subject: What's Driving Your New Business? [print this page] What's Driving Your New Business? What's Driving Your New Business?
Copyright (c) 2010 Richard SeppalaI want to talk about a favorite subject of any business person - getting new clients and customers. It's pretty obvious that no company or practice can grow without it. As a matter of fact, you can't help but shrink if you don't get new business - because you always end up losing old customers one way or the other as time goes on. Hopefully, however, you have a steady flow of new cash-paying customers coming in the door - or, at the very least, a steady trickle. Enough to pay your bills and make a living. But maybe you want more than that. Maybe you want to make more money, expand your business to another location, or bring in some other people to reduce your workload....maybe a combination of all three. We all have goals for growth.But the important thing with goals is...you have to have a plan to achieve them.Well, the number one way you can begin to achieve your growth goals is to find out what's driving that new business to you and focusing on that in your marketing and advertising. If something works, do more of it, right?But the big question becomes....how do you find that out?Well, many small businesses will simply have the receptionist ask the new customer, "How did you hear about us?" and take note of the answer. Sounds like the simplest, most efficient solution, right?Yes - but it's also the solution that has as many holes as a piece of Swiss Cheese.On the customer side, you're relying on their recall. Believe it or not, they may not accurately remember. Or a friend or spouse may have passed on the recommendation without revealing where they heard about you.On the receptionist side, they're not always going to remember to ask - and, if they do, they're not always going to remember to write down what the new customer tells them (which, again, may or may not be accurate).Which leaves you with data that has a very, VERY good chance of being incomplete and/or just plain wrong. Data that you simply can't count on to give you what's an incredibly important thing to know - what marketing and advertising should you spend your money on to have the best shot at increasing sales.The most reliable, scientific way to get that answer - and to get the most out of your marketing and advertising ROI - is to track every marketing placement from the start. By placing a unique toll-free number on every ad and putting in place an automatic tracking system, you know instantly which ad caused each customer to call.And that's information that's just going to make you a whole lot more money down the line.
