Tag Archives: customers

The top action to take right now to get more customers immediately

By Aaron Hoos on January 24, 2013 in Business

Do you want more customers? Every business does. Here’s the very best thing you can do right now to start getting more customers immediately:

Narrow your target market.

That’s it. It seems simplistic and even counter-intuitive. After all, why would you narrow your available customer-base if you want to get more customers?

Here’s the answer: The bigger your potential market, the harder it is to speak clearly and compellingly to their problem. Conversely, the smaller your potential market, the easier it is to truly connect with their problem and demonstrate how effective your solution is.

Here’s an example: If you have a friend who has a problem, you can give them advice, assurance, and a little helpful guidance to fix their problem. You’re laser-targeting your solution to your friend’s very specific needs. But what if you have several friends who each have the same problem? You might not have enough time to help each one individually so instead you help them generally or as a group. Your recommendations will still be targeted to their problem but it will be slightly more generalized. But to extend the analogy further, most businesses tell all of their friends about the solution, whether or not their friends have a problem.

That’s how it works in business. In a perfect world, you have one customer with a problem and you work with them until the problem is solved. Your message to them, as well as your advice and recommendations, are laser-targeted. However, that is not very profitable. So you need to back up just a bit and find a bunch of people who each share a similar problem and you can communicate to all them a little more generally. Unfortunately, many businesses (the struggling ones, at least), share their solution with anyone and everyone, regardless of whether or not they want to hear it. One is not enough, “everyone” is too many. The best thing to do is find the group in the middle — those who all share the same problem.

If your business is struggling a bit, or even if it’s humming along nicely but you’d like to get more customers, the very first thing you need to do right now is to identify your target market… and be as clear and specific as possible while describing a fairly large potential base.

If you’ve been in business for a while then you have some examples of previous customers to draw from. Find the ones who are the most profitable, the most positive, the ones who tell others about you the most enthusiastically… and figure out what is similar about them.

Then, look at the people who didn’t become customers, as well as your least profitable and highest-maintenance customers. What characteristics do your best customers share that these “worse” customers and almost-customers do not share? Try to identify the characteristics that DON’T describe your customer-base.

Once you’ve done that, you have a pretty good idea of who IS and ISN’T your ideal customer. Then hone your marketing to meet those specific people.

And if you haven’t sold anything yet, then give it your best guess but be prepared to refine it further — perhaps even dramatically — if you need to.

Let me give you an example from when I was doing a lot of a freelance writing.

I started by writing for anyone I could find. Over time, I found that I was being asked to write a lot of business (specifically B2B), financial, and real estate content. Later, I realized that my best customers were from the financial and real estate field, particularly in the US. And even later, I learned that my very favorite and most profitable customers included real estate investors, debt collectors and credit experts, and lenders. With each “step” toward a more specific customer base, my marketing was refined, I closed more deals, and my prices went up (because I was more specialized and there was less competition)!

So if you’re sitting at your desk and wondering what you can do right now to improve your business, drop everything else and refine your customer-base. Get very specific and narrow them further than they have been. Trust me, it’s the best thing you can do for your business right now.

Who are your ideal customers?

By Aaron Hoos on January 19, 2013 in Business

Your ideal customers are the ones who will suffer if they don’t buy what you are selling.

Your ideal customers are the ones who will lose money because they haven’t invested in your solution.

Your ideal customers are the ones whose lives will be worse because they haven’t met with you or agreed that your product or service can help them.

Your ideal customers are the ones who are held back because they haven’t gained access to your offering.

Your ideal customers are the ones who haven’t yet figured out that they have a problem… and their quality of life is lower because of it.

Your ideal customers are the ones who are struggling with what they currently do.

Your ideal customers are the ones who are suffering because their existing choices aren’t meeting their needs.

Your ideal customers are the ones who don’t just have wants and desires and dreams… but a real and substantial and costly problem.

Your ideal customers are the ones who have the most to lose.

The needier your potential customers are, and the costlier that need is in their lives, the better.

