The Never Ending Chase After New Revenue

Business ownership is a never ending chase after new revenue. If we don’t get new revenue we won’t get revenue growth. And if we don’t get revenue growth we will get revenue decline. And revenue decline is a nasty thing.

But where should we focus our marketing and sales strategies. All too often business owners are all over the map. Looking for new customers; trying to get existing customers to buy more; creating new products; rushing here and rushing there. With so many efforts going on at once the results are often diluted.

So we have created the Revenue Growth Quadrant (see below) to help our clients focus their strategies in the right place.

The term product is being used in its generic sense. It encompasses physical products and services.

Sell existing products to existing customers

This is without doubt the “safe zone”! Your existing customers love you and your products or services. They see the value and happily write cheques to your company. So why not just focus on existing customers and thrive with that? Because some of them will leave you! So there must be strategies dealing with customer service or customer education around products they may not have bought yet. A classic example is the retail industry placing point of sale products right by the cash register.

Sell new products to existing customers

One way to prevent customer leakage and have your existing customers buy more is to be constantly finding new products for them. BUT, and this is a big but, make sure the new products are consistent with your core business and make sure they reflect your company’s mission. If you buy your products for resale then there should be strategies to search out new suppliers; to attend trade conferences.  If you develop your own products then include new products in your plans. However new products are worthless if nobody knows about them. So they need to be supported by marketing strategies like launch campaigns, advertising, viral marketing etc.

Sell existing products to new customers

If your business is in its early years the chances are high that you don’t\’t have enough customers. However, if you do have enough customers the reality is you will lose some; some estimates are as high as 30% of your customers leave each year. So this option should be part of the mix. You must be executing strategies that bring in new customers; for example, networking, cold calling, referral programs etc.

Sell new products to new customers

Selling new products to new customers is often the way to bring in new customers. There are those out there who know about you but have no need for your existing products. The new product might be just the thing they want! But unless you tell them about it they won’t know they need it; so tell them! Strategy examples include Groupon or a Steve Jobs type fanfare launch. Or more modestly some advertising supported by email sequences.

So when you are creating your plans for revenue growth bring out the Revenue Growth Quadrant to make sure you have strategies for each quadrant. You need your existing customers to buy more and you need new customers to replace those that wander off.

You need to add new products and you need to constantly inform your customers about your products they haven’t yet bought. The other day I was working with a client who was extremely upset because one of her customers had gone to a competitor for a particular service. Why was she upset? Because her company offers the same service but her customer didn’t know about it!

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Procrastination – The Art of Avoidance

The blog theme for March is procrastination, which probably means it will never happen!

Procrastination is putting off doing something important to work on something trivial; or not work on anything at all. We are told this is a bad thing. But we are also told everyone procrastinates. So how can something that everyone does be bad? In fact procrastination could be good if it puts off doing something important for long enough that it ceases to be important anymore.

But procrastination does become bad when it hurts your business. Here are 7 such scenarios:

1. You avoid picking up the phone to call an upset client. You will do it later today. And then you realize that tomorrow becomes today. The result of your procrastination ~ you lose a client who tells 10 other people what an awful experience they had with your company.

2. You don’t deal with the employee whose performance is below standard. Time to procrastinate. You persuade yourself that as time passes his performance will improve. It doesn’t and things go from bad to worse. In frustration your star employee leaves.

3. You are having cash flow problems and are unable to make the HST payment this month. You know you should call HST and you will; tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes and the call is never made. The HST people get mad and start hounding you, which takes more of your time and energy than the telephone call would have done.

4. You meet an excellent prospect at a networking event. Her needs will be met perfectly by your product and the two of you get along like life long friends. You promise to call next day to set up a time to meet again. Back at the office life takes over and you put off making the call. A week goes by before the call is made only to discover she has gone with your competitor.

5. The company’s tax returns have come back from the accountant in plenty of time to meet the filing date. You could review them right now and if everything is in order mail them. But finishing the design of your new workshop is more important and much more fun. Procrastination kicks in and the tax returns are forgotten until well past the filing date. The result; a hefty and avoidable penalty from the tax department.

6. You are to be interviewed on a TV show that your ideal clients watch. This is a wonderful opportunity. To prepare for the interview you know you should read the articles you have written and familiarize yourself with past blog topics. But that takes time; lot’s of it. As the interview starts the questions are easy and you relax. Then the questions refer back to past articles. Articles you have long forgotten about. You start to stumble and the experience becomes horrible. An opportunity has been lost.

