The art of selling and capturing your consumer.
Congratulations, you have just reached a 5 or 10-year anniversary for your business. Those survival stages are behind you. Now, you want to maximise your return on this business investment by capturing as many consumers as you can in your immediate market.
How do you do it? What strategies can you deploy in the town or city you operate within?
The truth is, in a fragmented marketplace with fragmented audiences (where it is harder and harder to capture a mass-market with one single marketing campaign), winning a consumer's attention and their purchasing power is harder than ever. That is why in smaller towns and even hyper-locally (on a suburb level - in a big city), face-to-face selling can be a powerful tool in maximising your sales.
The bottom-line comes down to being innovative. Think how Leonardo Da Vinci innovated through his inventions. What did he do? He recognised key characteristics in the natural world and applied them in a different light. Or like the composer where she is able to take a deep understanding of music and notes to create amazing symphonies. There's this ability to take simple musical components and maximise their impact.
How do business owners do the same? Taking the simple, natural parts of everyday life and apply them to capture the consumer and their attention.
Two thoughts...
Firstly, get intimate. Know your consumer intimately. Their demographics, psychographics, their wants and needs and pain points. Everything about your business (your product, team, culture, sales, marketing, pricing) should be shaped by your understanding of your consumer. Like the composer who intimately feels her way through a musical score. She knows how each note interacts with the other. You too should have that deep awareness of your target market and consumer.
Note: If you have made it here without having this, my assumption is you have held a monopoly in the market for sometime, but now competition is creeping in. This information and understanding should be "101" (the basics) in your business' initial launch.
Secondly, Wow Them. What's your service experience? Think about it from the perspective of your clients. Do they get the impression that you have gone above and beyond what is expected? Are your experiences memorable?
Here are some action steps to consider now:
Make a list of your best customers or prospective ones.
Think about the next time you will meet them face-to-face.
What actions could you take to make that experience 'special'?
What's your follow-up plan?
What you are doing is you are taking your current service model, reviewing it, to take it to the next level.
One more bonus idea for restaurants, real-estate agents and anyone catering to a higher-end market. Host intimate events:
Speak with a local restaurant and guarantee them that every fortnight or month you will host a 'business drinks/nibbles/dinner'....whatever. Ensure you get some discount off the drinks and food. As you are guaranteeing regular sales, it would be smart for the restaurant to reciprocate for the loyal returning event. Also, it would encourage more people to attend (if it was a cash bar after a certain time).
This isn't a "sales event", it is simply an opportunity for you to 'get to know people'. Everyone loves to network. The key though is intimate, cap it at 10-15 people, large scale events are not exclusive, not personal and there is no time for genuine "relationship building".
In all circumstances you want to have ways to activate the relationship. To determine this you need to clarify your objectives for your consumer.
Here are 3 objectives to consider in these events:
Show appreciation - This objective ensures you capture every possible customer and retain their loyalty. It should be no surprise that the key to capturing your consumer's loyalty is built on the depth of relationship you build with them. Hosting intimate events with this objective in mind allows for a safe, trusting environment for them and for the relationship to flourish in.
Grow your Network - Personal introductions from existing customers is a key to new business growth. Whether it is in Denmark or a big city, word-of-mouth influence is vital to purchasing decisions. Strategically-crafted events with this objective in mind is a perfect platform to achieve this influence.
What's the Wow Factor? - The wow factor leading into, during and after these intimate events and encounters can create plenty of buzz. While these events can be grand like hiring Ferraris for your top customers to cruise to the local winery for a wine tasting and back. They can also be simple. A restaurant meal, but the WOW is in the mystery of the meal and the drinks poured. To expect a pub meal, but be surprised by a degustation and Champagne. Spreading the buzz is another key component, but more on that in another post.
Caveat: In all these events and encounters the only purpose should be FUN. Your customers need to know that no business will be talked about. The follow-up plan is vital in these settings - more on that in another post too.
If you want to own your market and capture every possible customer, the relationship has to be more than transactional. It needs to be both a personal and business relationship, built on trust.
Whether you are the local kid's toy shop, a restaurant, the super-market, a lunch bar or a day-spa. Returning customers are always seeking a relationship if you want loyalty to your brand.
Also, they are on 'high-alert' for deceit and manipulation. Whenever these are in view not only do they choose to take their 'purchasing power' elsewhere, but the negative word of mouth campaign takes hold...and if you are in a small town that destroys you...
To end. Like the composer, it is the simplicity of music and how it all intertwines that provides an incredible score. To the business owner, it is the simplicity of having authentic, personal and transparent relationships built on trust and how it all intertwines with your product and service that supports a thriving business.
Get this right and you will capture your consumer for life,
TK
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