Find those people, show them the costs of their existing situation, then reveal the fastest, easiest, most painless, and the very best way to invest in a new solution — YOUR solution.

(PS, If you don’t believe your solution is the fastest, easiest, most painless, and the very best solution then improve your solution or find a new one or get out of the business).

100 small business strategy questions

By Aaron Hoos on May 18, 2012 in Business

Many small businesses are fueled by passion. They start because an entrepreneur has an idea (or is sick of working for a boss), they grow because their ideas solve a problem and somehow that solution is communicated to the marketplace.

Unfortunately, many small businesses fail… even ones that are seemingly successful and make profitable sales. The reason is, they’re simply existing day-by-day, sale-by-sale, without any real strategy or long-term vision to give their existence any direction.

If you’re an entrepreneur, answer these 100 small business strategy questions. The answers will help you to highlight areas of opportunity that you can exploit and areas of concern that you can mitigate. Bookmark this page and come back to it regularly to work through these questions every 3 to 6 months.

With your answers, create a list of to-dos that you can act on until you come back to these questions again. [Note: Since publishing this list, I have written individual posts about some of these strategy questions so I've updated this list with the links to those other posts.]

  1. What does your business do?
  2. What does your business sell?
  3. What does your business stand for?
  4. What parts of your brand truly reflect your current business?
  5. What parts of your brand do not (or no longer) reflect your current business?
  6. What are the top 10 benefits your business provides?
  7. Who is your perfect customer?
  8. How are you adding value?
  9. What are your products’ or services’ biggest flaws?
  10. How do you define a lead?
  11. Where are your leads coming from?
  12. What demographic are your leads?
  13. How are you creating leads?
  14. How are your competitors creating leads?
  15. How will lead creation change for your industry in the future?
  16. How do you define a prospect?
  17. What is your lead-to-prospect ratio?
  18. What demographic are your prospects?
  19. How is your prospect demographic different from your leads demographic?
  20. How are you turning leads into prospects?
  21. How are your competitors turning leads into prospects?
  22. What objections do your prospects have?
  23. What objections do you NOT have an answer for?
  24. How do you define a customer?
  25. What is your prospect-to-customer ratio (close rate)?
  26. What demographic are your customers?
  27. How is your customer demographic different from your prospect demographic?
  28. How are you converting prospects into customers?
  29. How are your competitors converting prospects into customers?
  30. What has caused you to lose a sale?
  31. How do you define an evangelist?
  32. What is your customer-to-evangelist ratio?
  33. What is your evangelist demographic?
  34. How is your evangelist demographic different from your customer demographic?
  35. How is your relationship with your customers?
  36. What were your 3 most successful marketing campaigns?
  37. What were your 3 least successful marketing campaigns?
  38. What marketing and sales activities are you using in each stage of your sales funnel?
  39. How do you measure company-wide success?
  40. How do you measure personal and/or employee success?
  41. How are you improving your relationship with your customers?
  42. How can you improve the process for receiving and acting on feedback from customers?
  43. How are you encouraging repeat sales?
  44. How are you encouraging upsells?
  45. Who else can use your products or services that you aren’t currently serving?
  46. What is your business model?
  47. What other peer-businesses use the same business model?
  48. What can you learn from peer-businesses that use the same business model?
  49. What other businesses (in other industries) use a similar business model?
  50. What can you learn from businesses in other industries that use a similar business model?
  51. Who are your top 3 competitors?
  52. Who/what are your indirect competitors?
  53. What does the most successful businesses in your industry do that you don’t do yet?
  54. Why would someone buy from you instead of your competition?
  55. When should someone buy from your competition instead of you?
  56. What are your competitors doing differently?
  57. What are your competitors doing better than you?
  58. What are your competitors doing worse than you?
  59. How are your relationships with your suppliers/vendors?
  60. How can your supplier/vendor relationships be improved?
  61. What does your organizational chart look like and what strengths/weaknesses are the result?
  62. What are the next 3 roles you need to hire for?
  63. What was the last thing you tested in your business?
  64. When was the last time you tested a price change and what were the results?
  65. What political changes do you see affecting your business/industry?
  66. What economic changes do you see affecting your business/industry?
  67. What social changes do you see affecting your business/industry?
  68. What technological changes do you see affecting your business/industry?
  69. What financial best practices have you implemented?
  70. How have buying habits changed in your industry?
  71. What trends are influencing buying habits?
  72. How will buying habits change in the future?
  73. How has your industry innovated in the past decade?
  74. How has your business innovated in the past year?
  75. Where does your business plan to innovate this coming year?
  76. How are you investing in your business’ growth (i.e. innovation, new equipment, etc.)?
  77. What is your plan to scale up your business?
  78. If you had to get rid of 90% of your customers, what 10% would you keep?
  79. If you kept 10% of your most profitable customers, what would that demographic look like?
  80. How can you increase your ideal customer base?
  81. How can you decrease your less-than-ideal customer base?
  82. Where are people talking about your business online?
  83. What are people saying about your business online?
  84. What is your plan if your industry suddenly received a lot of bad press?
  85. What is your plan if your business suddenly received a lot of bad press?
  86. What is your plan if your marketing went viral and you suddenly had 10x the customers?
  87. What contingency plans do you a have in place for natural disasters?
  88. What would happen to your business if you were unable to work?
  89. What has changed about your business since you started?
  90. How has your income trended since you started?
  91. How has your profit margin trended since you started?
  92. What plans do you have to increase income next year?
  93. What plans do you have to increase profits next year?
  94. Where do you see your business in 1 year?
  95. Where do you see your business in 5 years?
  96. Where do you see your business in 10 years?
  97. What strengths/assets can you leverage for growth?
  98. Where are your blindspots?
  99. What are the top 3 problems keeping you from advancing to the next level in business?
  100. What about your business, industry, or customers keeps you awake at night?