7. You know that processes should be documented to avoid errors. But documenting processes is boring and easily avoided. So you procrastinate and the inevitable happens. Your outsourced VA does your bank reconciliation and cash flow management.  The process is not documented and one month he makes a big mistake. A mistake that causes you to think there is more cash available than there actually is. Cheques start bouncing and irate people start calling.

Next week we will share 7 ways to overcome procrastination. In the meantime remember Robinson Crusoe always had everything done by Friday.

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Celebrating Canadian Business – The Four Seasons

Last week we celebrated two Canadian companies that have a significant impact in Canada; Lee Valley Tools and Dufflet Pastries. This week we celebrate a company that has a presence on a global scale; the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

In 1961 a young architect named Isadore Sharp, who knew nothing about the hotel business, built his first hotel on Jarvis Street in Toronto. Called the Four Seasons Motor Hotel it triggered Isadore’s passion for the hotel business. Just 50 years later the Four Seasons has over 80 luxury hotels and resorts around the world and continues its expansion into China.

When asked what his original vision for Four Seasons was he had to admit: “There was not a vision or grand scheme. I approached the business from a customer’s point of view. I was the host and the customers were my guests. If we give them good value they will pay what they think its worth and come back for more.” That has been the cornerstone of the Four Seasons success ~ service.

The core strategy behind the company’s excellent service is to train AND empower all staff regardless of position to willingly and immediately solve problems as they arose. Not to shove the problem up the line to their supervisor or manager but to solve it themselves if they can. As Isadore wrote: “It’s not the problem the customer remembers; it is the outcome.”

While Isadore was passionate about providing the very best service to his customers he faced many challenges; particularly from his own staff. Most of them were very skeptical. They could not connect the dots between outstanding service and profitable hotels. They could not believe that hotel staff, in many cases minimum wage earners, would respond by providing the customers with outstanding service. So slowly but surely Isadore undertook the painful process of replacing hotel managers and executives with people who truly shared his vision of outstanding service. The rest as they say is history.

But like any business the Four Seasons did not grow without huge risks. By the mid 1970’s cost overruns from new hotel development were killing the business and bringing it close to bankruptcy. The situation resulted in a major change in the business model. Rather than build and operate their own hotels they now build and operate hotels under the Four Season brand FOR OTHER PEOPLE. The Four Seasons revenue comes from a fee plus share in the profits. This means Four Seasons can focus on what they do best; building luxury hotels and providing customers with a level of service unequalled in the luxury hotel industry.

Through these past fifty years there have been the usual economic ups and downs for the luxury hotel industry. But none that was as huge as post 9/11. The fill rate for all hotels fell dramatically and the luxury market got especially hard hit. And yet Isadore refused to cut room rates because he believed it would hurt the brand in the long term. While the owners screamed blue murder because they were losing money he refused to budge and they all eventually recovered. It was the right decision for the long term brand if painful for the short term profit.

In 2007 the Four Seasons was bought by Microsoft and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a very successful Saudi Arabian investor. The company continues to expand, particularly in China. While Isadore owns 5% of the company it will be interesting to watch its future now the visionary is no longer active. Recently in Toronto there were staff layoffs; the first in the company’s history despite all the economic downturns it has been through.

One cannot leave the story of the Four Seasons without mentioning the Terry Fox Run. They were one of the founders of the run in 1981 and it has since grown into the largest single day cancer fundraiser around the world. To date is has raised more than half a billion dollars for cancer research.

Be sure to visit our website at  yourplanningpartners.com

Customer Service Hall of Fame

This month’s blogs have been all about customers. How to care for them. How to deliver excellent customer service that thrills them. How to recover from a customer service snafu. And so I thought it was appropriate to end the series nominating companies for the Customer Service Hall of Fame. Here are my nominations.

Porter Air– they treat their customers like First Class customers but charge economy fares. That’s certainly not the only reason; they could do that without providing excellent customer service. So here is a first hand experience from one of our clients who travels Porter on a fairly regular basis. Whenever she arrives at the check in counter she is greeted with a “Hello Jane; How are you today?” And that is before they’ve looked at any ID.

