5 Simple Ways Entrepreneurs Can Attract Customers To Their Business You have a great product or service and yet you seem unable to attract customers to your business and makeRead More
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]]>5 Simple Ways Entrepreneurs Can Attract Customers To Their Business
You have a great product or service and yet you seem unable to attract customers to your business and make a sale. Almost every new entrepreneur faces this challenge after they start off a small business.
And the root cause of this problem is often your inability to reach out to your customers.
The lack of advertising and marketing your product or service may be drawing you back from your customers. But for a small business, with limited funds, it is often difficult to allot a substantial amount for advertising and marketing.
In such a circumstance, what do you do? Simple; you just focus on the ways to do it right. Let’s take a look at some simple ways entrepreneurs can attract customers to their business:
Tip 1: Rely on word-of-mouth. This tried-and-tested option never fails! If you can build an army of satisfied customers, it will work much better than a couple of billboards or television ads. They are the best tools of advertisement you may find.
To turn a customers into satisfied customers, you have to work on the three premises:
• Offer a great product/service – the basic necessity for a successful business
• Ensure great customer service – remember, always serve with a smile
• Offer a reward for referral – the bigger the incentive, the better your opportunity
And soon you will have a good number of spokespersons at no added cost!
Tip 2: Involve and engage. When a prospect walks in, make sure you turn them into a customer. How do you do it? Interest them with an offer, give them a free sample, request them to enter a contest, and use any other means you can think of.
People love free stuff. They also love offers and discounts. And when they get something at no cost or maybe low cost, and are happy with it, they are sure to come back and pay for it. And they are sure to talk about your business to their contacts.
Tip 3: Build a website. If you aren’t online yet, you need to be – NOW! A website isn’t a luxury anymore; it’s a necessity. If you aren’t online, you are missing out attracting the prospective customers who stick to their PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets, et al.
You don’t really need to invest thousands of dollars to ensure a web presence. Just make sure someone who knows how to do it right does it. Otherwise, you will be stuck with a site that doesn’t work for your business.
Tip 4: Connect on social media. When Mandie Miller started off her business Got What It Cakes, she built a website. But the business only picked up once her sister put up a Facebook page for it.
Lesson learned: While a website is essential for your business, no business can ignore the reach of social media these days. Create a page on Facebook, get an account on Twitter, or add images on Pinterest and Instagram – do whatever it takes to enhance your reach.
Tip 5: Get involved. While you will always have competitors, and you will always have to keep a lookout for them, you also need to focus on collaboration. Make a list of complementary businesses and promote each other to your respective clientele.
Also, don’t forget about the community; after all, you are a part of it. Give back. Charitable or environment-friendly work never goes unnoticed. And once you are part of something big, you’ll get people interested in what you do.
It is possible to get the attention of customers; you just need to know how to do it right.
1) Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez | Listen to my interview with Cindy here
2) It’s Not The How Or The What But The Who by Claudio Fernandez-Araoz | Listen to my interview with Claudio here
3) A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger | Listen to my interview with Warren here
4) Traction – A Startup Guide To Getting Customers by Justin Mares | Listen to my interview with Justin here
5) The Seven Levels of Communication by Michael J. Maher | Listen to my interview with Michael here
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]]>A summary of things you should know about It’s Not The How Or The What But The Who according to Claudio Fernandez-Araoz Introduction In his book, It’s Not the HowRead More
The post A Preview of It’s Not The How Or The What But The Who with Claudio Fernandez-Araoz appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In his book, It’s Not the How or the What but the Who, Fernandez-Araoz makes the reader aware that we are not yet equipped with the knowledge to make positive people decisions in professional environments. Simply put, it is the who that matters in the team you build around you.
I think it’s a unique combination of experience, research and passion for the topic.
It can be read separately but also independently. It’s also for ADD type of readers with it being a short read and you get some practical recommendations on how to achieve greatness.
The point that whoever you surround yourself with should not be left to chance.
The format is very engaging and made up of four short chapters. It starts with an introduction, moves on to the four chapters and ends with a conclusion. Each of which start with a fascinating personal story and I come up with five practical recommendations on how to succeed by surrounding ourselves with the best.
The first section starts with The Enemy within. All of these biases that we have inside of us sabotage our people relationships. We are unprepared to make great decisions because unfortunately we have the wrong brain. Our brain is basically a piece of hardware that didn’t have any major upgrade for the last 10,000 years. We made it to these days by making our big decisions based on three criteria, similarities, familiarity and conflict. Unfortunately these types of criteria are not what we need today to be great teams. Great teams need complementary skills which imply variety and diversity which are the opposite of similarity and familiarity. We are hardwired to make world decisions therefore I make the reader aware of all these biases because if you can avoid the traps, you have won half of the battle.
The second section is entitled Outside Obstacles and Opportunities and here I summarize many of the challenges we face when making big decisions. One of the chapters I label Bad Candidate, Great Reference. I describe the problems when people afraid of being sued sometimes sugarcoat their references. I illustrate what the best practices to getting references right because references are more important than an interview.
The third section continues telescoping out to the right people and I describe what the right people are made of. I introduce the concept of potential and I tell a story of a survivor of a dramatic accident back in 1972. In this chapter I describe what the indications of potential are and how you can relate with them.
In part four I move from the great people to the bright future. In the essay titled Teaching a Turkey to Climb a Tree I explain how some people say that you can train a turkey to climb a tree but they would rather hire someone else to do it. Organizations do frequently hire from outside and they should invest many more resources in identifying their high potentials and helping the best become even better. I am convinced that we can change, advance and progress much more than we think.
In the fifth section of the book I move from individual greatness to collective greatness. Many times I have been approached by a human resources leader contacting me for research and when he or she would start going through the list of specifications it looked impossible for anyone. You cannot get the perfect individuals; you should be able to make the best of your individuals by setting up highly effective teams. In this section I introduce the six dimensions for team effectiveness which are balance, diversity of skills, alinement, energy, resilience, openness and effectiveness. I explain how different challenges require different think compositions and I explain how to achieve this.
In the sixth section I move from collective greatness at a team level to a better society with applications of all of the above at the highest levels. I speak about Russian roulette at the top, true leading boards and then thriving on crisis. I also speak about sustainability-the virtuous circles and electing country presidents.
I am a global expert on hiring promotion decisions as well as leadership assessment and development. I’m a frequent speaker at business gatherings in the Americas, Europe and Asia. I’ve been working for almost three decades as an executive search consultant for the firm Egon Zehnder and a regular guest lecturer at Harvard Business School.
For almost three decades I’ve been working as an executive search consultant and seven years ago I published another book called Great People Decisions. Great People Decisions was basically about hiring and as a result of the success of that book I’ve circled the world up to ten times a year and became convinced that all over the world the key for organization and success is to surround ourselves with the best. I decided to write a book about how to succeed by surrounding ourselves with the best and helping them thrive.
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Buy It’s Not The How Or The What But The Who by Claudio Fernandez-Araoz on Amazon today
Visit EgonZehnder.com and HBR.org for info about Claudio, his book, and company
Download the full transcript here
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Traction – A Startup Guide To Getting Customers by Justin Mares | Moving Targets by Gabriel Aluisy | Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez
Relevant advice and tips: 5 Simple Ways Entrepreneurs Can Attract Customers | 5 Reasons Why Your Marketing Sucks
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of It’s Not The How Or The What But The Who with Claudio Fernandez-Araoz appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
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