6 quick sales funnel tips to make more money today

By Aaron Hoos on January 27, 2012 in Business

6 quick sales funnel tips to make more money todayRunning a business means managing a sales funnel. Sometimes you need to roll up your sleeves and do some serious work in your sales funnel to fix things that are broken or to optimize it for more profit. But other times, you just need to make minor tweaks to get a quick “pop” in you business.

Here are six quick ideas to get more money out of your sales funnel today

1. Draw out your sales funnel

You’ll gain such a clear understanding of how essential your sales funnel is to your business, plus I usually find that just drawing it out reveals some great opportunities.

2. Create just one clear call to action in your site

It’s easy and tempting to put in all kinds of calls to action — “Contact us” or “download this” or “subscribe here” — but if you have one offering, make it the front-and-center action that website visitors should take.

(Disclaimer: I’m not saying that you should take the other stuff off of your site. Just make one of those things the primary action).

3. Offer a dramatic one-day bonus

Create some short-term urgency by releasing a huge bonus product or service with the purchase of a a popular product or service you already have. Keep it short-term (a 24 hour period is good). See what kind of response you get. Find out if more people are being because they want the free bonus or because it’s a great deal.

4. Announce that you are about to raise your prices

Hey, we all need to raise our prices at some point and most business owners silently raise their prices and hope that there isn’t a lot of backlash. Work this to your advantage by announcing — via press releases and social media — that prices are going to rise on a specific date. (If you sell services, make sure you let people know that they can buy now at the lower rate but receive the service after the price increase).

5. Get back in touch with old buyers

Confession: I find it pretty easy and fun to go after new business so it’s really easy for me to finish a project and then not get back in touch with previous clients. I know I’m not alone here. Lots of entrepreneurs let old customers dry up. Spend some time today combing through your past few years of business and getting in touch with your top ten customers from there. Let them know that you have some availability or extra products and would love the chance to serve them again.

6. Double your lead-generation efforts today

The more leads we generate, the more prospects we end up with and the more customers we can convert those prospects into. But sometimes, lead generation becomes a big strategic endeavor when really just a few extra minutes or hours of effort can have a dramatic, positive impact. Don’t think long-term, just go out and try to double the amount of leads TODAY.