My auto dealer (City Pontiac) – I always approach the moment of checking in my car for a service with foreboding. No telling what they will find and whatever it is I definitely won’t understand; and it will cost me a fortune. Not at CityPontiac though. They treat me like a human being, they explain everything in words I can understand and it has never cost me a fortune. They provide me with a free breakfast while I wait and computers if I need them. All the staff, including the President, go out of their way to make sure I have everything I need. And they wash the car before delivering it back to me!

Chapters – their staff are knowledgeable, they love books and they really really want to help you find that perfect read. And to see the little kids sprawled around on the floor reading intently tells me that it works.

TD Bank’s Front Line Staff – the front line staff at the TD Bank are friendly, courteous and determined that the results you get are the results you want, unless of course you are a bank robber. No hiding behind “it’s not my fault” with them. Consistent, excellent service for all their customers whether a small child or an upset senior.

Apple – I can’t do a blog on excellent customer service without mentioning Apple. They are fun. Their products are fun AND useful. They staff their stores with knowledgeable people who want to help. Advocates for Apple are a highly loyal group of people and so they should be.

What companies would you nominate for the Customer Service Hall of Fame?

Here is a link to a great example of customer service called the Cab Driver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG48U5iPESA (6 minute video)

How To Recover from the Customer Service Snafu

We all want to give our customers the very best service. Unfortunately, Murphy is lurking in the shadows to ensure that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. And Murphy was an optimist! So despite our best effort things will go wrong and a customer will experience bad or horrible service from our company.

When it happens your job is to recover from the setback and to then ensure it never happens again despite Murphy’s best efforts. To recover follow the LEAD Model:

• Listen
• Empathize
• Apologize
• Do

Listen – to the client concern.  Ask questions to clarify the situation.  Listen for both facts and feelings.

Empathize – put yourself in their shoes. Respond to what they have told you by feeding it back to them.  “I can understand your frustration with the way we handled this situation.” But don’t continue with a “but”!

Apologize – take responsibility for the situation.  Never make excuses for yourself or others.

Do – ask, “What would be the perfect resolve for you?” Do what you can and do it as quickly as possible.   Give them feed back to let them know you acted on it.

Remember to remain positive and thank the client for bringing this to your attention. After all they could have just tiptoed away to one of your competitors and you would have learnt nothing.

How have you recovered from a customer service snafu?

10 Ways to Thrill Your Customers

“Do you provide good customer service?” we ask every business owner who crosses our path. Not surprisingly they all say yes! Who would say no? We all believe we provide the very best customer service but do we? Or more importantly do our customers think we do?

There are five levels of customer service:

1. Horrible – is a nightmare!

2. Bad – leaves a bad taste in your mouth that you don’t want to repeat.

3. Satisfied – is what we all expect. We expect to be satisfied.

4. Happy – takes your customer beyond expectations and so they may refer people to you. They will almost certainly come back a second time.

5. Thrilled – creates a relationship with your customer second to none. They are surprised; they are excited; they are thrilled! They take the message to all their friends. They ignore the competition. They come back again and again.

Level 5, Thrilled, is every business’s goal. But how can you achieve that every single time you interact with a client? You cannot. But if you don’t set Thrilled as the gold standard you will never achieve it. Here are 10 things you can do to provide a thrilling experience for your customers:

1. Do something extra; go above and beyond. For example, if you sell products that are given as gifts provide free gift wrapping. Surprise them with an unexpected bonus.

2. Make a great first impression every single time. Read this carefully! It says make a great first impression every single time. Every time you interact with a customer behave like it is the first time you have met; that is usually when we make our great impressions.

3. When a customer asks for help or has an enquiry drop everything you are doing and attend to this interruption. Yes, it is an interruption because you are really busy and you do want a thrilled customer. Thrilled customers are not asked to wait!

4. Make a commitment to offer thrilling customer service and stick with it. Make sure all your staff understand this commitment and abide by it. If necessary bring in a customer service expert to train you and your staff.

5. Your customers are always right. No they are not! We will always come across people that are just plain wrong! So, let’s reinterpret the statement to say “We assume, until proven otherwise, that our customers are always right”.

6. Keep your personal life at the door. If you started the day with a fight with your spouse don’t bring it to work. A thrilled customer is not one that wants to be contaminated by your bad mood or your stories.

7. Manage expectations. Make sure your customer knows when something will be delivered. Confirm with them what it is they are buying. Promptly notify them if there are delays.

