subject: Do You Have A Customer Problem? [print this page] Before becoming our clients, many business owners tell usThe economy is bad. Were not getting business like we used to. We have a customer problem. We tell them You dont have a customer problem. You have a MARKETING PROBLEM.
Think about it. Most businesses never even come close to gaining even 1% market share (for example, if the potential customer market in an area is 1 million potential customers, 1% would be 10,000 customers. Most businesses dont even come close to this). So ask yourselfDid people suddenly stop needing and buying what I sell?
OF COURSE NOT! Even if a small portion did, theres still a tremendous amount out there that are still buying what you sell. Theyre just buying it from someone else!
Why Are They Buying From Someone Else?
Its simple. Many business owners dont know how to market their business properly. They either dont have the time to learn how (and then do it) or they let advertising sales people make their decisions for them.
One of the keys to successfully marketing your business is consistency. You must consistently market your business to both your potential customers AND your existing customers. In our industry, its known as TOMA (T.op O.f the M.ind A.wareness). To give you some idea of what TOMA is, if you were to buy a pizza who would you buy it from? If you were to sell your house, who would you give the listing to? Whatever your answers are, those businesses have TOMA with you. The moment your potential customers think about buying what you sell, you want them to think of you in the same way.
The next key is to find effective ways of consistently touching your prospects month after month that will maintain TOMA with them. These are called follow-up systems. Follow up systems consist of: email newsletters, email blasts, auto responders, voice broadcasting, fax blasting, direct mail and text message blasting. All of these systems are very inexpensive to employ yet are very effective in maintaining TOMA.
By consistently marketing your business to both your existing and potential customers through follow up systems, youll get the lions share of business. Leveraging technology, automation and outsourcing is the proverbial stone that your small business can use to defeat the larger and more powerful Goliath.
