Tag Archives: Business Services

How to Build Customer Loyalty in 2013

Posted on by
1

Isn’t it the ultimate goal of every small business owner to make customers become slaves to their fashion. To have their clients tatoo their names? To become lifelong raving fans? Yes yes and yes. I really loved this very simple and short and kinda funny article about how to make that very thing happen.

1. Be more than just a vendor.

When building your strategies, start with the needs of your customers’ customers and work backwards to discover how you can be the most helpful.

2. Be more than just a vendor.

Provide such incredible service that your customers feel like they’d be crazy to even consider buying from anyone else.

3. Be more than just a vendor.

Find customers for your customers so that they can build their own business and thus give more business to you!

4. Be more than just a vendor.

Whenever possible, meet your customers in social situations rather than purely business ones.

5. Be more than just a vendor.

I think you get the point. Have a great 2013, everyone!

via How to Build Customer Loyalty in 2013.

Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

Related articles

Eyeing an Industry Conference? Here’s How to Tackle It

Posted on by
Reply
My mother's cat, Amos, wondering what we're co...

A small business owner eyeing industry conferences. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I worked for a big corporation, conferences were fun ways to get out of the office, see the competitiors’ new stuff and learn cutting edge new things about my industry. Now that I own my small business, it is a well thought out and long-planned major client acquisition strategy that has to be budgeted and invested carefully. If you’re a small business, then you’re in the same boat as me– check out the below great tips on how to make the most of your conference investment this year:

1. Do some research. Don’t rely on a conference’s brochures or marketing speak to evaluate a potential conference. Talk to past attendees you know and find out how valuable they found it.

2. Look for sponsorship.  Many times, suppliers look for opportunities to say thank you for your business, and this is a better choice than junkets and golf games.

3. Make a plan.  Take a look at the seminars and workshops as well as the speakers and plan your first and second choice for each time slot. Review the exhibitors and decide which ones you want to see.

4. Free yourself. If you spend half of your conference time on the phone to your office or checking email you might as well have stayed home.

5. Bring supplies.  Most of the food available is unappetizing and you may want to skip some meals to make the most of your time. Don’t forget your business cards.

6. Maximize your efforts. If your No. 1 seminar for a time slot is just covering what’s already in the handouts, or isn’t worth your time, head to your second choice. Continue reading →

Get 5 new clients this month

Posted on by
2

Full disclosure–while I have gotten 5 clients in a month, I don’t every month. The point is, I know how to. I help my clients do this everyday. Here are a few ways you can do it too.

Public Speaking

The key to getting blocks of clients  to sign up is to position yourself as an expert in front of large groups of people. It just makes sense from a conversion stand point. Also critical (see my post about getting clients from speaking) is the offer for the next step that you do from the stage towards the end of your talk.

Trade Shows

These offer hordes of people who have come to the same location as you, specifically for the purpose of finding out about new products or services to purchase. The best strategy for trade shows is to be unique. If you sell training, don’t go to a Training and Development show, do what a clever trainer I met did and go to say, the Army show. This trainer said there were no competitors and he walked away with so much business that he made his year.

Hot deal or new product launch

A real huge influx of new clients is possible when you have an excuse to call your stack of business cards (I know you have one too) to talk about your new product launch or your hot price that’s time sensitive on an existing service or product. I did it when I launched my group coaching program and it worked!

Seminars or Webinars

Even a half day seminar that I did gave me 5 clients. The key was to have the right people and to pepper the audience with existing clients who were able to talk about their experience of working with me. Similarly, webinars where you have the chance to talk to (even though it’s one way) large numbers of people can result in blocks of new client signups.

So, the more you’re infront of people in large masses, the more 5 new client months you can have. Remember, visibility is money.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

Related articles

Wow that crowd-how to public speak to get clients

Posted on by
2

The snoring audience

Has anyone ever fallen asleep during a presentation that took you hours to prepare? Has there ever been an abyss of loneliness at the end of your speech when not a single person comes up to you? Are people gazing off into space a few minutes into your intro?

I must admit that all these things did at one point happen to me during my 7 year career as a coach who speaks publicly both to find new clients and to grow my brand visibility. I have, however, learned a few tricks along the way and I’d love to share them with you.

Start with a bang!

The biggest impression I know how to make when I speak is to tell a phoenix rising story that’s as personal and painful as it can get. The caveat here is that it has to relate to the topic of the talk. You don’t want to talk about your painful divorce at a fertilizer’s convention. On second thought, maybe you do…

During my “Attract not Attack: A Gentle Way to Get Clients” seminar, I tell the humiliating story of how my first networking event ended up in a fiasco of a woman telling me that she felt ‘attacked’ by my sales pitch. Upon hearing of my angst and the tools that I used to turn it around for my business, you can be sure that the audience was primed to hear more. Personal stories engage, connect and make you more accessible. Just like everyone in the audience, you make mistakes too.

Give it all away

I’m a proponent of the school of ‘giving it all away’. This means, tell everyone the best of everything you know for free. Don’t hold back the better ‘stuff’ for paying clients. In my experience when people get amazing value from your content, they’re going to be even more jazzed about working one on one with you.

Don’t leave the offer on the table

Most small business owners I meet who do any public speaking are missing this strategic opportunity of getting new clients. They don’t make an offer from the stage. This offer, of course, can be an invitation to sign up for a complimentary session or a newsletter or even to actually buy. When a speaker who has a captive audience can’t or won’t use the opportunity to connect further with a strong and specific offer from the stage, I call that a darn shame.

So I beg you as a frequent audience member to please use these tips at your next talk so that you can wow me and everyone that I’m sitting next to.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!

Related articles

Entrepreneurial Paralysis

Posted on by
2

Rollerblade Twister skate Italiano: Pattino Ro...“Excuse me, coming through!” I screamed at the people on the bike path as I unsteadily rolled at a fast clip on my blades. It was an uncommonly busy day at the Beach and I’m not the best rollerblader to say the least.  Low and behold people were strolling on the bike path and not the boardwalk, impeding all biker and blader traffic.

The single most common reaction to my shouts was paralysis. People of all ages and sizes would turn around with giant eyes and STAY frozen in my path, watching me barrel them down on more than one occasion.

Fear freezes entrepreneurs too. One client who was too scared to pick a niche was incapable of creating a signature keynote or even writing en eBook because she couldn’t pick whose pain she wanted to address.

Another client was afraid to public speak so he avoided not just looking for speaking opportunities but stopped any marketing efforts what so ever.

SYMPTOMS
Entrepreneurial Paralysis (my own word that I shall refer to as EP from now on) is easy to spot. If you own your own business and are procrastinating, stagnating or generally making a lot of excuses but getting nothing done, then you’ve got EP and you need help.

TREATMENT

  • Remember why you’re in this business in the first place. If it’s still relevant, keep going.
  • Remind yourself of the consequences of inaction. If you have EP now, what will you be like in 6 months of this?
  • Write a to-do list with 3 business building actions per day and don’t end the day if they’re left undone.
  • Lastly, call a coach, call a mentor, call a friend, call anyone… but get some support. You can’t do it alone.

With kindness as always,

Chala

Related articles