Advanced Referral Marketing
Filed under: Business Growth, Pittsburgh, Profitable Growth, Top Line Growth, Uncategorized
If you run a company, lead a sales and marketing team, or sell for a living, you know that referrals are your best source of new business.
- Nothing beats an introduction from a peer who knows what you offer to a prospect who needs your value now.
- No matter how strong your sales skills, marketing programs, or products and services, a referral to a qualified prospect most helps you close the sale.
- If most buyers turn to colleagues they trust for recommendations when making a purchase, who do yours turn to?
If referrals are your business’ best way to grow, why don’t we develop our referring skills and seek out more and better referrals? Instead, too many businesses lament the lousy referrals they get from well-meaning business friends. Whose fault is that? Rather than launch a costly and risky lead generation effort, why not improve your advanced referral marketing skills?
The Basics of Getting Referred
To review, there are some critical ingredients to getting a referral. You must:
- Provide specific value to a defined target prospect. If you do not have a Best and Highest Use® please define yours now or settle for being referred as a commodity.
- Be excellent. Always grow your track record of quality work and results.
- Stay in front of those who refer you. Communicate with them regularly and provide new and valuable information.
- Be trusted. Prove to your referral sources you will treat them and their referrals with respect.
While these fundamentals never go out of style, enough people practice these well enough now, that distinguishing your “refer-ability” takes even more effort.
Five Steps to Advanced Referral Marketing
To grow better and get more referrals, here are five steps you can take now:
- Determine Your Need for Referrals
- Understand Your Prospects’ Buying Process and Then Align Your Selling Process and Referrer’s Role
- Define the Ideal Relationship Your Referral Source Should Have With Your Buyer
- Give Referrals to Get Referrals
- Develop Specific Tools and Tactics
Here are the five steps in detail:
1. Determine your need for referrals. Are you clear on where in your sales and marketing process you need a referral and for what purpose? Do you need help finding, keeping or growing your existing business? Do you need an introduction, validation, or affirmation from your referral sources? At which point in your sales funnel are you most in need of their support? Is it in qualifying prospects or developing prospects? For help in determining this, review the PACER Process.
2. Understand your prospects’ buying process and then align your selling process and role for your referrer. Understanding your customers’ buying process is not new but applying this knowledge in obtaining referrals might be. Where can your referrers have the most impact?
If your business is a relationship or an anniversary business, your referral sources need to be constantly cultivating your prospects for you, but if your business is more transactional or event-driven, then you want your referees to be far more opportunistic and pounce when they see the chance to recommend you. Here are two articles to help you decide this. Click Events or Anniversaries: What’s Your Business? Or Relationships or Transactions: What’s Your Business?Once you understand the role your referral sources play in your prospect’s buying process, you will of course align your selling process to parallel their behavior. And the role that your referees need to play will be clear.
3. Define the ideal relationship your referral source should have with your buyer. What are the ideal referral sources for your business? For example, some businesses enjoy most of their referrals from law or accounting firms while others are best referred by suppliers or even their competitors. To determine who is best for you, understand the role your referral source plays with your prospects and why a prospect would accept their referring you to them. For example, a parts supplier is unlikely to refer a financial planner to a purchasing agent because this is not a likely topic for them to discuss. Consider whether your referral source has the sufficient trust and professional intimacy with your prospect to make such a referral. For example, a specialist can often refer another specialist while another specialist will seldom refer a generalist. Also, your referral sources must see you as a scarce commodity as opposed to being abundant. If every business broker is hounding every banker to refer them their next deal, how can anyone care or remember which one to refer to whom? The 80/20 rule applies just as much as to referees. A few will refer a majority of your leads and most will only refer you once. Understand who falls into which groups and why. Finally, make it as easy as possible to refer you. I provide any referral source with the following description of my target prospect and exactly why when and how they would hire me. Come up with your own example along the following lines as I have in my business.
