End of the Year - Problem.
Supposedly, you are the owner of a one person business, a Solopreneur, and the end-of-the-year numbers are in. Are they good or bad?
If you had a good year, and your revenue goals have been exceeded, you are on your way to massive business success. I hope you are in that situation. You may want to set even higher goals for the next year, moving you to even greater success.
But on the other hand, if you have fallen short, and can’t figure out why, this article may help.
Unfortunately, you probably don’t have a board of directors to help you find solutions. You, alone, are left with the task. You are on your own, and if this situation is not corrected, this may be the year that you have to close your doors. OK. Enough pressure.
Where do we begin?
As a Solopreneur , What can you do?
To move forward from here, we want to look at three things: Strategy, Planning, and Measuring.
Reflecting on what we’ve done last year, we know that something is not working. So let’s regroup, and take a different approach. Let’s put together a new strategy, execute a new plan, and check the results to see if it improves our bottom line.
We need all three components: Strategy – Planning – Measurement. A strategy will put the new approach in place, the plan will help us execute the strategy, and finally, we will measure the results. From there, we will follow the numbers.
Importance of a Marketing Strategy
Just as strong buildings are built on strong foundations, strong revenues are build on strong marketing foundations.
This marketing foundation is the strategy that we build. The marketing strategy will set the direction for all the actions that we execute to improve our revenue levels. With a powerful strategy in place, we can execute all the necessary activities we need to take to pull our revenues from below our mark to exceeding it.
In creating a solid marketing strategy, it’s not just an isolated exercise that you write down and file away somewhere. No. It will be incorporated into the very fabric of the company.
It shows up in making our marketing objectives, in company policies, and even permeates into our approach to developing our products and services. This way, the strategy forms the foundation of a cohesive wholistic approach.
We now now the importance of developing the strong foundational marketing strategy, but we don’t know the best strategy to use to get us more sales and revenue. Where do we begin? What will give us the most benefit with the least amount of cost?
Most successful companies will start with the strategy of building long-term relations out of their prospects, turning them in to life-long customers.
No. 1. Strategy –
Turning Prospects into Lifelong Customers Using the Relationship Strategy
Relationship marketing is the new term that everyone coins, but few actually implement. Why is this this? The biggest hinderance is that building relationships takes “Time”.
How much time? Lots of time.
Are you prepared to spend a lot of time develop one customer relationship? How about two customers? Will we take the time to develop that relationship with enough people to support our revenue goals?
Seems like an impossible task. Who has that much time? We want to make sales now. We need to make sales now. How can we speed up this process? What we need is a plan.
No. 2 -
We Need A Plan – Speeding Up The Process
Speeding up the process requires a plan. Taking the time to think through the relationship building process up front will save us time when it come to plan execution. We can move quickly from one step to the next.
It eliminates the stop – think – start again process. Every moves is now documented in the plan from the beginning. No need to delay. With our plan we can move quickly through each of the steps.
This is not the Short Game
Remember is is not a short game. We win my taking the time to execute our plan that will allow us to win in the long run. So practice patience with your plan.
In life, any relationship takes time. At least any meaningful relationship takes time. Taking this time can build years of revenue for you and your business. Build these strong relationships, and your customers will not only buy from you, but will help you attract others that will do the same.
So, this process is well worth the time to build.
Where To Begin?
To begin, we know one thing, we need to work on our marketing plan to build a better relationship with our prospects to turn them into lifelong clients. Where do we start?
Let’s take a look at who we should be building this relationship. What do we know about them? How do they purchase products from others? What is their buying process. What are the reasons they buy, or what problems are they trying to solve.
According to the new marking approached, collecting this type of information is collected in a profile called the Customer Personna. I learn about the creating a customer presonna from the course on Inbound Marketing from a company called Hubspot.
It covered collecting detailed information about your ideal client, and formulating that information into a profile of a person. This person is who you want to gear all your relationship marketing efforts. It’s easier to target a person than an idea making your marketing efforts more personal.
When we have a crystal clear image of our customer, then we can move to the next step of relationship building.
What Will We Offer?
Let’s begin with what you have. What is it that we can offer our idea customer to help them. More meaningfully, what do we have that could help them solve their biggest problems?
People are emotional creature, and will buy based on fulfilling some unfulfilled need. We buy milk because we’re out, and need to have cereal for breakfast tomorrow. I sure you understand.
Discover the need they are trying to fill, so that you can position your products to full that need. So, what is it that we have that will help our customer meet their needs.
If other companies are selling the same products, why would you customers buy from you, instead of them. Do you know what will makes customers choose you? Does what you offer stand out from the crowd, or will you get lost in obscurity lingering our there on the Internet, just another one of the millions.
Be unique. This helps potential clients want to engage with you. Put your best foot forward to get the attention of your prospects. Being unique will help you get potential clients and eventually make your business a success.
Bring your product to life, and make it so attractive that your idea customer will bite. That’s the unique image that you give over the Internet. Use the power of words and images in expressing what you are really offering to the public.
Time to Build Trust
Commonality is the hear of trust. Showing that common point that two people can relate to, develops trust. The saying, “Birds of a feather, flock together,” has a lot of truth. People are attracted to other people like them
What you start a relationship, start by building a bridge of commonality.
