28 Ways to Get More Customers
You may discover that you may be leaving tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table when you are only focused on one or two ways of attracting new customers.
Not to mention you very well can be exposing yourself to disaster should something unforseen happen.
And don’t make the fatal mistake of dismissing this as overstatement.
Let me give you a real example.
At one point in my career I had an independent yellow pages company. In five short years I had become one of the top 10 independents in the country. (I know this because I won a few awards!) I was doing everything just right. I was taking home a fat six-figure income, known and respected in the community, had all the toys, traveled when I wanted, had a dream home on a quiet, secluded, wooded lot. Life was great!
Then, at an annual convention, I heard a featured speaker talk about using (1) telemarketing to sell yellow page advertising. I thought that telemarketing was for the giant companies and not for small independents like me. So I had a certain skepticism and yes, I’ll admit it, arrogance when he spoke, after all I was already doing everything right.
Well, that evening, over dinner with one of my colleagues, who ran a successful independent yellow pages company like my own, I skeptically asked my friend what he thought of the telemarketing presentation. Know I honestly asked this question to simply have him validate my belief that is was a bunch of horse hooey and only the big companies could really be successful at it. Imagine my astonishment, and paradigm shift, when I discovered this man had been using telemarketing and it was really bringing in a lot of new business.
Whoa! Was there something I wasn’t doing right? I must confess, it was a very humbling experience.
I had no desire to be left behind by others, so I decided to give telemarketing a try. I actually hired the telemarketing expert who spoke at the convention to come in and set up a telemarketing operation for my business. He wrote a script for me, he hired three part-time housewives to man the phones, and set them up in a spare office with no windows.
One year later I was giving a speech at the convention on… “How to set-up a telemarketing department and add $1 million dollars to the bottom line.” Telemarketing the very strategy which I snubbed my nose at a year earlier had increased the gross sales of my business by 25% in one year. And the fixed costs associated with acquiring this new business were lower than anything else he was doing, so I was automatically more profitable as well! Thank goodness I was willing to “copy” the marketing strategies of other companies in my industry.
Again, what are the marketing strategies other successful companies within your industry are using? What can be gained by implementing them in your business? The above is a very revealing and important story. Complacency can be very costly.
Action item #2
Moving on to another important strategy for growing your business. Start looking into the marketing and strategies, tactics and systems of businesses out side of your industry and find out what they are doing to bring in new customers, and apply their strategies to your business.
In contrast to my story, here’s a sad tale of a great idea that didn’t work out, because of “myopic” or traditional thinking wouldn’t allow this company to try something that wasn’t done in their industry. Here’s their story, don’t let this happen to you.
A marketing consultant was called in for an international concern that produced the finest ultra-sound heart monitoring equipment made. But they had always been an OEM manufacturer (built other peoples equipment). They were just bringing their own line out in the United States.
These systems had price tags in the $150,000 and up range. They were battling well-established competitors, the likes of Hewlett Packard. They needed a high profile something to get their foot in the door.
The consultant suggested that they shake up the industry and borrow the “sweepstakes” concept from other industries, and offer hospitals a chance to win the use of one of their machines for their cardiac unit, when they signed up for a FREE demonstration. This way the hospitals would have a high incentive to at least let the company in for a demo other than the “normal begging a pleading to please give us a try”.
The idea behind this recommendation was that once the equipment was in the hospital for the demonstration the medical personnel could experience its superior technology for themselves versus having a salesman pitching it to them out of a brochure. A big difference in the approach, wouldn’t you agree?
They refused to do it because they felt medical people would look down their noses at a sweepstakes. So pride got in the way, the owners of the company were worried that the sweepstakes would hurt their “image”. Well, don’t you think their image suffered a lot more when they eventually went out of business? And worst of all their going out of business was to the detriment of thousands of doctors and heart patients who could have, should have, and would have been better served by their equipment than by anybody else’s.
Moving along.
One of the most powerful methods any entrepreneur has for building their business is (2) Referrals. Businesses, like realtors, mortgage brokers, insurance agents and others thrive on it. But every business can do better by using this strategy.
