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 A More Beautiful Question according to Warren Berger Introduction In this episode Warren Berger shares his book A More Beautiful Question whichRead More
The post A Preview of A More Beautiful Question with Warren Berger appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode Warren Berger shares his book A More Beautiful Question which features the principle of asking the right questions. This book is perfect for the entrepreneur interested in the fundamentals of innovation and business through the relationship between asking great questions and coming up with great business ideas.
There are a number of books on questioning but I would say not too many have positioned it directly in terms of innovation. I felt like I was the first one to really position this in terms of innovation and business, to look at the relationship between asking great questions and coming up with great business ideas.
It’s good to read in its entirety in a way because it gives you a full appreciation of the significance of questioning. But I also think it’s a book you can go back to for some of the more practical tips and strategies that are offered in the book.
The most important principle has to do with the value of questions. A lot of us tend to undervalue questions because we think the real value lies in the answers. Questions may be just as important as the answers.
The first section of the book starts by making the case to the reader of why questioning is so important and why it’s such a critical part of innovation and change. I lay out a lot of evidence and stories to give the readers a great explanation of why this is so important.
In the second section of the book I step back and ask why is it that we start out asking so many questions when we are kids but ask fewer questions as we get older. I explore the idea that there is a great questioner inside all of us but overtime we may have gotten out of the habit of asking questions. I give you all the different kinds of reasons for that and also talk about our education system that really doesn’t teach or encourage questioning by students. We have lost some of our questioning skills along the way so I teach you what to do to get better at asking questions again.
The third section lays out my own system of questioning which is the why, what if and how of innovated questioning. It goes deep in terms of showing you the power of the why questions, what if questions and how questions. Each question has a different power and does different things but have an interesting relationship with each other. I explain why it’s so important to get good at asking why questions. I talk about how the what if questions help you come up with ideas and open up your imagination. The how questions are very practical action oriented questions.
The fourth section of the book I zero in on business-questioning in business. This section is all about taking some of the principles I laid out in the second section and asking how it applies specifically to business, your business and why is question so important in business. We zero in on the kinds of questions businesses need to be asking. Questions are so powerful that I think companies should think about having mission questions instead of mission statements. A mission question around a company’s goals is going to be more engaging to people than a statement.
The last section of the book I step outside of business and tie all of this into your daily life. I think all these principles of questioning apply just as much in your life as they do in business. I talk about how you can use questioning to start to deal with some of those issues in your life that maybe you have been avoiding thinking about. I show you how you can use deep and smart questions to deal with the issues in your life. I wrap-up the book by making the case that all of us should have a beautiful question, one big question, that we pursue in our lives.
“Questions are the new answers.” –Silicon Valley
“Knowing the answers will help you in school but knowing how to ask questions will help you in life.” – Warren Berger
I am a longtime journalist and author, I used to write for New York Times and Wired Magazine. I currently write for Fast Company and Harvard Business Review. Along the way I’ve written several books and the last couple of books has had to do with innovation and design thinking. The most recent book I moved from design thinking into questioning and A More Beautiful Question is focused on that aspect of innovation.
The inspiration was that I was studying a lot of entrepreneurs, innovators and business leaders and one of the things I noticed was questioning. I found that a lot of great innovators and business thinkers start with great questions; they are asking the questions that no one else is asking. I wanted to see what it was about questioning, why is it so powerful and why are some people better at it than others.
The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley
Give and Take by Adam Grant
Buy A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger on Amazon today
Visit AMoreBeautifulQuestion.com for some exclusive content from the book and to take Warren’s test
Follow Warren Berger on Twitter and Facebook
Download the full transcript here
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Go For No by Andrea Waltz | It’s Not The How or The What But The Who by Claudio Fernandez Araoz | EDGY Conversations by Dan Waldschmidt
Relevant advice and tips: 7 Steps To Improve Networking Skills For Entrepreneurs | 7 Reasons Why Your Sales Skills Suck
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of A More Beautiful Question with Warren Berger appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
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