Simple Ways to Expand Your Client Database

The goal of every business is to expand their client database. These days most business owners are cutting back on their marketing investments and they are searching for ways to creatively bring in new business. Instead of trying to be ultra-creative, why not get back to some basics of business development? Here are some simple ways you can expand your client database:

1. Network with the goal of building lasting relationships. Many business owners look at networking as a fast-track way to get new business. When things don't go in their favor or they don't see quick results from their networking, they get disappointed or discouraged and give up. When one looks at their own interests first, he or she loses sight of what networking is really all about... building relationships. The key to networking is to listen more than you speak. When you take the approach of getting to know someone and being a resource to them, the relationship can and will grow. When they need the type of product or service you sell, they'll be sure to come to you first. They'll also be quite willing to refer you to others.
   
2. Build strategic alliances. The right kind of business alliances can be quite instrumental in growing your business. By developing strategic alliances with like-minded business owners, you can share in your marketing investment by co-creating advertising materials. It also gives you greater exposure for your business.
   
3. Ask for referrals, and don't be shy about it either! You might feel awkward coming right out and asking for a referral, but let me tell you, it's one of the best ways to increase business. If you served your customer well, they will be all too happy to give you a referral. You can ask them personally or you can create a survey system where you solicit this information.
4. Make sure you have a system in place to follow-up on leads. Without a system in place, you are probably leaving a lot of business on the table. One of the best ways to cost-efficiently follow up on leads is through lead scoring (see our last blog post for more information on this).

With these four strategies in place, in no time you'll begin to see your customer database expanding.

How to Prioritize Your Prospects with Lead Scoring

How well do you know your target audience? Have you evaluated your customer database to the point where you can pinpoint your target demographic? With a tighter economy, it's more important than ever to make sure your marketing investment is being used wisely.

You can't risk marketing to everyone hoping something will stick somewhere along the way and you'll get new customers. Rarely is everyone in the marketplace seeking your product or service. Given that fact, you've got to make sure you can accurately pinpoint and target your marketing message to the people who will be the ones most likely to purchase your product or service.

Survival of the fittest, or natural selection, is a biological term that means, "only the fittest organisms will prevail." The same holds true with business. One aspect of natural selection is the expenditure of energy. Those animals that expend the least amount of energy to accomplish a task, like hunting, become more efficient and stronger.

An example of how this would apply to business would be targeting your existing customers for repeat business before going out "hunting" for new customers. It takes a smaller investment in marketing to target those who already know your business than it does to go out and find new prospects.

The same holds true in how you market to your prospects... people who have had some sort of contact with you in the past but have not yet made a decision to purchase from your business.

So, the first order of business is to make sure you've got a plan in place to market to existing customers. It should spell out how you will actively communicate with them either by email or mail. It's also a good idea to create a process for soliciting referrals from your existing customers. Once you've got a marketing program in place for your existing customers, you can then start to target the prospects that are in your customer database.

The best way to target the prospects in your database is with "Lead Scoring." With lead scoring, you rank prospects according to their likeliness to purchase your product or service. Lead scoring matters and it works. With lead scoring a point value is assigned to things like how the prospect heard of your company, who they are, how they are interacting with you and what their need is for your product. If done correctly, the higher the score, the further they should be in the buying process.

Here's an example:

You sell bathroom cabinets, showers, and fixtures out of a retail storefront and online. A homeowner walks in with a sketch of their dream bathroom remodel. After collecting their name and contact information, you ask about the project and walk them around your showroom. They leave without making a purchase. Does that mean they won't make a purchase and your job is done? Not at all. Here's where you begin the lead scoring process.

While their visit is fresh in your mind, enter their information into your customer relationship management program and score the visit. Walking in the door might be worth one point, having a design plan may be worth five points, and asking for a price quote might be worth another five. If they return to the store another time, that would be worth additional points. You set up your scoring system by taking a look at the typical buying process and then stick to it for every prospect that comes in the door. If you've got an online store, you can create a similar type of scoring system.

When applied consistently with each prospect, the higher the score, the further along they are in the buying process. Once you add up all the points, you will be able to approximate the level of interest someone has in buying your product or service and then prioritize which leads to pursue first and which ones to hold off on.

One final note to mention. Not everyone will fit perfectly into your lead scoring system so you need to be attentive to building relationships with all your leads. The important thing is to be consistent and to periodically evaluate the system to see if it needs to be tweaked and improved upon.

Building Your T.E.A.M.: Motives

What do you focus on, your dream or your team? If you focus on your team, the dream will take care of itself. Have you ever heard, "If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want: from Zig Ziglar? It's true. Sow how do you achieve your dreams? Grow your team.

Think of a company that grows a sales team. The owner gets a percentage of everything that is sold. Does it happen automatically? No. They are willing to provide the capital to start up the company. Provide the team with the tools, encouragement, resources and a commission to be the best they can be. They may send you back to school and pay for it. They are giving before receiving. They are helping others get what they want so they can get what they want. If you build the team to just benefit yourself, watch out. You're heading for disappointing times.

When you build your team, you will build community. You will do fun things together like going bowling and having pizza parties, road trips, and picnics. You will celebrate birthdays and new babies coming into the family and you'll be there to help them move into that new house. I remember working in a bank and we had a social every month. We built community because we were together more than we were with our families. You'll be there for the highs and the lows in their lives and they'll be there for yours. John Churton Collins, a critic, said, "In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.

If your desires and wants are to build a team, to add value to others, to help them accomplish their dreams and goals, to see them not live a poverty mindset, but to live life abundantly, you're right on track. I encourage you to start today and send a word of encouragement to someone on your team and tell 'em how much you appreciate them.

Wayne Bailey is a Distributor with SendOutCards. He has recognized tremendous growth in his personal and business relationships by implementing the strategies he talks about in his articles. You can email Wayne at wayne_bailey642@hotmail.com or visit: www.sendoutcards.com/waynebailey. Want to try SendOutCards for your business? Take advantage of his coupon below.

Spring Cleaning

When you do a spring cleaning in your home, you're taking a good look at everything around you and putting in extra effort to clean and de-clutter. The tradition of "Spring Cleaning" can also apply to your business' marketing strategies.

If a marketing strategy isn't giving you a good return on your investment, there's a very simple response...stop doing it. Marketing a business is not something that is a "one size fits all" investment. What may work for one business type may not work for yours. Even changes in location will have an effect on the response of similar marketing campaigns.

To illustrate, here are some of our client examples:

1. One of our clients was spending over $1,000 a month on a large advertisement in the Yellow Pages. After implementing a tracking program to determine from where new business was generated, they learned that only 1 or 2 people a quarter were coming to them through the Yellow Pages. The investment was definitely not giving them a good return so they cut back to a basic listing and saved thousands of dollars.
   
2. Two of our clients own automotive repair shops (our client referred us to the second shop). The first automotive repair shop had a great deal of success with placing an insert in the local AAA newspaper. We tried the same strategy for the second shop. Though their business was located in a nearby county, they received very little response from the inserts, despite testing and measuring for six months.

The point of these two examples is this. Every business owner should test and measure each marketing strategy to determine how well it's working for the money invested. Capitalize on the ones that are working and discard the ones that aren't. And don't be afraid to try new things! Just remember to test and measure each new campaign.