Category Archives: Customers

The Big! Long! Scary! Sales Page Questionnaire

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One of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make is being feature focused rather than benefits focused.

When you read most startup web sites or marketing materials, the focus is on features, not benefits.

Those companies all fail the “What’s in it for me?” test for the customer.

Customers are actually not very interested in your product or service features. What they are very interested in is what benefits does your product or feature have for them, directly and specifically.

If you are struggling to conceptualize or articulate your product or service’s answer to the “What’s in it for me?” test, try this excellent questionnaire, courtesy  of Naomi Dunford from the ittybiz blog.

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The Big! Long! Scary! Sales Page Questionnaire
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The secret of a successful sales page is focusing more on the
customer’s needs than the product itself.  You want your customer
to say to themselves that YOU really understand what they’re going
through, and that because of that they can be confident your
product can help them.

The more detail you have on your ideal customers and their needs,
the easier it will to create copy that makes them click that “buy”
button.

IMPORTANT! Try to answer all of the questions that you can, even if
they’re hard to answer in your specific situation. If something
really doesn’t apply to you, you can skip it. But try, though.

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Marketing in 123 Words

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It is marketing’s job to create and sustain the perception of need.

There are three stages of customer perception of need:

  1. Nice to have
  2. Want to have
  3. Need to have

Moving customers from 1 to 2 and then from 2 to 3 requires significant investments of time, energy and resources.

If you start with customers who already believe they need what you are selling, you have a much more efficient, scalable sales model.

If you have to drag customers from nice to want to need, it is a very slow, painful and expensive process.

Even worse, it takes a lot of time.

Time is the most precious resource.

You must create a marketing message that engenders a perception of need.

Getting Money to Start My Business

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Your biggest business challenge this week: money to start my business idea

Capitalizing a new business is one of the largest challenges to overcome.

However, most entrepreneurs focus too much on this factor. They think that their business idea is so foolproof, all they need is some money to bring their idea to market and the business is guaranteed success.

In fact, that is very rarely the case.

Only one in 10 new businesses survives a decade. The failure rate is the highest in the early months and years.

Although a primary cause of business failure is often attributed to “lack of capital,” the real reason is that the failed businesses ran out of time. They ran out of time because most of the new businesses burned through their available money trying to figure out a viable, sustainable business model.

The moral of the story is, before you go seek capital for a new business, be sure you have a proven business model. Take your idea and make a prototype. Do some tests with real customers. Make some sales or get signed letters of commitment to purchase your product or service once you have it ready to sell.

The key to success in business is selling something people want to buy. That is true whether you are tying to start an enterprise B2B company or a local retail business. The only way to ensure that the money you are seeking is going to build a business that sells something people want to buy is to prove that idea before you invest the big amounts of money.

To accomplish that goal, one task I recommend, developed by Dr. Rob Adams, is the 100 Customers Test. Talk to 100 prospective customers first, before you do anything else. You will learn more talking to those customers that you will by obtaining and spending just about any amount of money in the early stages of your business.

Prove your idea and your business model first, then seek and inject capital to scale the business model.

If you need money to prove your business model, start by talking to 100 Customers first. That will cost little to nothing and will almost certainly guarantee that when you do build a business, it will be selling something people want to buy.

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Sales

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“Nothing happens until somebody sells something” – Zig Ziglar

It’s a fundamental rule of business that sales drive everything. If you don’t have any sales, then you don’t have a business—pure and simple. You might have a charity or a hobby, but if you don’t have sales that drive sustainable profitability, you don’t have a business.

“Sales” is what happens when a customer’s perceived needs match your value proposition.

Your value proposition is more than just the specific product and/or service and its price that most people consider when they think about sales.

Your value proposition includes:

  • Brand
  • Time
  • Benefits
  • Features
  • Capabilities
  • Price

Of all of these factors, your brand carries the heaviest load. It stands for your reliability, trustworthiness, and, very importantly, aspirational value. For instance, what’s the difference between a Timex and a Rolex? Both tell time. Only one tells an aspirational story.

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The Seven Sins of Customer Service

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There’s a lot of buzz these days about customer acquisition. Customer acquisition is certainly an essential aspect of business, but it’s also time consuming and costly. Wouldn’t it be easier to take great care of your existing customers, to endear them to you and create such loyal followers that they continue to purchase your offering, and happily share your brand with everyone they know? If that sounds better than spending untold thousands and thousands of marketing and ad dollars trying to acquire new customers, then read on…

1. Create policies aimed at the few rather than the many

I see this time and time again –policies meant to control the behavior of those few who will stop at nothing to rip off a company, to game the system. What about the rest of your customers? What about those who are honest? What you communicate to the scammers and rule breakers is that you are on to them. Guess what? They are already finding ways to circumvent your rules. And, those of us who are honest, and loyal? We are left feeling like you care much more about your interests than ours. We don’t feel important or valued.

2. Create processes that work best for you, not your customers

How many times have you tried to resolve a customer service issue, where YOU were the customer, and the process made you want to scream…out loud…from a rooftop? I have done business with, and worked for, companies that were much more focused on what worked for them, for their chosen internal processes, than what worked for their customer. Make it easy for customers to resolve issues and they are much more likely to give you another chance, even when you really screw up. And you will – no company is perfect. It’s how these companies deal with mistakes that can mean the difference between a customer leaving them forever (and telling plenty of people about the experience) and a customer giving them a chance to make it right and regain their loyalty.

3. Leave your guys and gals on the “front lines” powerless

Something I learned long ago: never take no from someone who does not have the authority to say yes. Unfortunately, the majority of companies that have a reputation for poor customer service tie the hands of their employees – these employees are not empowered to say yes…ever. These businesses do not enable their employees to think for themselves, to do what is appropriate (notice I did not say “do what it takes”) to make things right with an unsatisfied customer. Imagine how much better the situation would be for the employee if you trusted them to make good judgment calls. Imagine how much better the situation would be for the customer if they could have their issues resolved quickly by an employee empowered to say yes. Imagine how much better the situation would be for your business if your employees felt valued and your customers felt like you were doing what was best for them? Imagine if all companies had a policy such as this one:

THE POWER OF ONE®
We know that the one thing that sets Omni apart and gives our guests a truly memorable stay is our associates. That’s why we empower every associate to make decisions and take action to ensure your stay is exceptional. From creating programs that appeal to your senses to assisting with dining reservations or just making sure that you have a quick checkout, every Omni Hotels associate has the power to help you with whatever you need through unsurpassed customer service – that is The Power of One®.

It’s such a simple thing and yet many companies totally miss the mark.

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