I’m going to use an example is from the personal files of a marketing company. You know, the guys that know everything about building your business! As marketers the owners of this business had known about referral selling, however, like so many other businesses, hadn’t taken time to develop it and program it into their own marketing system.
Then, one of their media joint ventures produced a very powerful contact in the form of Betty, a newspaper sales representative for the Utah County Journal. As sharp marketers they had used The Journal sponsored a couple of their workshops to the newspapers customer base. Betty brought some of her clients, who were blown away by the presentation and completely loved the experience.
The marketing guru’s approached Betty about referring them to her other clients whom she thought could massively benefit form their service, but couldn’t make it to the seminar. They even worked out a referral fee as an incentive for her. The very first referral from Betty turned into a healthy sale for about 30 minutes of their time. And best of all, she gave them five more, and when they called the referrals, they were welcoming this team of marketing gurus with open arms.
Naturally they are now actively soliciting referrals from other clients. However, I’ve noticed that some people feel uncomfortable about soliciting referrals from their clients. For those of you who feel this way let me help you.
If I asked you if your product or service added value, advantage or benefit to the lives of your customers what would you tell me? I’m certain you would give me a resounding yes! Ok, now let me ask you this. Isn’t it true that there are other businesses that compete with you that don’t do as good a job as you, don’t have as good a product, some may overcharge and when the customer buys the product or service they are actually in a position to be taken advantage of? Again, I’m certain you would tell me yes.
So if your product or service is providing outstanding value to your clients, and you don’t ask for referrals of their friends and business associates you are doing them a huge disservice. You are leaving them exposed to do business with the “other guys” that don&
rsquo;t give them the value for their money! Wow! Have you ever looked at it like that before?
Plus, if your product or service is providing an outstanding value to your clients, it is only natural that they would want to share that value with their friends and business associates. However, it’s necessary that you have a planned system for gathering those referrals. Your system can be as simple as regularly and consistently asking.
A few years ago an owner of a chiropractic practice started having his staff call all of his patients on a systematic basis. He would ask about their health and how they responded to his treatment. Not only would he find out if they needed to come back in for another treatment, when his staff members received glowing reports about how well his treatment was working for them he would have them ask the patient for a referral. They didn’t always have a referral on the spot, but this technique did increase his practice 40% over the course of one year. He has patients lined up to get in to see him now, almost all from patient referrals.
These two strategies, telemarketing and referral systems are powerful and profitable ways for increasing business. There isn’t a business that couldn’t and shouldn’t be using them in some form or variation. If you will just add these two business-building marketing blocks to your Powermid, the results will be phenomenal. And did you notice the one I slipped in
Another building block every business should use is…
3. Direct Mail. It is one of the quickest ways of bringing in new customers and profits. And it’s also incredibly flexible, and an economical way to test marketing concepts. Yet business owners turn their noses up to the idea on a daily basis.
Case Study
For an example, Jim Hunter in Park City, Utah, owns a hot air balloon company. He gets more than his share of business, because he’s a very good marketer. He had used the same methods everyone in his industry uses. He advertised in the hotel magazines, rack cards, and obtained referrals from hotel concierge, etc…
But he had neglected direct mail.
Occasionally he had received a call or referral for corporate events, but no ballooners were systematically approaching the business community in Salt Lake City.
He decided to send a direct mail package to 4000 businesses and introduce to them to the corporate event idea with hot air ballooning and snowmobiles.
The package included a letter, two brochures – one for the hot air balloons and another for snowmobiles – and the response card. Each package cost a dollar to send. Jim sent the piece and in two weeks generated an extra $160,000 in new business!
So, when are you going to send your next direct mail piece?
Direct mail is a powerful weapon every business needs to be using. You can also use this weapon with the other two business-growing categories (increasing your unit of sale and your frequency of purchase).
Another way of expanding your business is using…
4. Direct Sales. If you’re in a brick and mortar business chances are you’ve been called on by a newspaper or yellow pages representative. Both these industries are multi-billion dollar cash cows. And their main thrust is direct sales.
Jim owned an electric motor rewind business. When the starter in your automobile gives out you can go to the dealership and have them soak you by replacing it with a new one or you can go to Jim’s and he will replace it with a rebuilt one for about half the price not to mention get it done in less time.
