Are you sure you need more customers for your business?
What about the ones you already have?
Let me get straight to the point here…
If the processes and systems your business operates with don’t serve the customers you currently have very well…why do you need more customers?
For example:
Who is answering the phone? Is that person maximizing every opportunity to cross-sell, upsell, and hell…service your customer to the extreme? (i.e. go the extra mile for your customer)
And before you say “Hell yeah!”…most businesses don’t operate very well in this area for two major reasons and a dozen or so smaller reasons.
The two major reasons are:
1) The wrong person is answering the phones.
The person answering the phones might be better suited for a technical support situation…but they’re placed in a sales situation. You’re hemorrhaging money if you’re doing this. And…before you say “we can’t afford a person in both areas”…I would challenge you and say you can’t afford NOT to put someone in sales that is skilled in that area. It’s a rare person that can do both.
2) The phones are put into the wrong part of the marketing process.
Does the person you have answering the phones only process repetitive, easy to answer questions all day long? Are they answering exactly the same questions from customers?
Then could you have that person doing something else and put an automated system in place like a FAQ section on your website or an autoresponder system that delivers these answers to the customer via email?
Only automate in the correct scenario however…do NOT do this if your customer will not be better served.
Alright, enough about phones.
What about systems and processes in the first place? Does your business even have them?
Sales people need the tools and systems in place so they can do their job effectively (sell). If they have to sell AND provide customer service for example…effectiveness will be reduced accordingly. I know, I know…we’re in a recession right? You can’t afford a person in both departments right?
Do you want to get out of the recession your business is in?
Thought so.
When your systems are honed in, your sales person/department will focus on selling, your customer service department will help to retain customers for a longer buying cycle…therefore profits and sales will increase. So long as your product funnel (another topic for another article) is sufficient, you’ll keep selling to the same customers over and over.
Now, granted, I’m NOT recommending you STOP building relationships with new customers…every business needs new leads…but it isn’t your only dilemma if sales and profits are in short supply.
Examine your business from the feet up…not just the neck up.
