Archives for October 2012

Selling Your Business For The Best Possible Price

October 11, 2012 by

When it comes time to finally sell your business, you’ve worked hard for it, you’ve worked hard in it and you would like to see the best possible price for it.

However, most business owners don’t do the work necessary in order to get the maximum possible sale price for their business.

The real value of a business is almost entirely in its list. I mean if you want to sell your business for more than the sum of its parts.

I have a very close friend who built up and sold a business that delivers meals designed to help you lose weight to your door for the week. He sold that up a few years ago and was paid out handsomely. He told me recently that it wasn’t until he delivered his customer data on a USB to the buyer and saw how excited they looked that he realised just how valuable customer data is.

They didn’t care about his ordering software… his high tech delivery routing program… anything to do with his location or how it was fitted out. All they wanted was the customer list.

This isn’t isolated. There was a magazine that was targeted to farmers, but they didn’t allow advertising. It was very popular and a lot of companies wanting to sell to farmers wanted to be advertising in that magazine. The song and dance went on until the one of the companies cracked and bought the magazine out for seven times its earnings.

There is nothing more valuable in your business than your customer database and your relationship with it –  well actually it is the results of that relationship that is so valuable, the customer loyalty and the referrals. To create a relationship with your customers requires investment and a system.

The system is the key part. Systems are what are valuable in business. It means that whoever buys your business will be able to use the same system and get the same results.

“Creativity is over-rated. Most business success comes from doing boring, diligent work. From developing a system that produces consistent results and sticking to it”

Ray Kroc. (The man who built McDonalds into the most successful fast food operation in the world.)

It is this boring work that is the key to business success. Developing and continuing to implement systems to achieve the outcomes you want. In this case building and maintaining a strong relationship with your customer list so that they will continue to buy from you and refer new customers to you.

The systems you create mean that you can sell a future revenue stream. That means you are in effect selling money at a discount. You buy my business for X and you’ll be almost guaranteed to get your money back in 5 years – less if you do the work to grow it… Or something like that.

That is the power of creating systems to maintain and grow the value of your most important asset in  business.

Filed Under: Customer Retention, Newsletter, Relationship Marketing

A Customer retained is a Customer Gained

October 11, 2012 by

Customer retention is taken a little too nonchalantly by many businesses these days.

Ben Franklin’s saying “a penny saved is a penny earned” applies in this case.

Every customer you retain is a customer you don’t need to replace. It may sound trivial but the rate that you lose customers controls the rate that you are growing.

For the sake of making the maths easy, say you lose 100 customers a year in your business. That means you need to go and find 100 customers to replace your lost customers with.

Painful eh? Now if you want to grow at all, that means you need to get customers in excess of your 100 if you want to grow. Say you want to grow by 100 customers this year that means you actually need to find 200 customers in order to reach your growth goals.

That is twice as much work as you thought.

Obviously, in light of that, it makes sense to prevent as many of your customers from leaving as you possibly can.

I can’t do the math for you but I can encourage you to look at your own business’s customer defection rates and calculate what an increase in your retention rates is worth to your business in hard dollar terms.

Often times the amount will surprise you.

One client we worked with figured out that increasing their retention rate by 1% of their customer base was worth about $15,000 over the next 12 months. That spurred them into action to make sure that they made an effort to keep their existing customers happy.

I know from a friend in the insurance industry that 1% increase in your retention rate could be worth as much as $100,000 in revenue.

Customer retention is as valuable as customer acquisition. After all, every customer you keep is one you don’t need to go out and get again.

You can go further and say retention is more valuable than acquisition because the longer you can keep a customer, the more they are worth to you, the more they are worth to you the more you can spend in order to get them in the first place.

Ben Franklin’s advice on thrift should be applied to customers. Make sure that you “Get greedy and make sure you don’t part with them cheaply.”

 

Filed Under: Customer Retention

Tips for Living On The Go

October 5, 2012 by

Everyone seems to be living such busy lives these days that healthy living often seems to be just one thing to do too many. The good news however is that it healthy living while on the go is not as difficult as it may seem and that just a few alterations to your routine can result in real benefits to your health.

Whether at work or at home, everyone loves a tea of coffee break. You can still enjoy a drink but make it a healthier alternative instead by opting to drink a cup of warm herbal tea. There is an absolutely enormous selection of such teas available nowadays, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find at least one which you really enjoy.