Upon analyzing the direct sales efforts of the ad salespeople that called on him, Jim got to wondering if he could use direct sales to build his electric motor rewind business. At the time, he didn’t know anyone in the rewind business that uses a direct sales force. Everyone used the newspaper, radio or yellow pages. But that was how consumers found him.
It dawned on him that there were dozens, even hundreds of mechanical shops out there that could use his service! So he did an experiment and started calling on them a few if them about him supplying them with his rebuilt starters at a wholesale price.
To his delight hardly anyone turned him down. This prompted him to hire a sale gale to call on these shops and service there needs for rebuilt starters. His business nearly double!
You can use direct sales for a lot more business applications than you might think. For example, when window washers are in an area washing windows, they sometimes hang flyers on the neighbors’ doors. What would happen if a salesman actually banged on the neighbors’ doors a day or two ahead of when the window washers are scheduled in the area? What if they offered a special deal because they are already in the neighborhood?
One entrepreneur recognized he could sell pest control services door-to-door and never have to spray a house himself. He approached a national chain and worked out an arrangement to sell their service for a commission. What do you think this pest company said to that proposal?
Now he hires and trains hundreds of salesmen from coast to coast, and they run the legs off the pest company’s employees they generate so much business.
Are you beginning to realize the potential of opening your mind to new money making, business growing ideas that are not necessarily “ the way it’s done” in your industry?
Let’s speed up the process a little bit for you.
5. Seminars: Betty counsels parents with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) kids, and has developed some new and unique methods for solving these special problems. She does FREE seminars for parents to introduce them to her services. In her area there are no other professionals doing this.
It also became apparent to her that she could expand her business by doing seminars, training other counselors in her methods. A whole new twist to her business and a whole new revenue stream.
Or, for example, Alan Reed, a home delivery dairyman in Idaho Falls, could bring in non-competing dairymen from around the country at $10K a pop, to teach them who to run a highly successful delivery business, he can show them how he markets, his cost control practices, and generally how they can use his know-how to run a more successful dairy operation.
Do this kind of seminar a couple of times a year and add tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to the bottom line with very little effort. A whole new source of income.
Specific niches in the insurance industry, such as retirement planning, have been using seminars successfully for years. They bring in people for FREE to listen to them. Many times they even provide a nice dinner to get people to show up, so they can introduce their service. It pays off handsomely.
6. Public Speaking: Ok, not for everyone. I read that people feared speaking in public more than dying! But there are literally thousands of opportunities for speaking. For example, lets take my home state, of Utah.
In Utah, there are over 460 organizations that meet on a regular basis. Most of them are in the greater Salt Lake City area. Your area is probably no different. There are dozens of organizations having weekly or monthly luncheon meetings, who put on seminars for their members, hold dinners for a variety of purposes. Each event they sponsor usually calls for a speaker. Here in Utah, assuming the typical organization meets on a monthly basis, those 460 plus organizations have need of 5,520 speakers over the course of a year. Speaking at least once a week doesn’t sound too unreasonable. It can also be profitable.
I once spoke to a Rotary Club about getting more customers who will pay you more money more often. Only about a dozen business
es were represented in the room, but following his 40-minute presentation, four of the club’s members registered for one of my workshops. Two of the four brought more than one person, and two wound up subscribing to a newsletter. That free, intimate, 40 minute speech, talking about something I’m passionate about, made over $1,500. That’s over $125.00 per business represented in the room, and on an hourly basis, it works out to $2,252.25 per hour. Not bad.
7. Sampling: Huge companies have been built on the concept of sampling. Outfits like Proctor & Gamble send you samples of soap, laundry detergent, shampoo, diapers… even feminine hygiene products in the mail. All the major grocery chains and warehouse stores have sampling programs for food products. But what about other products and services? Doctors, lawyers, and chiropractors often offer a first consultation without charge. That’s a form of sampling. Because people are so loath to change accountants, an accountant could actually offer to prepare your taxes for FREE the first year. Odds are, that would secure his business for five years to a decade or more.
Have you ever heard of a building contractor who always builds a client’s first project AT COST? One exists. He makes no money on the first project and he makes sure his clients know it. He tells them he wants them to experience his service and his quality at his risk first. Almost all of them build with him again and again.
