Going from Good to Great - ISSUE 13 - 9/20/11

As a fellow business owner, I realize establishing a business encompasses more competition in the marketplace than ever before. Every time I go on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn I see loads of business owners working diligently to grow their business utilizing technology and the mass number of eyeballs viewing the respective websites.

There is no doubt the networking websites have become increasingly saturated with other like-minded individuals doing the exact same thing you are. As of 2009, there were 27.5 million small businesses in the United States alone and on the web you are dealing with business owners from around the globe (www.sba.gov).

If you take a moment and think about the number of industries and business types, there are only about 1170 different business types to choose from (www.smallbusinessnotes.com). If you do the math, there are a lot of people to compete with. This shouldn't intimdate you. As long as you are practicing the correct behaviors, you should be able to go from a good business owner to a great business owner.

One way for you to do this is to build long-lasting relationships with each and every current or potential customer/client you come in contact with. This doesn't mean you have to become everyone's best friend. I have personally tried that and it made me miserable. Now, I'm not telling you to be unfriendly. That's completely opposite of what I'm saying. I'm telling you to be friendly with everyone, but don't be too friendly to the point you will be disappointed if the person doesn't want to do business with you.

Everyone has different objectives, different thoughts, and different ideas of who they would like to be friends with and/or do business with. All you have to do is treat everyone with the utmost respect and friendliness and they will want to come back to you for their business needs time and time again.

Next, always be available to those who matter most. Believe it or not, if you don't answer your phone, you could potentially lose a lot of money. Today, people are exceedingly impatient and want their needs taken care of immmediately. If your potential or current client tries to reach you and you don't answer the phone, they not only will not leave you a message, but they will go to the next person on the list without any thought, remorse, or hesitation.

If you aren't able to talk on the phone, do your very best to answer it just to tell the person their call is important to you and you will call them back as soon as possible. This behavior goes along way in the world of business because there is so much less personal touch with technology nowadays that people feel like you or other people don't care.

Lastly, when someone chooses to do business with you, make sure to show your gratitude and appreciation. Remember, you worked extremely hard to acquire your customers. You don't want to waste all that money and time on trying to acquire new customers when repeat customers are exponentially more satisfied, easier to sell to, and can build your business much faster than dealing with new customers every day by sending your referrals.

One of the best ways to do this is to send your customers a "Thank You" card and to keep in touch with them on a regular basis. You don't have to call them every week to see how they're doing or if they need anything. This behavior will annoy them and they won't want to do business with you any longer.

All you have to do is send each customer a quarterly card. Make sure each card provides value to your customers whether it be for a Birthday, Holiday, or any other special event. Don't forget to tell your customers about your latest promotions but keep in minimal. These cards are not to sell your customers so be very careful and thoughtful about what you say. A perfect service for doing this is called SendOutCards (www.sendoutcards.com). If you haven't heard of it before, it's a must-see.

Although there are many ways to move your business from Good to Great, just remember to always go above and beyond for your customers. Afterall, without them, you don't have a business nor income.

How to begin creating your company's online presence - ISSUE 5 - 3/10/10

You may have already owned your company for many years, or are just beginning the journey. Regardless, you are very aware the Internet is creating wealth like never before. However, you don't have a clue how to market yourself online, nor do you know where to begin. Never worry, we are here to teach you some basic fundamentals.

We are adding very valuable information to our website on a regular basis. Please visit us at www.suitedmarketing.com when you have a moment. You will be making the best decision you've made since starting your business.

Step 1: Blogging, Email/Ezine Marketing, and eBooking

Just imagine. About 10-15 years ago, none of these words existed, however, they have become a few of the most important words in today's world to guide you towards your path to success. You no longer can be successful by cold-calling. Today's successful business owners write "Value Messages" to their clients. These value messages include items which will help individuals, or build value in their lives, but will remain directly related to your business.

Great Ideas for eZine articles

Here are a few "teach tips" to get your team to the next level...