Eating just a small handful of nuts can also be of great benefit to people on the go. A selection of nuts such as the likes of almonds, cashews, pecans and walnuts, together with raisins, and eat a large handful at around three o’clock in the afternoon, as this has been shown to increase your energy and productivity level at this time of the day.

Filed Under: ezine

How Much Content Is Enough?

October 5, 2012 by

One question faced by many B2B companies is when they have created enough content to be able to answer all the questions that a prospect might conceivably have at each and every stage of the buying cycle. The question therefore is, how can a company go about determining that?

It begins with understanding who their ideal buyers really are and the kinds of concerns and issues they will have. Creating buyer personas can actually assist with this, as they are used quite commonly in order to create an ideal customer archetype based upon what you already know in regard to your current prospects and customer base.

You need to be able to get inside your buyers’ heads and have a solid understanding of what it is that makes them tick. To do this, talk to your customers and to the personnel at your company who regularly engage with them.

Filed Under: ezine

Tips For Writing Compelling Marketing Copy

October 5, 2012 by

Working in the world of B2B communications there are a lot of rules and regulations to follow, and it is often all very serious indeed, but that doesn’t mean that all your communications have to be boring. There are a few guidelines to remember that can give potential customers important information without putting them to sleep in the process.

The first tip is to keep the message as brief as possible and just get to the point. A short, powerful idea that has been cleverly packaged will always be better than an inordinate amount of waffle. The more efficient you can make the message, the more likely it is to be read and to have the effect you want it to have.

It is also important to make your content valuable and one of a kind. While your topic of choice may have already been the subject of countless articles, you need to provide a different angle that will make yours stand out from the crowd and draw in consumers.

Filed Under: ezine

How To Build A Senior Management Team

October 5, 2012 by

There are a number of tips that can be followed for the purpose of building an effective senior management team.

One good tip is to begin with part-time workers. The simple fact is that you might not be able to afford to pay for a full-time chief financial officer in the beginning, but there is a very strong likelihood that you will be able to find one who is more than happy to work on a part-time basis. Volunteers can also be helpful.

You might even want to think about the possibility of outsourcing your management team. Look in the Yellow Pages under such categories as Employment Agencies, Executive Search Consultants, Employee Leasing and Management Consultants.

You should make certain that any prospective members of your senior management team will be a good fit for your company, so be sure to check out their backgrounds and references.

Filed Under: ezine

The Three Main Referral Types

October 5, 2012 by

the-three-main-referral-typesReferrals are an important part of every business. In fact, most small businesses are built on referrals alone. Referred prospects are much more likely to do business with you because you have been recommended, they have a much higher initial trust with you and they have seen that you can deliver what you promise.

Many business owners believe that the only way to get a referral is to WOW the customer with great service and they will tell their friends. While this gets you referrals, it is not the only way to get them. I’ve discovered three main types of referrals. There are a few others, but these are the main three ways that referrals occur.

Customer Tells A Friend or Colleague  – This type of referral usually happens because you WOW a customer and they are happy with your services. These referrals are the most genuine, there is often no reward and they are referring purely because they believe their friend or associate can benefit by contacting you. These people are MUCH more likely to convert into a paying customer than a cold prospect. The downside to these referrals is that you have no direct control over them, if someone tells a friend about your business, you can’t follow up, you can’t market to them or build a relationship etc.

Customer Tells You About A Prospect – This type of referral is often used by businesses who have a strong sales team. This method generally involves giving your clients an incentive to refer people to you. Usually you’d ask something like “If you know anyone who might be interested, give us their details and we’ll contact them on your behalf and if anyone goes ahead, you’ll be rewarded with x.” – These referred prospects are more likely to convert than cold prospecting because by mentioning their friend, you’re much more welcome when you make the first contact. It is a lot more work than the first referral method because YOU actually need to put in the hard work. The other benefit is that you have their details, you can follow up, market to them and you have control of the referral.

 Customer Tells a Friend AND Tells You – This is the ultimate referral. It combines the above two referral types. They tell their friend all about you and then tell you that they referred them and give you their details to follow up. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard clients say “I referred a few people to you over the last few months, did any of them contact you?” In many instances the answer is ‘no’. If those customers told me immediately when they referred the person and gave me a phone number or email I can quickly flick an email or make a quick phone call to say “so and so mentioned you were looking for x, is there any advice or help I can give you?” – once again I’m in control of the situation and can follow up.

Referrals can be induced, it always pays to WOW your customers in every way you can, but if you want to put referrals on overdrive, build a relationship with them, train them to refer and implement a formalised referral incentive system where your customer AND the referral get rewarded.