8. Free Publicity: It takes a little time and effort, but it can pay off big time. One Allen Reed, owns a Dairy, he used free publicity, and his business grew 12 1/2% in two weeks! Taking time out of his schedule to write a press release brought $89,000.00 in profits.
At a recent real estate meeting, everyone in the audience received a press release to use. Within one week Mary Harker from Dallas, Texas had a half-page article in the local newspaper – including her picture – that was generating public awareness as well as immediate leads.
9. Radio Talk Shows: One real estate agent in the DC area offered to do a weekly “Real Estate Report” for the radio station, and it turned into his own half hour show. One agent in Salt Lake City created his own one-hour real estate program on Saturday mornings. He paid the radio station an extremely discounted rate for the time because most advertisers consider it an unattractive time slot, and because of the extended commitment he made. He now sells commercial time on his show and makes money from that, and generates tons of leads he hands off to his sale team every week.
You see attorneys doing this, insurance agents, dentists and others. How about you?
10. Radio: Spot radio has long been a staple of small advertisers. It’s targeted to specific psychographics (or lifestyles), so you can pick your audience. Those lifestyles generally carry a certain demographic too, so you can buy with confidence, knowing you’re not going to pay for too many people who aren’t your prospects. Because of its selectivity, and the competitive nature of the business, radio tends to be the most economical medium, in terms of up-front costs. Don’t forget, though, to always watch cost per lead, conversion rate, and cost per sale.
One other extremely effective way to use radio is to phone in your ads and talk to the announcer live on the air. Prepare your features and benefits and offers, make sure you and the announcer can articulate your Unique Purchase Appeal, and then just talk. These “ad-lib” interview spots generally run more than a minute and you may wind up paying a premium to advertise this way. But odds are it’ll pay off. It’s one of the most powerful kinds of radio ads you can do.
11. Television: TV is considered the most compelling way to advertise. But not many people use it because they think it’s too expensive or because no one else in their industry has ever tried it. It may be worth looking into for your business.
Get your TV commercials produced FREE by going to a local college or university and having their television production class do the work. Keep it simple and produce what’s called the “talkin’ head” spot. Just give your sales pitch to the camera in a very sincere and straight-forward way and ask them to buy.
Buy late night, early morning, and weekend time, and fire sales, and you can be on TV for a fraction of what others are paying, and for far less than you thought it costs.
12. Infomercials: Many businesses simply dismiss this powerful marketing tool as something other businesses use. Could it possibly make sense in your business? In Phoenix, there is a plastic surgeon that uses infomercials. Before he tried this method, not one of his competitors had even thought of using them. It was unheard of in his industry.
You have probably seen the Hair Club For Men infomercials. Again a local business that has expanded nationwide with an infomercial. If he had just stuck to what everyone else was doing, he would still be running an average business. Now he has a spectacular one. And the freedom and success it has given him is beyond what he dreamed possible.
13. Radio Infomercials: A relatively new form of marketing is the radio infomercial. Radio Infomercials are the same as television infomercials, but a lot less expensive to produce and air. They are also a way to test whether you can sell via broadcast. If it works on the radio, you may be able to justify the budget to try it on TV.
14. Magazines: The staple advertising media for smaller businesses is typically newspapers and radio. Too many businesses consider magazines out of reach. But this may be a mistake.
Magazines may be far more efficient. Newspapers are the broadcast medium of print. They go to a general audience, not a specific one. That means you’re probably paying for a lot of wasted circulation.
Magazines combine the audience selectability of radio, with the staying power of print. When you consider the cost to reach your specific audience, magazines could well be a far better choice. And when you buy remnant space in the magazine, you can save a bundle. Magazines are far more likely to work with you in this way than newspapers.
15. Franchising: You already know of the success stories in the franchising industry. All sorts of businesses are franchising. You have printers, restaurants; tire stores, accounting services, window washing, windshield replacement, etc.
Can you imagine having people pay you $30,000 to $150,000 for your system of making money? Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? Well it won’t happen unless you look into it.
16. Licensing: This is a great way of selling your successful business methods without franchising. People will pay you to help them set up a turnkey business like yours.
