Want to attract more clients or customers? This article will help you to understand the barriers that you may be putting in place between your company and prospective customers. If you can break them down you can attract more customers and existing one’s will buy even more from you.
Put yourself in the shoes of one of your customers for a moment and conduct a quick audit. Think about each of the following in turn and score your business on a 1 – 5 scale, where 1 is very poor must address immediately and 5 is excellent – we couldn’t possibly improve.
1. Awareness and Accessibility How easy is it for potential clients to find out about you and what you offer? Are you well known in the markets in which you operate? Would you be a natural choice for the prospects you’d like to attract?
If a prospective client wants to get in touch with your business can they do so easily – or do they have to go through an untrained receptionist or worse still a voice mail system? Obviously not all of us have the luxury of a secretary to take messages for us and we can never be accessible all of the time – but handling contact well, by training all your staff to answer the phone in a style that’s acceptable to potential clients and take detailed messages or provide direct assistance, is essential to breakdown the first barrier.
A word on the Internet at this point. Websites are a great way for potential customers to find out about your business, but they must be kept up to date, and if you have a “contact us” option you absolutely must respond to enquiries - quickly.
2. Perception and Image Assuming potential clients and customers know your firm – what do they think of you? Are you the kind of company they’d like to do business with?
Prospective clients will form a judgement based on many factors – before they start doing business with you they will consider things like your offices, even their location. Are they scruffy or plush? Are staff welcoming or off -hand? Are brochures and promotional materials, including your website, professionally produced or amateurish? What image does this material, plus things like your stationary, building facia and staff uniform, convey to potential customers and do they match what customers are looking for?
There is absolutely no point having expensive looking, glossy, modern, very colourful marketing materials if potential customers are looking for an old established firm with traditional values who won’t charge the earth.
Analyse your target audiences and thoroughly review your marketing materials to provide the ammunition you need to breakdown this barrier.
3. Purchasing Convenience How easy is it for customers to buy from you? Can they order over the telephone, via the Internet, can they visit a showroom? Which method do they most value and are you offering them this option? Are you adequately staffed at busy times or do potential customers end up walking away or hanging up?
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