A target prospect for Birol Growth Consulting is a majority owner/operator of a business who is:
A. Dissatisfied with his or her business’ level of profitable growth.
(as good or bad as it may be)
B. Impatient to grow their business to the next level
C. Is a
a. Services Firm
b. Wholesaler/Distributor
c. Manufacturer
D. Willing to take and apply advice by working with an expert who empowers optimism
E. Willing to pay for the value of outside advice that generates ten times the investment
4. Give referrals to get referrals. Apply the Golden Rule in your referral activities. Generously and freely give away as many referrals as possible. While many will disagree, I urge you not to take commissions or fees for referring business. The time you put into developing a fair scheme is not worth the loss of trust you face when your peers learn you are making money off of whom you referred to them. Despite many opinions to the contrary, do not enter into tying, exclusive relationships or “Circles of Influence” with only one referral source such as a single law firm. Your power in referring and being referred comes from being able to match the right people with the best skills and style. There is no one size fits all here. But most importantly, remember who did refer you, follow up and keep them posted on how your or their referral faired. There is nothing more disappointing to refer or be referred and never hear what happened. If you do refer someone constantly and there is never any reciprocity, ask yourself if you have fulfilled the basics as outlined above. Before getting annoyed with your non-responder, ensure you have refocused on the basics, if you have, then it is time to find new advocates.
5. Develop specific referral tools and tactics. Make it easy for your referral sources to refer you. One of the great tools is the reciprocal referral letter. Attached at the bottom of this article is a sample letter you can send, one-for-one, with a mutually referable source. Making it one-for-one is fun, as it challenges both parties to provide great referrals and then to hone their selling skills in obtaining as many appointments, proposals, and closed sales as possible.
Find ways to donate your services to charities so that your referral sources can place you in highly visible venues. Serve as a subject matter expert for their customers where you can showcase your expertise while helping your referral source’s clients.
Summary
Referral marketing can be one of the most enjoyable as well as the most profitable tactics in growing your business. Develop your skills and practices in this area and you will surely enjoy better clients, better relationships not only with those who value you the most, but most of all with people you like whom like you. And after all, isn’t this what business is supposed to be all about? For help in accelerating your referral marketing efforts, to explore how we can refer each other, or simply to learn more, please contact me at (412) 973 2080 or at abirol@andybirol.com.
Here is a sample referral letter you can modify for your business or, (with my gratitude) use to refer Birol Growth Consulting:
Mr. John Smith
President
Smith Products
222 Allegheny Blvd, Suite #4
Wexford, PA 15444
Dear John:
Growing my firm has always been challenging and risky. I often wrestle with questions of what to invest in and when. I wanted to pass on an intro of an exceptional business expert and friend of mine, Andy Birol, of Birol Growth Consulting. He is a published author (5 times I think), accomplished speaker and advises small to mid-sized operating businesses owners on effectively driving top line profitable growth.
- How has my marketplace changed its buying behavior and how should my firm respond?
- How can I create more profitable growth?
- What new channels for profitable growth can I pursue?
While you may not have heard of Andy, I know him personally and he has an extensive record of working nationally to great reviews. In his short time here in Pittsburgh, he has become a regular columnist for eTEQ Magazine and has been accepted into Leadership Pittsburgh.
I told Andy you were on my short list of must-visits and I’ve suggested he give you a call. He’s making a positive impact in Pittsburgh’s small business community. I’m sure meeting with him will be a good use of both your time. You can learn more about Andy before he calls, checkout his website at www.andybirol.com. His articles, client list and newsletters are particularly interesting. No doubt you’ll get an autographed copy of his latest book, The Five Catalysts of Seven Figure Growth, CareerPress, 2006.
If you have any other questions or need anything further please don’t hesitate to give me a call.
Thanks so much and take care,
Sincerely,
You
Your Company
Your Address
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Top This One! The Great Heathrow Airport Incident
Filed under: Business Growth, Pittsburgh, Profitable Growth, Uncategorized
Years ago, when visiting Turkey with our daughter, Margo, my wife Joan and I understood we would have to drag her CF-related medicines and aerosols across the world. But the allure of visiting the world’s wonders, summering on the Aegean and visiting my family sold us. We sailed through TSA, landed in Heathrow and shuttled to the European terminal all in good time for our Istanbul flight, when disaster loomed. One of Margo’s bags didn’t make it off the bus. I grabbed our passports and tickets and raced off to hunt it down. Meanwhile, Joan found the special-needs room where British Airways suggested Margo’s machine could be hooked up for her respiratory therapy. Converters and adapters were mismatched for the UK’s currency, causing the machine to catch fire, sending billows of smoke into one of the world’s most heavily guarded terminals. Curious how this mishap turned out?
