Home | Business | Sales
Many business owners are able to skyrocket the number of their customers almost overnight. They can do so if they have very large marketing and promotional budgets in place. Or they either squeeze their suppliers or cut their own prices. These strategies are not possible for every business, especially of it is a small business. Most successful businesses can often outlive their competitors by bringing charm to their dealings. Since happy customers bring even more customers, this strategy can work if you are on a tight budget initially. But this requires patience – lots of it, and for long term. These types of strategies are possible even today and they work for all types of businesses, whether they are offline, online or both. Many businesses are already stealing the customers from under the nose of their far bigger competitors - without spending anything on marketing or advertising. Would you be interested to find out how they do this? It is called understanding your customer's hidden psychology. Remember this: all paying customers have one universal trait. They look for value for their money. Some customers are sophisticated enough and ask for more or indulge into bargaining. Others just pay the asking price and accept goods or service, but wonder whether they paid the right price or could get it cheaper elsewhere. Nevertheless, none of this group of customers is an entirely happy customer. How you make a customer a truly happy customer so that he wants to bring his friends to your premises? Here is true story. I know it is true because this happened to me. I have been paying a regular once a month visit to my barber for many years. He runs a very successful saloon. I have been loyal customer not because he is cheap but mainly because I am accustomed to his service and I do not want to take undue risks elsewhere either. During the end of one of my visits a few months ago, as I had just paid for his services, he said: 'Would you like to take away our top of the line bottle of shampoo - for free?' He gets his own range of toiletries manufactured which he sells in his own or other saloons. But I was not quite sure why would do such a thing. OK, his margins are high, but giving away some thing free had never happened before. Being skeptic, I gently inquired what the catch was? 'Nothing, just take it away and give us feedback on what I think of it next time I am in? Fair enough, I did as told. I tried all freebies during the next month. On my next visit, he asked me how I got on with shampoo. Of course I was happy with it (after all he had been selling it successfully for years). Then he said, ‘how would you like your friends try this too? Also perhaps our service here in the saloon… for free and see what they think?’ I have been in marketing business for some time. I instantly knew that he wanted referrals. But the way he went about getting them was charming. I found it difficult not to give him names of few of my friends because I felt indebted for allowing me to try out his stuff for free. Now what I ask you is this: if you got a call from a well known business offering you free service that you regularly use elsewhere, how likely are you to turn it down? What if your friend has referred them to contact you - because your friend can not be unhappy with their service, right? Well, unless you have a good reason to distrust your friend’s recommendation, of course. I hope you can see the power of Can you see the power of smart marketing here. I know that some of my friends took up his offer, and two now use him every time they need their hair done. In fact their wives are using the saloon as well for their manicure and other such requirements. Do you think this saloon owner is now going to stop with just these friends? In time he is bound to ask them for some more referrals too. What did it cost him to acquire new customers? Almost nothing. They came along because they were offered a product or service that was perceived by them to be of higher value than they were able to get elsewhere. The important word to watch here is ‘perceived value’. It cost saloon owner next to nothing. Can this strategy be used by other businesses to steal customers from their big competitors? All they need is to be creative in their own fields. Not all businesses can give away a bottle of shampoo and a free hair cut but they will need to be creative in their own businesses. The good news is – you do not need to have freebies to give away. There are solutions already available that can be given away and they do not cost you any thing at all. The great thing is that customers regard them very highly and have a high perceived value. For example, would your customers like free vacations that would normally cost them $2000 each? Or a $1000 spending spree? How about if it doesn’t cost you any thing at all?
Article Source: http://www.SponsorDirectory.com/Free-Content
Peter Shukla has long experience of business consulting. In his latest venture he has teamed up with one of the largest companies of its kind in the USA to offer creative solutions to businesses to drive ore customers their way. Almost all his clients have seen their sales rise by at least 30%. To learn more about this unique strategy, visit his website Give Away Incentives. Or go here: www.giveawayincentives.com
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