• Teach EVERYONE that attitude is the foundation of success, both personal and business
• Teach EVERYONE the importance of friendliness
• Teach EVERYONE that speed of response is not an option
• Teach EVERYONE how to respond to customer complaints
• Teach EVERYONE that service is as important as sales
• Teach EVERYONE to ask for more business
• Teach EVERYONE to suggest more
• Teach EVERYONE to thank the customer for their business

Inspired by Jeffrey Gitomer

Don't just take my word for it. Visit www.gitomer.com by Jeffrey Gitomer, author of "The Little Red Book of Selling," and distinguished motivational speaker. He has tons of great insight.

Other topics to write about

The following are just some ideas you can use to write value messages to your customers. Please, feel free to use or alter them in any way you feel fit.

1. How and why you decided to start your business "X" years ago.
2. The struggles you went through in the beginning stages.
3. The success you experienced over the years.
4. How you initially obtained clients.
5. What you did to keep the clients coming back.
6. How long it took you to become profitable.
7. What you would do different if you had to do it all over again.
8. Why new and existing customers choose you over the competition.
9. What is unique about your product and/or service.
10. Your short-term and long-term goals.
11. How you could help a business owner build their business by purchasing your product or service.

Step 2: Partnering with other companies

Once you re-program your mind to focus on helping other people, you will quickly begin to see the rewards come back ten-fold.

The search engines rank your website/business based off the relativity and quality of content, and even the popularity of your page. Your primary goal is to get to the top of the search engine when a potential customer/client is searching for information. The higher your ranking, the more traffic your site will receive.

One great way to do this is to research for companies you could partner up with to send each other referrals. For example, if you own a printing company, such as my friend Dan Wees with Advanced Printing Solutions (www.apsslc.com). He has a great market niche because his printing company is able to print on just about anything.

I am recommending he contact and build partnerships with such companies in the industries of computers/technology, medical, outdoor, t-shirts, etc. Once he has built the partnerships, he needs to offer to put a link to their website on his and once it's completed, he should ask for the same in return.

Step 3: Never stop learning

The moment you stop improving yourself and/or growing your business will be the moment your company begins to fail. It may take five or ten years, but eventually the competition will surpass you. Don't ever get comfortable. Don't ever get content. Company B is always working just as hard, if not harder than you, to become company A.

Please check out our FREE eBooks at our Library as well as some motivational and informational videos by other great leaders of our country and successful entrepreneurs at our Resources page.

Step 4: Using the tools available

There are many great services available to help you build your online presence at little or no cost. Every one of the following sources are imperative to your success so please, make sure to create an account for each of them. We will go over how to utilize these tools in a later edition to the Suited eZine so please make sure to subscribe by visiting our Library.

Don't forget to put all the accounts in your business name. This is very important to increase your web presence. No one will know who you are unless you tell them.

Google Account

google.com/accounts/createaccount

Google Profile

google.com/profiles

Business Solutions

google.com/services

• Local Business Center
• Adwords
• Adsense
• Analytics
• Friend Connect
• And any other service you find useful

Blogger

blogger.com

Twitter

twitter.com

YouTube

youtube.com

Toll Free Number

TollFreeNumber.org

Increase Your Sales

• Increase Your Sales By Providing Information About Your Company & Business Tools 24/7

Enhance Your Image

• Portray a Professional Image
• Only One Number to Remember & Provide
• Organize employees and departments

Be More Productive

• Save Time By ONLY Talking to the Callers You Want to
• Never Miss an Important Phone Call Again
• All of Your Communication in One Spot
• Instant Notification of New Messages

Learn More

• For Home/Small Businesss Owners
• For Direct Sales/Network Marketing Professionals
• For Real Estate Agents or Mortgage Brokers

Please visit www.suitedmarketing.com to learn more about our company, educational products, services, and promotions and our What We Do page for more information.







www.suitedmarketing.com
shane.russell@suitedmarketing.com

Visit our Library

Benefits of Excellent Customer Service - Brand Loyalty - ISSUE 4 - 3/3/10

Implementing a VIP Program into your business


I met with some clients today about helping them build and market their beauty salon. Their business has been around for almost a year and they still don't have the traffic they would like. They have done an unbelievable amount of word-of-mouth advertising by handing out coupons and flyers. These people are fantastic! They have even partnered up with the local restaurants and other businesses to trade for advertising space on their billboard. Even though the economy is tough, they are going to continue to fight and be tougher than both the economy and their competition.