8. Recognize it’s the little things that count. If it’s a hot day offer a cool drink. If they have to wait provide a comfortable chair with interesting reading material; or even better an iPad to play with!

9. Call to ask how they are enjoying the product they bought from you last month. And if they are not satisfied do something about.

10. Care about them. This was dealt with in last week’s blog called Customers Leave Because They Think You Don’t Care. That blog has 10 ways to show your customers you really care.

What have you done that has left your customers feeling thrilled?

Customers Leave Because They Think You Don’t Care

The statistics are startling. Of the customers who leave you:

• 3% do so because they move away
• 12% are lured away by the competition
• 15% just don’t like your products or services
• 70% leave because they think you don’t care

Yes that’s right … 7 out of every 10 customers who stop doing business with you do so because they think you don’t care about them.

This is huge but it is fixableJ Here are 10 things you can do to show your customers you truly care.

1. Stay in touch. Don’t just talk to them when they are buying from you. Stay in regular touch so they know you are thinking of them.

2. Ask their opinion. They know more about using your products and services than you do. So ask them what they think. What could be improved? What should be changed?

3. Respond to their complaints quickly and honestly. Don’t let the complaint fester. And don’t hide behind “it’s not my fault”. And thank them for bringing it to your attention. After all the alternative is a customer who silently leaves never to return, which unfortunately is the norm.

4. Remove multi-level voice mail menus. Nothing is more annoying and time consuming for your customers than having to navigate long telephone menus in order to speak to someone. If at all possible have a human being answer every call.

5. Recognize important dates. So some people don’t want reminding it is their birthday. But what about the anniversary of their business launch?

6. Say thank you. It’s a funny thing but we sometimes forget that these two little words are probably the most important words we can ever say. They bring so much joy and they impart so much caring.

7. Arrive on time. Arriving late for an appointment communicates a complete lack of respect. It shows that your time is more important than their time. Of course, situations will occur that make an on time arrival impossible. Subway breaks down; flights are delayed. But these are exceptions.

8. Keep your promises. Or as soon as you know you can’t keep the promise because of a situation completely out of your control let them know.

9. Return emails and phone calls promptly. Yes, we are all busy and time does pass in a flash. So set a realistic standard for replying to email and phone calls and communicate that standard to your customers.

10. Listen with intention. It’s tough to do but when talking with your customer listen closely to what they are saying. Force your mind on them, look into their eyes and truly listen. Nothing imparts care and interest more than good listening. To learn more go to www.listeningbetter.com

These are 10 easy things you can do to make your customers feel cared for. Then they will stay with you!

Do you have other simple ways you show your customers that you care? Please share by either leaving a comment or emailing me at nick@yourplanningpartners.com.

Do You Like Your Customers?

Do you like your customers? Yes you heard me. Do you like your customers? Of course, you say. After all they are the people paying me. They are my customers for goodness sake!

Indeed they are but over the years we have met business owners who spend a great deal of energy complaining about their customers. We hear statements like:

• They are high maintenance
• They expect me to drop everything for them
• They have no idea what they are doing
• They are always complaining about us
• They are stupid

And more often than not this is being said in front of other people! And the culture of the business is one in which complaining about the customers is a cool thing.

A second observation. Business owners whose attitude is ‘our customers are a nuisance’ are constantly battling uphill. They never achieve the success they want. In many cases they never get off the ground. How could they; after all they don’t like the very essence of their business, their customers. And their customers can feel the negative vibes.

So if you know a business owner who falls into this category do him a huge favour. Sit him down, pour him a drink and tell it to him straight; close down your business and save yourself lots of stress and money.

Or try the better way. Sit her down, pour her a drink and explain to her that if she does not change her attitude about her customers she will not succeed. Tell her to take the first step to a successful business by instilling this non negotiable rule into her company ~ there will be no complaining, no whining and no negative comments about any of our customers. That’s all. Just start there and in time she will see results.

Build Your Business by Building Relationships

I was recently reading an article about the differences between Canadian and Indian business manners. Interesting topic but what really caught my attention was a quote from Srikantan Moorty, Vice President of Education and Research at Infosys (a huge Indian IT company). He said: “I actually lost a client because I barely talked during a presentation. The report was technically correct. But I was so shy that it was hard to seem persuasive.”

