Attracting Your Customers

Attracting the customer is the first step in growing our business and taking care of our customers.  In order to be attractive we have to change both our outward and inward appearance.  How we portray ourselves to the customer, vendors and public will affect our ability to become successful. 

Do we want to be the wallflower standing in the corner waiting for someone to come and ask us to dance, or the pretty one standing in the middle with the ability to choose any partner we want?

There are a number of things that need to be done to make ourselves more attractive.  The easiest are the internal ones that we can make immediate changes to.  While our individuality is something we should strive to celebrate, there is something to be said for consistency. 

This action plan will lay out guidelines, expectations and ideas on how we can improve our attractiveness to our customer base.  Our success will be based on the sum of all of the parts.  Just doing a few of them correctly, or only having a few of our team mates doing them all correctly will have a significant impact on our ability to bring aboard new customer and retain our existing ones.

Laws of attraction:

1.        Your product and service must be clearly defined. – What do we want to do and what do we want to be known for.

2.        You must develop customer awareness – How do we make sure the customer knows what we can offer.

3.       You must be credible –  If the customer doesn’t believe us or believe in us, there isn’t much likelihood of them trusting us with their business.

4.       You must always be consistent  –  How well are our customers trained?  Training them incorrectly can have a negative impact on our attractiveness.

5.       Always maintain your focus –  Know what you do and how you do it.

6.       You must offer customer based solutions -  Ask the right questions to the right people and cater your product to their needs.

7.       Be confident in what you do. – Confidence is quite possibly the most attractive quality any customer will look for.  Learn your job and approach the customer with the confidence that you know what you are doing and that your company is standing behind you 100%

Making sure that we are following these laws on a daily basis will ensure that we are providing the customer with the best possible services. 

Going forward, each department will be responsible for ensuring that they have a plan in place to meet these expectations. 

In order to attract our customers, we have to offer something they want.  Every current or potential customer in our industry has the same thing in common:  a need for our product.  Convincing them that our product is the best solution for them becomes the goal.  You don’t have to sell them on whether or not they need your product, you have to sell them on whether or not it is your product they want.

Make your product exciting – Even the most basic product or service can be put in a better light.  You don’t have to allocate a huge marketing budget in order to accomplish this.  Think of your product in terms of what it means to your customer.  It could be just a spark plug, or it could be a laser welded platinum tip spark plug with superior anti-fouling technology.  Make your product pitch sing.

Make your business exciting – Most customers know very little about the companies they do business with.  Take the opportunity to tell your customer about the history of your business.  Let them know if you take an active role in the community or if you have a charity your help to sponsor.  If your company was the first to do something in the industry or has made a significant improvement in its product or its business plan, let them know.  You aren’t just trying to attract the customer to your product or service, you are trying to attract them to your business.

Make yourself exciting – Sure some of us live boring lives, but we have all done something that the customer could find exciting.  It doesn’t even have to be an event, just coming across as passionate about what you do and who you are is sufficient to spark the interest of the customer. If the customer looks forward to seeing you again, or hearing from you again, they will find reasons to get you back.

Create a buzz in your marketplace about your business. Customers talk to each other, they talk to their other vendors and they talk to the people in their company.  When they have these conversations and are talking about what person or company is really giving them what they want, have it be you. 

Remember – what you may find attractive may not have the same draw to your customers.  If you don’t listen to what they want they won’t want what you have.  Be willing and able to adapt to your audience.