Just after ambulances, bomb-sniffing dogs and the anti-terrorist squad descended on Joan, I triumphantly returned with Margo’s lost bag, only to see that my victory was a sideshow. Once she assured the police that hospitals and prisons were not needed, Joan calmly found the Heathrow Airport Clinic, Boots pharmacy and a local courier service all of whom collaboratively raced to replace Margo’s combusted machine and delivered it to us, just in time to board our flight to Istanbul. Without Margo’s machine or the bag, we would have had to abort our trip and return home. With deep gratitude to the customer- service heroes above, I challenge you to submit a more exciting example below. I will give a free workshop to the winner!
Practice “The One Thing:” Abundance and Scarcity:
Filed under: Business Growth, Pittsburgh, Profitable Growth, Uncategorized
Remember the movie City Slickers where Jack Palance tells the boys to find “The One Thing!”
What is the one thing for your business? If creating profitable growth sounds right, read on.
Whatever you make and sell, if you practice abundance while offering scarcity, your profitable growth will follow. Why?
First, let’s define abundance and scarcity.
- Abundance is your confidence that there are always more customers with new wants and needs. Your and their glass is always half full.
- Scarcity happens every time you convince buyers that your business is different, better and unlike every other business. Scarce means you are in demand.
Here are five ways to practice abundance and scarcity and create profitable growth.
Five ways to practice abundance
- Move beyond your industry’s certifications and best practices and create your own. Find and follow your own best and highest use. Here’s my YouTube video to show you how.
- Invest in your own business. You will always have too little money or too little time. Your confidence and conviction will have much more to do with your success.
- Donate your time and your money where you believe it will have impact not visibility.
- Give more referrals than you get. Paying it forward works!
- Write, speak, present and react to issues where you are an expert. Social media makes it easy.
Hines Ward, of the Pittsburgh Steelers is a great example of living an abundant life. At this writing, he’s a finalist on Dancing with the Stars. What is next for Hines?
Our two-party system, which boils most issues down to destructive platforms and sound bites, is the opposite of abundance.
Five ways to practice scarcity
- Be truly independent and unbiased in your advice and build all the trust you can with your clients.
- Find the extraordinary in the ordinary and give your customers unique ways to accomplish what they want to.
- Discover, propose and sell third and fourth alternatives to problems when everyone else sees only one or two.
- Say no to cutting your price, accepting bad business and indulging bullying or non-paying clients.
- Be fun and still get the job done. Work hard, play hard! Make people need you.
Barbara Streisand, Cher and Madonna rarely tour but always sell out when they do. They are great examples of scarcity.
Creative advertisements for GEICO, Progressive, State Farm and Allstate Insurance come so fast and often we forget who made which ad and sells what brand. Not scarce at all!
Combine Your Scarcity and Abundance and They Will Create Profitable Growth.
Being scarce with an abundance mentality comes down to having the unconscious and innate confidence that you can make life better for your customers and clients than any of your competitors or they themselves can. Practice practicing scarcity and abundance. When you do so, profitable growth will follow because your customers will connect you with their successes and will not be able to duplicate this with your competitors. And they will be willing to buy more from you and pay you more for it. And that is profitable growth!
Are You a Contractor or Subcontractor? How Does Your Outlook Drive Your Business?
Filed under: Business Growth, Profitable Growth, Top Line Growth, Uncategorized
If your business outsources work to, or does work for another business, you understand contracting and subcontracting. But no industry knows contracting better than the one that invented it: the building trades. Last week, I was invited to lead a workshop/meeting for the Master Builders Association. As part of the program, I gave this hardened group of building- trade executives, those next in line to run their family businesses, an exercise whose results reveal valuable insights for any business.