Why you should annoy your prospects to grow your sales funnel

By Aaron Hoos on January 24, 2012 in Business

Annoy your prospects to grow your sales funnelDid you annoy your siblings when you were a kid? Maybe you poked them or you drew a line across the back seat and staked your claim on one side and forbid them to cross over or you stole something of theirs. And then they’d run off and tell mom and dad. And there were days when they annoyed us. It’s the timeless reality of being a sibling.

As a business owner, you want to provide a great solution to your customers when they have problems… that’s the mark of any great business. But…

PROSPECTS WON’T MOVE FORWARD IN YOUR SALES FUNNEL IF THERE’S NO PAIN

Prospects will buy when they feel the pain of their problem. The more acute their pain, the sooner they buy and the more money they’re willing to spend. (For an example of when that happened in my own life, check out my blog post Rubber boots and sales copy).

When your prospects don’t feel pain, they they’re not willing to buy. They simply don’t perceive the value of the solution at that time. Instead, they give you objections like “it’s too expensive” or “I’m still shopping around”… because your solution IS too expensive (for the level of pain that they feel) and they ARE still shopping around (because they have no reason to move forward).

It’s only when they feel more pain that they are willing to spend the money to solve it. Therefore…

ANNOY YOUR PROSPECTS TO GROW YOUR SALES FUNNEL

Prospects will buy when they feel pain so you can help them feel pain. And you can do this by remembering back to when you were a kid and you used to bug your siblings. What did you do then? You found out what bothered them and then you highlighted it. You brought it to their attention. And you did it over and over until they took action (and tattled).

The same thing applies in your business (but obviously in a more professional way!!!). You find out what bothers your prospects — what pain they feel because of their problem — and then you highlight it. You build content into all parts of your sales funnel marketing that doesn’t just highlight your solution but ALSO highlights the pain of the problem your prospects face.

Create turmoil in their lives. Keep them from sleeping at night by revealing to them just how painful their current situation is. Do this over and over and over (just like you used to do when you were a kid).

And, as you do this, always present your solution as they way to solve the pain.

[Image credit: Catlin82]

The evangelist equation: How to get your customers to fill your sales funnel for you

By Aaron Hoos on June 17, 2011 in Business

My hammock gave out in the spring of 2010. Squirrels had ravaged it while preparing nests for the previous winter. I’ve been meaning to replace that hammock but last summer was busy and wet (not conducive to “hammocking”). So yesterday I went outside and realized that the weather was perfect but I remained hammockless.

I posted on Facebook: “It’s beer-and-hammock weather. Sadly, I’m out of beer and my hammock was eaten by squirrels.”

Seconds later, a friend messaged me and told me that she had just bought a hammock for her husband. She briefly described it and sent me a link to the seller’s website. Within minutes of posting my sad status, the sale was closed. I’ll be picking up a hammock from this importer this weekend!

SALES FUNNEL EVANGELIST IN ACTION

My friend was first a hammock Customer. She had purchased the hammock, was happy with the quality and price and service. Then, she became an Evangelist by sharing her success story with me. I will (shortly) become a Customer by purchasing a hammock.

This hammock importer’s hammocks have now become more profitable because she didn’t have to spend time and effort and money marketing and selling to me. I’m already in her sales funnel and I’m basically sold; it’s just a transactional issue at this point. My friend’s advice was enough to compel me toward a buying action.

Turning your Customers into Evangelists is critical for your business. Rather than expend the costly effort of marketing and selling to every single Customer, you can turn your Customers into an army of marketers and sellers who are working on your behalf.