A monthly printed customer newsletter is a great way to keep in contact with your customers and build a solid relationship with them. which is the foundation of referrals. If you’re interested in getting a newsletter started in your business, give us a call: 1300 120 106 and we’ll have a chat to see if we can help you.

Filed Under: Blog

The Science Of Newsletter Content: Part 1

October 5, 2012 by

science-of-newslettersWhy On Earth Would I want to talk to someone about things other than ‘work?’

Ben and I both get asked variants of this question a lot.

Here is the best answer we both give when we don’t want to delve into a big, long speech about it. “Because nobody is as interested in your ‘thing’ as you are.”

It is a true. They aren’t but there is a secret even deeper than that.

ONGOING READERSHIP AND RELATIONSHIP

When someone isn’t in buying mode then it doesn’t matter how hard you sell, they aren’t going to buy. So beating them over the head with how great your product is and why they need what you have, isn’t going to get them to buy. In fact, it is going to reduce their willingness to read/listen/watch what you send them because they don’t want to be beaten over the head with “buy now, buy now, buy now.”

Keep this up long enough and eventually your customers will stop reading, listening and watching what you send them because they are ‘over it.’ “Here comes another pitch from…” Into the big round file with that. (Okay, so some rubbish bins are square but I hope you take my point).

Once they stop reading your newsletter you have no chance to sell to them…

By including information in your newsletters not about work, you can demonstrate that you have interest in them outside of selling to them. They are not cash machines waiting to buy from you. You are in fact a fun and interesting person who can help them outside of work. You are well read, knowledgeable and interested in making their lives better in as many ways as possible. All good reasons to keep reading your newsletter.

Knowing that they will be entertained and find useful information, increases the chances that they will keep reading your newsletter. And therefore buy something when they are ready to buy again.

Think about the repurchase times of some items. Dinner at a restaurant. That might be weekly or maybe up to every 8 weeks or more. Buying a house happens every 5-7 years on average. How much of those times do you think a customer is actually thinking about buying? Dinner at a restaurant may be thought about at most, a week in advance if they plan their meals weekly. Which means they are not really a buyer for the other 7 weeks.

At the other end of the spectrum people don’t actively think about buying a new house most of the time. Something happens to induce them to move at the tail end of that time frame. Do you think it matters what you send them in the mean time?

This is why you need interests outside of work to bond over. It builds ongoing readership and maintains readership when your customers aren’t necessarily in buying mode.

Stay tuned for part 2 next month.

Filed Under: Blog

Science Of Newsletter Content Part 2: Seeding Sales.

October 5, 2012 by

seeding-salesAfter reading part one of the science of newsletter content, you’ll understand why we have general interest content in newsletters. To build and maintain readership. The next challenge is to covert this readership into more sales.

There are three direct avenues to achieving more sales from our newsletters.

  • Ongoing Repeat Purchases
  • Cross Selling other products you have
  • Referring New Customers to you

All of these can be achieved by seeding sales into your newsletter. What I mean, is patient farming of your clients. Seeding little ideas that germinate, take root and flourish over time. Good relationships take time to build.

There are two really powerful strategies for doing this. First talking about your clients and their success stories. What challenges they were facing and how your products helped them overcome their problem. What results they got.

This gives you third party credibility – far more powerful than you saying it directly. And it clearly demonstrates you are delivering on what you say you are doing.

If you don’t have a client you can do a feature story on, then you can use advertorials to seed sales. In a newsletter you are best to focus on one problem and agitate it, then for the solution – use a call to action. And repeat with new problem or a different slant on the same problem next time.

This gives you plenty of room to create need. And if your clients read multiple advertorials coupled with client success stories then the desire for your products and services will build up over time.

Who is more patient? You or Your Customer?

With newsletters that is the only question. Who has more patience? Eventually your clients desire will build up to the point where they purchase refer or otherwise take action. It is that simple.

In under 12 months of being formally in business and publishing our own newsletter from day one, I can tell you it doesn’t take long.

Simply getting our own newsletter month-in, month-out has converted a couple of fence sitters into clients. The steady drip feeding from the newsletter will work to get your customers in the door and back in the door and it will remind them that you are there and they can refer people to you.

Newsletter Marketing Offers Article Writing for your newsletters, these same articles can be repurposed in multiple ways including onto your blog, into emails To arrange for Newsletter Marketing Systems to create content specifically for your business either call 1300 006 120 or email info@newslettermarketing.com.au for a no cost no obligation discussion about planning your articles content,

Filed Under: Blog