Depending upon what your business is generating, you can license your strategies, methods, and practices for $5,000 to $50,000 or more. You can also require a residual income every month or quarter. And you don’t have to license your whole operation.
You can license advertising that has been particularly successful, processes for saving money in production, sales techniques, accounting systems… just about any facet of your business that you have perfected to a higher level than your non-competing colleagues.
17. Card Decks: These are a remarkably inexpensive way to reach a large number of targeted suspects and prospects. People seem to be intrigued by them and almost always give them a quick thumb-through when they arrive.
The secret to using them successfully is to make a sensational, risk FREE offer that initiates an inquiry. Actually selling something is possible, but more diffi
cult. If you try it, sell an introductory item that is almost an impulse buy, and make sure you power up your risk reversal.
Not only should you consider advertising in cards decks, you should consider doing your own. If you have a data base of customers numbering as small as 5,000, you can make money selling other businesses ads to be delivered to your customers. Run the numbers on an idea like this and you’ll see just how profitable it can be.
18. Statement Stuffers: Imagine delivering your sales message to thousands of customers of international credit cards. You know yourself those bills don’t go out alone every month. Every one carries one, or multiple, selling messages, in the form of stuffers.
But what if you only market regionally or locally? Well, there are local department, furniture, and appliance stores who send statements to your prospects.
There are also doctors and lawyers, accountants, pest control services, lawn care services, the cable TV company, and local banks and credit unions who send monthly statements to their customers. Many of them may be willing to send your solicitation for a piece of the action, or if you’ll simply pick up the cost of their postage.
You get an added bonus when you sell this way. Even if your statement-mailing host doesn’t specifically endorse you, the very presence of your piece in that company’s envelope constitutes an implied endorsement.
19. Internet: Some say the Internet isn’t ready for commerce yet. Whether you get involved now or not, you’ll have to be “on-line” sooner or later. Why not sooner? One company whose web site isn’t even designed specifically to sell generates five to ten leads a week. One of their other sites generates sales of $1,000.00 worth of merchandise a day, and that volume is climbing.
20. Manufactures Reps: Akin to having a direct sales force of your own, you can use Reps to broaden your geographic base without intensive and expensive staffing. The downside is, Reps usually represent a variety of products. Their efforts are therefore diffused, and sometimes your product or line doesn’t get enough attention. But they are commission only, and you’ll have no employee expenses associated with them. So anything they sell is, for all intents and purposes, FREE money!
21. Barter: Here is another marketing building block that too many thumb their noses at. Barter can be an incredibly powerful way to build your business. You can trade for advertising, for example. If you have a product that the media wants and you have a 50% margin, you may be able to get twice the retail value of your product in advertising, which is like buying the time at 25¢ on the dollar.
But that’s only the beginning. When people trade with you, they are helping you fill unused production capacity, move inventory, and save money. They are also sampling your wares, and developing a relationship with you, that can well turn into cash-generating business down the line. And don’t forget the referral business that can be cultivated in the process.
22. Call/Fax/Call: This is a relatively new marketing technology that is working well in some industries. A telemarketer first calls your prospect and introduces the product or service very briefly, then asks the prospect for permission to send a fax that presents more of the details. When the prospect agrees to look at the fax, the telemarketer promises a return call, after the prospect has had a chance to read it. You can accomplish this technique with services or even tangible products. Again, your offer is key, as is your risk reversal. Remember new laws have been passed and you can only do this one to a consenting list.
23. Premiums: Sometimes you can sell your products as a premium to be given away, or sold to an end user, at a fraction of full value, when another product is purchased. To do this you need to be willing to make the product (or a version of it) available in large quantity, and usually at a better than wholesale discount. The upside is, you make a lot of money on a single sale.
For example, one client developed a unique food-storage container. His product will go very well with any cooking product sold on infomercials. He can sell in quantity to the Ron Popiels of the world, at a very attractive price. Ron then gives his product away as a bonus, when people buy his pasta maker or food dehydrator.
A Marketing Director for a bank commissioned an artist to do a series of drawings which he then reproduced in limited edition. The drawings became a self-liquidating premium for customers who opened a new account.