Each participant was given the following key success factors that dozens of my building-trade clients have taught me matter most. The group was asked to rank the ones they felt were most critical to master in the next two years. Here are their ranked responses which could apply to your business too!
| TO SUCCEED AS A (SUB) CONTRACTOR YOU MUST: | Ranked as most important to master in next two years |
| Produce quality work | Second |
| Have a competitive price | First |
| Complete work on time | Twelfth |
| Get paid | Sixth |
| Operate safely | Fifth |
| Increase/maintain skills | Eighth |
| Use right equipment & technology | Tenth |
| Manage money | Fourth |
| Have great project scheduling / management | Seventh |
| Have great first line supervision | Ninth |
| Sell incoming work to match available labor | Thirteenth |
| Be good at job tracking and forecasting | Eleventh |
| Be good at estimating and job costing | Third |
What conclusions can we draw from these data and the comments of the group?
The (sub) contracting business remains a tough one where providing top quality at a competitive price is the key success factor.
- Managing projects, materials and labor is perceived as the next most important factor.
- The group is concerned that subcontractors who don’t manage these key skills will likely go out of business in the face of reduced project-funding sources and increased competition.
- In the face of government cutbacks, the sector is counting on private projects to take up the slack.
- The group understands that differentiated skills and services, like value-engineered solutions and LEED certifications produce better margins. Although they are hard to develop and protect from copycat competitors, new products, markets and technologies have historically ensured profitable growth for the industry.
My thanks to Brett Pitcairn of PJ Dick Construction and Jon O’Brien of the MBA for giving me the opportunity to present to the Master Builders Association.
Shout Out or Shout At Your Sales Force? Is It Generating Sales Growth in the New Economy?
Filed under: Business Growth, Profitable Growth, Uncategorized
Hopefully, your business has been getting better, and you are reporting increased sales. Why? Who deserves the credit? What is your sales force saying?
Like Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, does your sales team humbly acknowledge the whole company did the right things and luck had something to do with it.
Or, are they more like Libyan rebels victoriously firing their guns skyward celebrating their victory over Gadhafi regardless of NATO’s “shock and awe”?
What is your sales force’s self awareness, and more importantly what is the truth?
Despite your sales group’s humility or hubris, no one can control changes in your buyer’s behavior or marketplace forces.
Here are the three ways to gain insight:
1. How did your customers learn about your firm? Call the decision-making buyers and ask them why they decided to buy now. What did the customer initially want and what did your rep say that finally made them buy? If the buyer refers you to other influencers or don’t mention your sales rep, then their buying process has changed and you need to understand why and how.
2. How did your firm learn about these new customers? It takes 12 “contacts” or “touches” to close a new client including your advertising, traditional and electronic mail, referrals, reference checks and internet research. How did your company connect to the decision maker?
3. What did your sales rep do to prospect, qualify, develop and close his or her new customer? Was he or she a former, dormant customer or a brand new one? Was the decision made by the same buyer, department, and using the same criteria as before? Did it change during the selling cycle?
As Bob Dylan once sang, the times they are a changing, it’s highly likely that understanding and reconfirming changes in the customer’s buying process is critical. Here are four questions to answer.
- Has the buyer, reasons or criteria changed?
- Has the distribution changed?
- Does the product need to be repriced, turned into a service or unbundled?
- Has the target market changed, moved or disappeared?
There may never be a substitute for personal face-to-face selling in your business. Or is there a major change in how important and when it is the right thing? In the era of young people texting, internet and voice mail, you don’t want to be the last to know that you have a Willy Loman-style, “Death of a Sales Force”, holding your company back.
When Worlds Collide: Profitable vs. Social Entrepreneurism
Filed under: Business Growth, Profitable Growth, Uncategorized
In our nation’s post-recession, “progressive” economy, I’ve spoken with many businesses still struggling to adapt to the “new normal.” Most owners I work with are more worried more than ever. Why? Because now, credit comes with strings-attached, sales people often cost far more than they sell and while the Internet has changed everything, most owners still describe their social/digital strategy in terms of money spent instead of clear ROI’s.
And when it comes to reaping the rewards for decades of sacrifice, millions of baby boomers have learned their firms aren’t worth much. But just as passionate in our society are all the voices who take the profitability of small businesses for granted and assert that every firm must pass litmus tests of being clean, green, sustainable, inclusive, local and socially-focused, regardless of whether they are thriving or surviving.
If your business is finally having a decent year, and someone demands why you aren’t doing more good, remember, a great dignity itself lies in running a profitable business.
