What’s the biggest weapon in your marketing arsenal? Product range? Technical expertise? Good location? Competitive prices? All of these may be important, but in fact the answer is almost certainly your existing customers.
Whatever your size or nature of business, satisfied customers are undoubtedly your greatest supporters. They like you, appreciate you, very probably respect, admire and are fiercely loyal to you. Through their recommendations and referrals many of them may do more to grow your business than most people within your company. Their potential power is awesome - but do you recognise this and use it fully to your advantage? For the majority of businesses, the answer is ‘no’.
Although most businesses feel they have good, close personal relationships with many of their customers and even talk about ‘working in partnership’ with them, they still regard customers as being ‘on the other side’, and would never consider asking their opinion, advice or assistance in developing their business. In many cases this is due to a feeling that doing so would somehow be an admission that they were weak or vulnerable.
Not so! Those businesses which have overcome their insecurity have used the approach as a powerful magnet and reaped numerous benefits. By tapping into their successful customers’ experience and expertise, they have been able to re-create that success within their own business, attracting even more of the right sort of customers to them. If you want to follow their example, there are numerous and varied approaches you can take, but the following are some of the more commonplace:
How fast should you be growing? Which markets should you operate in? What sort of business should you aim to be? Questions like these are difficult for any business to decide, particularly those who have operated in a certain way over a long period of time. Management is either too close to many of the issues (unable to see the wood for the trees) or simply unaware that there are other alternatives to the solutions they have come up with. Trusted customers are often able to cut through the confusion and suggest sound and viable alternative strategies for the future.
Many businesses still don’t seek feedback from customers on a regular basis. They generally say they ‘know’ their own strengths and weaknesses and feel they would learn nothing new. This is invariably untrue. When asked for their views as part of a formal ‘survey’ or ‘feedback’ process, customers usually come up with constructive, rewarding and motivating responses which can help shape and improve future business practice. Even better results can be achieved through informal one-to-one chats with customers, or discussions with small groups of key customers drawn together to focus on a particular topic. It makes sense - ultimately your customers have as great a desire as you that you get it right.
Any business can get stale without an injection of new blood and this can be a particular problem with owner-managed businesses where those at the top move around less than if they were employed elsewhere. “If you do what you always do, you’ll get what you’ve always got,” is a particularly pertinent saying, but unfortunately it can be difficult at times to see beyond doing things the way you’ve always done them. By involving key customers who can bring fresh ideas to the table based on their own experiences, the business can benefit from new inspiration, motivation and a renewed sense of energy.
It’s often been said, but it’s still as true as ever. Many companies don’t get the business they could from customer referrals and recommendations simply because they don’t tell their customers that this is what they’re looking for. So instead of their customers actively seeking business on the company’s behalf, referrals only come along if the customer is approached by someone seeking a recommendation. Only a fraction of potential business is therefore generated simply because it never occurs to the customer to do more.
If you haven’t done so in the past, it may seem daunting to consider approaching your customers to ask for their input and assistance in areas such as these, but should you decide to do so, you’re bound to be pleasantly surprised. Most successful business leaders are remarkably unselfish, get a kick out of what they do, and enjoy helping others to succeed. They can be incredibly generous with their time, contacts and knowledge and would be delighted to share them with you, either informally over a glass of wine or a beer, or through regular involvement with the business in some sort of non-executive role. All you have to do is ask!
(c) Dianne Bown-Wilson, the M3 Consultancy
www.m3consultancy.co.uk