5 Cheap Ways to Market Your Business
Talk to your clients. It's amazing how much money businesses spend to gather market information and attract new clients when they have a wealth of opportunity and information in their existing client base. One of the best ways to increase revenue is to talk to existing customers. Ideally, this should be done by someone outside your company so clients are willing to be honest and open.
When you assess perceptions, you don't need to talk to hundreds of individuals; simply choose 5 to ten clients and contact them to ask if they'd participate in a phone interview. Here's how it works:
1. Send a letter asking permission to have someone contact them about your company
2. Have the interviewer call and ask value-based questions such as: * What problems were you trying to solve or what challenges were you facing when you considered the services of Company ABC? * How important were Company ABC's services in solving your problems or addressing your challenges? * What did you value most about this company's work? * What other products or services do you wish they offered that could help you with other business challenges?
3. After all the interviews have been conducted, compile the information to discover trends and themes.
4. Send a thank-you letter to every client who participated. Include key lessons from the interviews and explain the specific changes you plan to make to your business based on this information.
The important part here is to use what you learn. If you don't make changes to your business, then you've wasted everyone's time. One company that recently did this tripled its business in one year-the owners learned what people wanted, how their solution made a difference, how to present it, and how to price it, and then proceeded to make changes that improved those areas.
Keys to success: The conversation