Here are four reasons to challenge all the reasons you are given to do more:
1. You can’t do much good over time if you don’t do well most of the time.
2. Your good years have to make up for your bad ones.
3. You have your own charitable and social priorities.
4. You took the risk.
This article may rile many who feel that focusing on doing well is an excuse for not giving to the millions of truly needy people and causes. Admittedly. doing both well and good is ideal. And a company who covets all its profits is a heartless organization, but a firm that embraces every form of social good may soon be looking to someone else for a handout. Creating social change from a position of strength is critical. Here and here are some suggestions.
Steering Clear of the Pitfalls: How to Do Well and Good
1. Charity Begins at Home. Make sure your employees, customers and vendors are healthy and give of your time and energy to see this happens. Americans are the hardest working people in the world. Anyone who is working hard for you deserves the help you can give.
2. Tie Your Charity to Your Best and Highest Use®. Strive to give away what you are best at doing to make your chosen cause better. For a professional service provider to sit on boards that do not exploit his or her skills is a terrible waste of time and talent. Find a cause that ties your skills to your passions and give this away. As the father of a handicapped child and as a businessman who serves entrepreneurs, I am always pleased to provide some pro bono help to business owner who is similarly challenged.
3. Run a Meritocracy and Demand Excellence. Avoid favoring employees, vendors or customers who are justifying their poor products or services by all the good works they must provide as well. Support your charities consciously; do not unconsciously let your business subsidize ones that may be subverting the needs of your customers.
4. Stay Connected to Your Customers, Employees and Vendors. Live and give in the real world of those you know and work with. Just as it is critical to understand your customers, make sure you comprehend the troubles and pains they face. The single cause I see for local companies declining to do this is how disconnected many have become from the needs of their marketplace. Understand the pains of your marketplace as well as you do of your charities.
5. Give Results and Outcomes Rather Than Money and Time. Every time I attend a big benefit, I always wonder how much I am really helping the people or problem the sponsor represents. Doesn’t it feel good to provide the person confronting the problem with the help, tools or actions he or she needs to succeed? So often, going right to the source gives you, the owner, a completely new understanding of how to resolve the pain and suffering you see. Just like finding new customer pains to solve, directly helping someone in need may take some interesting twists and turns and may reveal even better unconventional solutions.
Social good should be tied to your business goals and should never impede them. By focusing on your best and highest use, leveraging your good fortune to help others and expecting a positive result from every investment you make, you can truly do well and do good. By doing both, you can make an ever larger impact through your business, your charity and your legacy.
Next Year Will Be Different, You Promise?
Filed under: Business Growth, Profitable Growth, Top Line Growth, Uncategorized
Just as predictably as the Times Square ball will drop, on New Year’s Eve, both consumers and business owners will make resolutions. Consumers will resolve to diet and exercise and business owners to hunker down and work on their business, wealth and lifestyle. Too often, the results for both consumers and business owners turn out the same:
January – March: Consumers starts personal regimen. Owner pushes him/herself and staff to work harder in the business to get better results.
April-June: Consumer loses some weight and prepares for warm weather. Business owner gets frustrated as current level of activity isn’t generating better results. Feels like Groundhog Day.
July-September: Distractions of summer vacations and increased activity distract both the consumer and business owner alike from their missions of getting in better shape.
October-December: Consumers get very busy going back to work, school and preparing for the holidays. Business works even harder to “save the year” by having a great 4th Quarter.
And then it’s New Year’s Eve again! Time for new resolutions!
I am no role model for fixing consumer behavior, but I have seen the following work for business owners who are ready to break out of their cycles:
Whenever your recession (and your customers’) started and regardless of whether your business is a leading or lagging indicator of a recession, it doesn’t matter when you’re in the middle of one. For many of us coping with this recession has been a lot like going through the four phases of loss namely denial, anger, self pity and acceptance. In this era, many of us are moving into acceptance of our new reality and are ready to take steps to make the best of our gifts and blessings. The more we reflect on the last few decades, the more we realize how much better and smarter we could have been when times were easier and now know that getting ever better and smarter is the difference between success and failure. In our recession there seems to be a fine line between success and failure. Success may be defined as not failing. And failure can come from simply or deviating from success. As we consider our circumstances and recognize that our business lives must go on, what can we do to grow and save our businesses during these times?