Here’s how to do that:

THE EVANGELIST EQUATION

The right combination of elements need to be present in order for a Customer to become an Evangelist… and not just an Evangelist but an effective one that actually closes the deal for you. Those elements come together in the following equation:

Effective Evangelism = Trust + Satisfaction + Shareability

Where Satisfaction = Problem Solved + Perceived Value + Satisfaction with Service
And Shareability = Ease of Sharing + Context

Here’s what those equation components mean:

  • Trust: Trust needs to be established between the Evangelist and the prospective Customer. In order for the prospective Customer to act on the advice of the Evangelist, there needs to be a foundation of agreement between the two. In my situation, I know my friend is a very careful shopper who thoroughly researches everything before she buys.
  • Satisfaction: Satisfaction is actually made up of three components: (1) the problem was solved; (2) a sense of value was perceived between the price of the product and the degree to which it solved the problem; (3) a sense of satisfaction with the service received during the process.
  • Shareability: Shareability is made up of two components: (1) how easy it is to talk about your product or service in relation to the problem; (2) the context in which an Evangelist has an opportunity to share.

When all of those components are present, an Evangelist can effectively talk about your product or service with their friends and their friends will act on the Evangelist’s advice.

If any components are missing, your Evangelists might still share but the likelihood of success diminishes with each missing component. For example, a recommendation on Twitter about a great soup restaurant is still Evangelism but might not result in any new Customers if there is no trust between the tweeter and their followers or if there was no context for the recommendation.

TAKE CONTROL OF EVANGELISTS IN YOUR SALES FUNNEL

The truth is, you can’t control every part of the equation. You have little influence over the trust established between an Evangelist and their network. And, you have little influence over the context in which your Evangelist shares.

But, you do have a lot of influence over the other parts of the equation — the components that make up Satisfaction (Problem Solved, Perceived Value, and Satisfaction with Service), as well as one of the components that make up Shareability (Ease of Sharing).

Creating an army of Evangelists to help you market and sell your business is done by looking at each of the following components and improving/increasing each component:

  • Solving problems: Your product or service solves a problem or fulfills a need, even if you don’t think it does. Figure out what the problem or need is and make it clearer in your marketing.
  • Providing value: Customers who feel that they got ripped off will never return. Customers who feel that they got exactly what they paid for might return or they might not return. But Customers who feel that they got more than they paid for will be far more likely to buy again and turn into Evangelists.
  • Satisfying with service: Like the above component, Customers who feel that they received poor service will never return. Customers who feel like they received “normal” service may or may not return. But Customers who were surprised at how good the service was will buy again and turn into Evangelists.
  • Making your product or service easy to explain: Use clear, compelling, picture-words in your marketing, and use the same messages over and over. Make your business name and your web domain easy to talk about and share. Spread your presence around the web (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) so that people can share you far more easily.

The equation to turn your Customers into Evangelists is pretty simple. And it is made up of several components, many of which you have a considerable amount of influence over. The time and energy you invest into these components will be an investment into creating Evangelists who will fill your sales funnel for you.

Just read: ‘Create Brand Superfans’ at Harvard Business Review

By Aaron Hoos on May 24, 2011 in Business

The goal of your business is not to make a sale. Rather, the goal of your business is to earn profit from sales.

If the goal of your business was to make a sale, then you risk turning your business into a hamster wheel — where you sell one thing to one buyer and then start over trying to sell one thing to another potential buyer. You work hard but get nowhere because of the amount of effort you expend to make a single sale .

The goal of your business is to earn a profit and that is done through increasing your sales and decreasing the amount of effort you expend to make those sales.

One of the ways to do that is to sell to a Customer then turn that Customer into an Evangelist — someone who markets your business for you. A little extra effort is required and the result is more sales at less cost to you.

Many businesses sell and then jump on the hamster wheel to sell to someone else. But the most profitable businesses turn their Customers into a huge sales force of Evangelists.

In this article on Harvard Business Review, writer Matthew Rhoden describes 3 ways that businesses can turn Customers into Evangelists (or as he calls them, “Superfans”).

Create Brand Superfans – Matthew Rhoden – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review.

After you’ve read the article, think about your current Customer-to-Evangelist practices. How effective are they? Consider ways to step up this transformation process to turn your buyers into superfans. Even by tweaking a couple of your processes, and adding just one or two Evangelists, your business will be that much more profitable.

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