You can do the same thing with services.
If you’re an accountant, for example, cut a deal with an automobile dealer. Every customer who buys a new car from the dealership during January gets his taxes done FREE by you. Of course, you’re still getting paid for the work.
You can charge the dealer a flat fee for a set number of returns, or you can charge him on a per return basis. In the first case, you can get a big windfall check. If you sell him 100 returns at $100.00 each, you’ll collect a fat check for $10,000.00. Odds are only about half of the people who receive the service offer will ever take you up on it. And the more that do, the happier you are, because you get a chance to convert all of them into long-term clients.
Endless possibilities, aren’t there? Use some imagination and you’ll come up with ways to do the same in your business.
24. Catalogs: If you’re already selling a variety of products or services, why not broaden your reach by putting them into a catalog and selling them all over the place?
One business’s retail store exclusively sold cat paraphernalia; everything from cat supplies to cat art, gifts for cats and the cat lovers who own them. Their store was unique. They had scoured the globe for cat stuff. With all that effort, they could easily have “cat”apulted to a whole new level by doing a catalog and mailing it to a list of cat lovers all over the country. What a great market-expanding building block.
You can do the same thing with services. Real estate agent trainer Howard Brinton has created a series of training courses for agents. He sells them in a catalog.
And you may be able to get your products included in the catalogs produced by other companies.
25. Trade Shows: They don’t make sense for every business, but they do for many. They’re a great way to reach a lot of highly targeted customers in one spot.
Be careful, though, it may be difficult to complete the sale on the spot. Decide in advance what you want to accomplish at the show. Adequately staff your booth and have pre-show systems in place to maximize attendance and post-show follow-up systems in place to maximize sales.
26. Guest/Host Joint Ventures: This is one of the most important business building blocks you can use. Look for other businesses who share the same kind of customers you do and joint venture with them. They endorse your products and services to their lists, in exchange for a piece of all the sales created by the promotion.
As your host, they are able to take greater advantage of their list for increased profits with no need to inventory products or venture outside of the primary area of expertise. As their guest, you add primary target customers to your business with higher response rates and lower costs than virtually any other way to do business.
27. Private Labeling: If you produce a product, produce it for others and let them market your product under their banner. Even if you’re their competitor, they will build your sales. Can you do the same thing with services? Of course you can. Offer your service t
o other complementary service providers as an “in-house” department of theirs.
This is done all the time in the advertising business. A graphic designer might provide services to an ad agency, as if he were part of that agency. Media buyers do the same thing. This is tantamount to “private labeling” their service.
For example, a pair of mortgage brokers might strike agreements with a number of realtors to provide in-house or private label financing services. Once or twice a week they can set up shop in the offices of the agents, as if they are part of the company. It helps the real estate agencies, and it helps them.
28. Retail: Seems like everybody would like to have their product in Wal-Mart. Some of you sell other people’s products in a retail environment. Many people believe that only products can be sold retail. Ever seen a real estate office in a mall? H&R Block sells tax preparation services from a storefront. Banks have set up retail establishments in grocery stores.
So there are the 28 building blocks for the marketing Powermid. You now have only a third of the equation. The next chapter introduces another collection of blocks for your Powermid, and they are even easier and less expensive to implement than the ones suggested in this chapter, and you’ll be able to use every one of them.
However, now that you’ve got 28 business building blocks to choose from, you can start combining them. Following up Direct Mail with telemarketing has increased response by 20-40%!
The more blocks you add to you Powermid, the more likely you are to bring in hordes of new customers. And hopefully you now have at least half a dozen ways you can add customers, sales, and profits to your business. Take this sensational collection of building blocks for constructing towering sales and use them!
GROWING YOUR BUSINESS ASSIGNMENT SHEET
Assignment #1:
Call someone that is in the same business you are in but in a different part of the country and start a strategic alliance. Tell him you are in a different part of the country and therefore not a competitor. Explain that you would like to share with each other your successful business practices. This way, both of you benefit from each others’ experience.
Assignement #2:
Choose a new marketing method for bringing in new customers and implement it. Try it for 30 days. Then report your results to your coach. And once you’ve added one building block, add another, and another, and another, every 30 days, all year.