Although your business may be a little different than this client, all the principles of the VIP program will be the same across the board.

I met Roxana, Mrs. Roxy Herself, at the local wireless store. She was handing out her flyers and I instantly thought about helping her market her business. About a week later, I ran into her again and I greeted her with excitement. It was as if we had known each other for years.

I then quickly made it a point to ensure we would be able to talk again. I took a coupon and went to get a haircut. As soon as I walked in the door of her salon I began smelling opportunity in the air. With my background, experience, knowledge, and education, I knew I could help them turn their business into a thriving business.

During our discussion tonight we came up with many great ideas, which I will be implementing shortly, but first we decided to develop a VIP program for their customers. This is a great way to focus their efforts on the easiest and very best way to earn business, repeat customers and referrals.

They already worked twice as hard as their competition to earn the business, now it's time to help them keep the business!

I told them we are going to create a VIP program not only to get those hard-earned referrals and repeat customers, but also to grab their customer's information so they can build loads of value for their customers. I told them they to be value-driven so their customers will come back time and time again.

I learned many of the techniques I'm mentioning here from Jeffrey Gitomer. Visit our Library for more of his techniques and other resources.

Their customer's information is like Gold simply because they will be able to keep in constant contact with them. They will be able to send them "value" letters, not necessarily "sales" letters. They will build a loyal customer base and have no choice but to expand their business.

They have a great niche. They just haven't capitalized on it yet.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT A VIP PROGRAM IN YOUR BUSINESS

Now that we decided to implement a VIP Program, we have to determine what information is the most valuable and necessary. Below is a list of all the information you want to get from all your customers so that we can learn about them, their interests, their family, and what's important to them. This will allow you to send "Value-Oriented" letters, postcards, flyers, emails, etc. as well as to give a personal touch and remind you about each customer before assisting them.

1) Name
2) Address
3) Phone Number
4) Email Address
5) Birth Date
6) Children's Names and Birth Dates (optional)
7) Anniversary (optional)
8) Pets' Names (optional)
9) Hobbies/Interests/Career/School (optional)

Obviously, the more information you obtain from your customers, the more ammunition you will have in your back pocket. People really like to be welcomed, recognized, and remembered when they go somewhere, especially somewhere they frequent. This makes them feel important and it's your job as a business owner to ensure this.

If have haven't already, purchase customer tracking software to do this for you. An example can be found at: http://www.novosolutions.com/customer-tracking-software. Please visit the website to learn about how this software can help make your life easier and assist you in building your business.

If your customers don't feel comfortable giving out their personal information, explain to them the importance and how it will benefit them. Say something along the lines of, "Mr. Customer, I understand this is a little out of the ordinary but you are very important to me as a customer, and I would like to get to know all my customers' needs, wants, and interests, including yours, so you will have the very best experience each and every time you come to our store. Plus, we have great promotions and discounts for all our VIP members including, but not limited to, a discount on all our products, FREE Birthday haircuts for you and your family, coupons delivered to your house, and more!"




Make them feel like a million bucks. They will get a very warm feeling inside and will never go anywhere else again! I assure you most people will gladly sign up because everyone wants to get free stuff.

In addition to obtaining your customer's information, you must spend a minute before assisting each of them to review the information from previous sessions. You must also spend a minute after to document the current experience and customer's preferences for future reference. This will give you something to talk about and you will already have an idea of their needs and wants.

There are too many people for you to remember everyone's needs, wants, preferences, every time. Don't even try. Just spend the extra minute. It will save you loads of time and will be worth the investment. I promise.

If you live in the Salt Lake City, UT area, please visit Roxy's Beauty Salon. It's a great atmosphere and they do an amazing job! They most certainly have the quality you would want as well as the ability to make you feel welcome and like part of the family.