find out from your prospective or new customers what
they know about you. This can done through surveys and
questionnaires (with incentives to complete). After all they
might never have heard of you and are hardly likely to buy from
you.
They may be misinformed and have the totally wrong impresion of
what you do or supply. Sales promotions can't be planned
properly without this information.
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About the author:
(c) Paul Curran, CEO of Cuzcom Internet Publishing Group and
webmaster at Wealth-Building-Secrets.com brings you sales &
marketing strategies, promotional marketing products plus strategies and
advice for personal and business success.
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