7 more tips to grow your business & sales in 2010

Wear your customer’s shoes. Whatever you call them – customers, clients, punters or patrons – gain an insight into what switches them on and, more importantly, what might turn them off. It’s not enough to ask merely what your customers want – you must discover what they REALLY want. What are their preferences, their worries, their agendas, their problems, their passions? Knowledge equates to leverage.

Know your best customers. It’s tempting to think that all customers are great customers – but this isn’t always so. Your BEST customers are the ones who love what you do, who don’t mind paying a little more, who come back again and again, who tell their friends and contacts and who want you to look after them forever and a day. You want more customers like this and less of those who don’t fit the bill.

No plan means no action. A plan of action is the single most important tool in your quest for success. There is only one way to produce an effective plan and that is to write it down. As long as it exists only in your head it is no more than a lose collection of ideas. Written out it becomes a visible, measurable, manageable and powerful commitment.

Carry people with you. To be completely effective your plan should be shared with those who will be involved in delivering it. Those around you will pull your wagon more willingly if they understand your rationale and are fully involved and inspired by the journey ahead.

Communicate clearly. A message in your mind can sometimes be a very different thing to the message you want to send to your customers. Try to stick with single-minded pointers, which are more effective than the complex multi-layered variety. Make sure that your marketing message is relevant to your customers – their stuff must always come before your stuff. Test everything before publishing anything.

Select media with care. Whatever else you do, don’t automatically assume that you need a truckload of brochures, an impressive website, a hip blog or any other habitually bought-in promotional asset. All these techniques will communicate but your goal should be to select THE route or routes that will connect most effectively (and deliberately) with your targets. Don’t count the people you reach, reach the people who count!

Measure, measure, measure. A famous advertiser once complained that only half his advertising efforts were effective. His big concern however was that he didn’t know which half! If you didn’t know whether your marketing efforts are working then you can’t adjust them or establish a value for your outlay. If you don’t measure properly, you can’t manage properly.

Business success is not a secret available only to a privileged few. It is available to anyone who takes the time and trouble to think through the necessary steps.