Here are three areas you need to triage, four areas where you should respond and three strategies on how to profit during these times.
Three Areas You Need To Triage.
Triage, when ER doctors and nurses determine who lives, who dies and who will be healed later, is exactly the right approach to take in your business as do in their jobs. Instead of patients you will be triaging your customers, projects and cash.
1. Triage your customer relationships.
o It’s going to be critical to decide which customers you can keep, which ones you need to renegotiate terms with.
o Fire your unprofitable or difficult customers now and use great discretion in choosing the prospects to pursue. Someone else may have fired them first.
o Most companies start first by providing extra value and service to their incumbent customers. During these times, their loyalty and fear of switching will keep them close to you if you stay close to them.
2. Reevaluate ongoing projects.
o Take a hard look at what you’re working on. Kill any project with an unclear payback or one, which will consume more resources than will plausibly make in the next 36 months.
o Restructure any project that’s critical but has no clear payback, accountabilities or resources.
o Prioritize and focus on completing any project with the ability to enhance revenue, reduce costs or protect wealth.
3. Manage your cash.
o With liquidity likely to be scarce at best, hoard what you have. Use cash as a reward for vendors, employees and others who are sacrificing for you or your goals.
o Use your cash or lack of it as a weapon in dealing with companies and customers who rely on you and previously expected you to finance receivables.
Four areas where you should respond.
Once you have triaged your customers, projects and cash, look to four areas where you can respond to your new reality. These are:
1. Price for profit and to avoid loss.
o Price your products and services in terms of the value they not only provide to your customers but how they help your customer’s customers profit. Learn where and how your products make others money and align your pricing with theirs.
o Where you must make sizable investments in raw materials, ensure your pricing terms allow you to recoup your investment as soon as you’ve made it.
o Reward your customer’s liquidity with favorable pricing. Those who can pay you up front deserve discounts.
o Finally, use your pricing to protect yourself from those who exploit you. Immediately raise prices on customers who pay slowly. Create collection terms for poor payment just as you would offer good terms for fast payment.
2. Manage your credit furiously.
o Do what you can to get more credit. If you can open a second line or other source of credit, do so even at a price you would not normally pay, especially if these are from confidential or “angel” sources.
o Use your credit prudently. Don’t assume you need to finance everything yourself. Get creative and aggressive in what you ask others to carry and fund.
o Thirdly, use other people’s money wherever possible. Many aggressive sellers and bargain hunters may have credit you can use in the course of doing business with them.
3. Lead decisively.
o Show your confidence in all you say and do. While you may not feel it, your optimism, confidence and conviction will be a beacon of hope for those who are more scared than you are.
o Motivate your vendors, staff and customers to stay committed, keep their promises and take the same risks you are in an anticipation of better times and the promise of deferred rewards.
o When times are tough, show your stoicism in the face of bad news and inevitable hiccups.
o Demonstrate balance in your short-term pursuit of survival and your long-term perspective for better times and deferred rewards.
4. Reinforce your Best and Highest Use®.
o Ensure that you and your company are focused on what you like doing, you are good at doing and your marketplace values you for doing.
o Bring as much value and enthusiasm to getting better and doing better at what you focus on.
o Take heart in knowing you are very good at what you do and this is a true advantage in these times where impostors are exposed, pretenders prove incapable and amateurs just give up.
Three strategies on how to profit.
After you have triaged your business and responded in four areas, turn your focus to new strategies to profit now and over time:
1. Take market share.
o Understand switching costs for the prospects you are trying to close. Make it easy for them to move their business to you and your superior value.
o Buy up your rivals for pennies on the dollar. Many companies today do not have enough sales to cover their overhead. Better yet, just buy the companies’ customers without the overhead of their failed companies.
o Grow your share of your existing customers. If you are trusted and invaluable, then ask for more of their business. Be quick to respond if another supplier stumbles, or is on the ropes.
2. Sell new value.
o Instead of selling just your product or service, take responsibility for your customer’s success and outcomes. Offer to warranty or insure that their success will come from your product or service.
o Recast your value proposition if your customers’ needs are changing. If so, rethink how you get paid, how you package your services and how you price your products.
o Realize you are going to work harder, spend more time, and possibly get paid less for serving the same customers. Consider it an investment in the future.