He was partially right but actually wrong! Yes, he was shy but his shyness didn’t prevent him from being persuasive, it prevented him from building a relationship with his prospect. It’s the relationship that matters; not the persuasiveness. People buy on trust and credibility. Positive relationships create trust and credibility. Even if they are buying online they buy because there is something in the website that causes them to trust you or they have been referred by someone or something that they trust.

Think about cold calling. It is the most unproductive way to build your customer base. Why? Because the first contact is a negative contact: “Why are you invading my space? Why should I trust you?” To then try to build a positive relationship is an uphill, virtually impossible challenge.

Think about the more nightmarish networking events. People rushing around thrusting business cards into your hand and asking you to buy.  You don’t know them from Adam. Why would you buy from them? You won’t!

Here are some tips on relationship building:

• Be interested; ask questions; research their industry/company
• Listen, listen and then listen some more
• Follow up when you say you will
• Ask yourself ~ how can I help them
• Turn up on time
• Help them

It doesn’t matter if you are Wal-Mart or a Solepreneur. To get and, more importantly, keep good customers you must have good relationships with them.

Remember; it is your responsibility to build and nurture the relationship … not theirs.  Who can you help today? How can you build the relationship?

There are Diamonds In Your Backyard

David was an ambitious and proud man who was desperate to be very rich. To this end he traveled the globe, spending years away from home searching for a diamond mine. He was sure that once he owned a diamond mine his dream of riches would come true.

Unfortunately David ended his days neither rich nor happy. After he died, the local condominium developer bought David’s property and started to dig the foundation. And what did she find? She found that for all these years David was sitting right on top of a very large, very rich diamond mine. The moral of the story … stop focusing your efforts searching for new clients and new marketing activities.  Look more closely at the opportunities that are sitting in your own backyard.  Who are the Diamonds In Your Backyard?

When you are developing strategies to increase sales don’t think first about new clients, or new markets, or new products. Think about the Diamonds In Your Backyard; for example, your current and past clients.  They are the ones, after all, who know and love you and buy your products. And, what’s more, it costs ten times more to land a new customer than it does to sell to an existing customer.  You have already invested your time and energy to build this relationship.

Here are some proven strategies to nurture the Diamonds In Your Backyard:

Keep in regular contact. It is an old adage but true, “out of sight, out of mind”.  One way to stay in front of past clients is through a regular communication.  Be it a newsletter, a Blog, an occasional article.  Fact is, however, face to face contact is still the most effective. Pick up the phone and have a conversation. Contact customers who haven’t bought for awhile and find out why. Meet for lunch, coffee or martini.  What ever you do … Stay in touch and nurture these valuable diamonds.

Provide free value to those who have already bought.  Recently, a major bank launched an incentive program to get new clients. They offered a really cool gift to every new customer who opened an account with them. No free value for existing clients; nothing for those loyal customers who had been with the bank for many years.  I’ve been a customer for over 20 years.  I was really ticked off.  Take a lesson from this. Provide free value for your customers on an ongoing basis. Hold free half day seminars. Thank them for there business and encourage them to buy again and more.

Educate.  Do not assume your customers know all about your products. They only know what they bought last. Educate them in all of your services and make sure they are brought up to date on all new products. They can only buy from you what they know you have. Look at what your top five customers are not buying and talk to them about these products. This will give you a valid reason to get in touch with them (regular contact!) and potentially increase sales. Remember, you are not doing your customers a favour by not telling them about products that could benefit them.

Here is a classic real life example of Diamonds In Your Backyard. The Four Seasons, the premier hotel chain in the world, decided it was time to diversify. They decided a complimentary market to their hotel business was Time Share properties. Their first venture was in California and as befitting a global organization noted for its top quality service and higher prices their Time Shares were top of the line and priced above the market norm.

Sales were slow to say the least. Then someone had a brainwave. Out in the world there were literally thousands of people who were clients of the Four Seasons hotels. People who loved the hotels and the personal service they always received. The Time Share marketing campaign shifted gears to target their own clients and sales boomed. They had recognized the power of focusing on their clients; their Diamonds in their Backyard.

Dig down deep.  Ask yourself who are the diamonds in my backyard?  I guarantee you will find lots of business opportunities right in your own back yard.

Remember, when you do find your diamonds, look after them really well.  You don’t want any one else coming along and taking them away from you.