October 8, 2010 Mining For Data Gold Information is power. You and I both know that, but you may not realize just how powerful information can be or how it can be used. Think of the marketing power behind what you know. The children’s shoe shop that collects the names and birthdays of its small customers can use that data to send out personalized postcards with a birthday coupon. Flower shops can keep track of anniversaries. Vets can send out updates about shots. Your database represents a goldmine of information for all your marketing plans…but many small businesses are awful at maintaining a great database. Are you?…
September 24, 2010 Keeping Customers on Your Mind Customers need to be touched. They will come back to you if they are thinking about you. They are thinking about you if you are thinking about them! Here are a few ideas to keep your business on a solid foundation: Ask your existing clients what you are doing right…and what you can do better. The best way to get a new client is to impress an old one. There are a lot of ways to measure the happiness of your existing clients. A customer satisfaction survey is a simple way to find out how people are thinking and to…
September 21, 2010 Simple Selling Tips for Tough Times Tough times call for real action and positive change. Salespeople know that better than anyone. Aggressively waiting for the phone to ring doesn’t work. Neither does doing the same things with double the energy. But there are things you can do in times like this. Here are two tips that you can put into place this week with only a little effort: 1.) Distribute an insider sheet to your prospects. When your salesperson is absolutely unable to get someone engaged, have them hand your customer a small “insider sheet,” which could feature a blurb about a particular product, a customer,…