3. Invest for the recovery.
o Now is a great time for buying services and raw materials at a discount. If you can, invest now at a fraction of what it may cost to buy what you need when the economy picks up.
o With sales down, you probably can find extra time to work on the future. Take advantage of not being busy and get busy building your next success.
o Finally, as you come out of denial and self pity, push yourself into actions that will ensure your success and preserve your survival. Work harder and more decisively while your competitors are whining and paralyzed.
Our next year will continue to be hard as credit remains tight, new sectors of the economy are impacted, and the country adjusts to our new reality. You can grow your business during this recession if you triage, respond and develop strategies to profit. As the small guys in a world of goliaths, the recovery is largely in our hands as it always has been and will surely be again.
The New Definition of Insanity: Doing the Same Things with Less and Expecting the Same Results!
I’d like to point you to a piece I’ve just written titled, “The New Definition of Insanity: Doing the Same Things with Less and Expecting the Same Results!” which covers tips to help your business grow and profit – even during these challenging times when taking an unacceptable risk may be necessary.
So what can small business owners do to drop the weight of the world from our shoulders and break out of old routines and take the risk that’s required to develop new ways of profiting? Here’s an example:
“Stop doing anything your customers don’t insist on paying you for. Too many firms are still providing costly frills their customers don’t value. Seriously, who really misses pillows on an airplane?”
If you’re a small business owner looking for ways to break out of the restraints of this economic environment, you may want to take a minute to read the entire piece titled, “The New Definition of Insanity: Doing the Same Things with Less and Expecting the Same Results!“
*NOTE: This article is originally published at American Express OPEN Forum*
DIY, DIWM, DIFM: What Can You Do?
If it’s painful watching another small business struggle as the economy rebounds. It’s torture if it’s yours.
Why won’t your customers buy from you when they are increasing their spending with others?
When will they realize that imitating your value, products or services “in-house” is penny wise and pound foolish?
The economy may be recovering but not in the same way as in the past. Most of the buyers I’ve interviewed for my clients are buying again but with new criteria. Instead of reverting to their old ways they are pursuing total cost of any solution. And if they believe they can do it themselves, they will. So instead of fighting against the tide, why not accommodate your buyers and get them to pay you for doing so?
Here are three ways:
- Provide a Do It Yourself (DIY) Option.
Some of your customers have more time than money. Help them "DIY."
Now, more than ever, there is segment of customers who have more time than money. They want to do all the work themselves. They want to accept all the burden of learning and doing by trial and error.
QuickBooks Software is an excellent example of this. For less than $200 a business can keep its own accounting. What can you offer in your business that allows a customer to do it all?
One suggestion: Offer an entry-level service or product. Let your customers adopt your product or service in its simplest form. Then you can graduate them to a more robust version where they will need your help.
- Offer a Do It With Me (DIWM) Option.
If a customer really wants to do it themselves but can’t, they might be interested in your guidance as they produce your product or service. If you can teach someone to fish and feed themself, make it a money maker for you.One example is a Jo-Ann Fabrics sewing class. After purchasing a dress pattern, you can have a teacher guide you and your project, reducing errors on your road to success.One sign that your prospect may want the DIWM option is if they have an equal amount of money and time to invest in working with you. Don’t offer them your entry level DIY service here, but clearly one for those who are ready for slightly more. But save your advanced expertise for the next option. - Always offer the DIFM (Do It For Me) Option.
While DIFM is not as popular now as when credit was free-flowing, many businesses will once again realize that they should refocus on their Best and Highest Use® and leave everything else to experts. When customers realize that they have less time than money, they will outsource tasks to vendors whose clear value justifies spending the extra cash.An example of this would be how most firms still outsource all their transactional HR needs like payroll, drug testing and 401(K) reporting.Always keep this option open because as the economy improves there will be buyers that have more opportunities to outsource work sooner than others.
So here are your three ways to help your customers to spend money with you:
- DIY (Do it Yourself)
- DIWM (Do it With Me)
- DIFM (Do it For Me)
While, it will always be tough to run or watch a business lagging behind in profitable growth, now you have one more tool to offer to a prospect who respects your value.
So when are you going to start DIY, DIWM or DIFM in your business?
First Way You Can Start To Ensure Profitable Growth