How do we use this to connect with our prospects? Very simply, convince them that you totally understand their problems, and have experienced them yourself, builds the first step to trust.
When you realize that you truly understand their need, then they will think that you could possible come up with the solution that they are looking for.
This is the first step of relationship building. Show that you truly understand their problem. Successfully demonstrate this, and you are on the road that your customer is going to take through their buying journey.
Customer's Buying Journey
Not that your prospects are aware that there is possibly a company who really understands their needs, it’s time to talk a walk. It’s time to walk with your prospect down the road to ultimately get the sale.
You desperately want to get to that designation, but your prospect may not be convinced just yet. He may or may not know exactly what will solve is problem or who he’ll pick to help him solve it, so our job is walk him also this journey. Along the way, we must persuade him that you are the company the will make it to the end.
So what weapon do we use to make our next move? We use education as our calling card. At this stage, the more we feed our prospect with valuable educational materials the more he see us as a credible, reliable source.
The underlying law behind this educational process is what we call the Law of Reciprocity. The Law of Reciprocity state that when some does something nice for you, you have a strong compelling urge to do something nice in return.
Some even believe that the gesture that gets returned is even greater that the original good deed. It’s like this law was built into the DNA of humans, and is a hard one to ignore. Understanding this as an Internet marketer can go long way to keep your prospect engaged throughout the whole buying process.
A word or caution: This law does have a reciprocal effect. It can be used in the wrong manner, causeing more harm than good if it is not executed from a spirit of truth.
Some marketers who use this laws to take advantage of someone, risks that danger of that person finding out they are being manipulated. If that happens, the damage may be irreparable.
I’m sure you integrity as a small business owner will not let this happen to you. Just keep providing the valuable content to educate your prospect without expecting any immediate return, and you will be rewarded in the long run.
Trust is a delicate thing in a relationship, so we want to protect it at all cost.
Just keep providing content that helps the prospect know that you are the right provider of answers for their problems will put you in the running when they are ready to consider your solution.
The Consideration of Your Product
Moving on to the last part of the journey, the prospect is finally deciding to take you up on your offer. What they next strategic move? Will now would be the time to provide content that show your advantage.
Now is the time to throw in some products demonstrations illustrating that your solution really does solve their problem. It’s always good to make demonstrations of successful implementation of your products by providing real live case studies show how others have benefited from your solutions.
While we’re at it, a barrage of customer testimonies could be the thing that speaks columns.
Give then many points of view from people who have already implemented your solutions, and let them do the talking.
Reviews and testimonials carry a lot of weight by provided social proof that you are a legitimate player in the market place. In time, you hard work will pay dividends
Decisions, Decisions
Now it’s decision time. Now is the moment of truth. Will you be the lucky provider or not? This is also a delicate dance, because you must bring the prospect to the decision point where all the favorable fingers point to you.
Now is the time to ask for the sale, and present it in such a way that makes it feel the picking you is the only reasonable choice. This is where the trust you have been developing comes into place in your favor. People usually do business with people they trust.
Considering all the valuable information that you have been giving away, shows that you are the authority in your area. Your understanding of the client’s problems demonstrates that you know what solution will reach a resolution.
The only logical things to do is give you a try.
Congratulation. This can be a long, time consuming process. But, maneuvering this correctly has paid off. However, just because you make the sales doesn’t mean your job is over.
Follow Up - An Absolute Must
Want to set yourself up for the beginning of a livelong relationship with your customer? Then follow up is the name of this game. Do this well, and you will beat out much of your competition who drops the ball.
First, follow up to make sure that your new customer is enjoying their new purchase. Just inquiring alone shows them that you care.
Then, answer any question they may have, and resolve any difficultly they may be experiencing. The more proactive you are the better. Catching problem early can bring about great customer confidence in you and your company.
And finally, ask if there is anything more you can do to make you experience even more pleasant. This is called delighting the customer. We want them to be so impressed with our service that they tell their anyone who will listen how great we are. Schedule a time to continue follow up on a regularly scheduled basis.
No. 3 – Measurement Success
We have come to the point that will determine our success or failure. Measurement is the tool to that will inform us either way.
Our goal for developing this relationship strategy, and incorporating this strategy in our plan is to increase our sales revenue. So increase revenue-making is our determining metric. So we will measure our progress periodically to make sure we are on track, and at the end of the year to judge the overall effectiveness our our approach.
When we hit our mark, or exceed our goals, we know our approach is working. If not, we need to go back to the drawing board, tweak our approach, and repeat this process with the improved strategy.
The Recap
As a Solopreneur, our lifeblood of profitability comes through our ability create longer-term relationships with our potential customers.
Relationships take time. Patience is a virtue in this area. So let’s approach it as such.
Develop a strategy to improve marketing through relationship building, and put a plan in place to execute our strategy.
Play the long-game using the Law of Reciprocity to engage the prospects with useful education that they can use to aid in their purchase decision. Through this, we not only build trust, but we set ourselves up as the authority in our field.
As we teach and give, we are walking the potential customer all the way through the buyer’s journey to the final purchase. And when the is done, we follow up even more to keep the customer delighted with our products or services.
An in the end, successfully completing the relationship cycle will help us meet our goals of enjoying increased revenues at the end our our year.
This type of success may take time, but that time will pay dividends for year to come.