Growing Small Businesses

Lesson 3: Getting new business

Get a steady stream of new customers

Wouldn't it be nice to have a regular source of new orders coming in without having to take time off from working on your business and mounting a big push. Here's a detailed plan which should give you a continuous stream of orders from about ten to fifteen minutes of work per day. It applies the principle of target groups and product positioning to individual prospects by using a systematic approach which is not too time consuming. Typically you would do this continuously but the whole program starts resulting in orders after about a month and you can use a monthly cycle. To apply this, carry out each task on subsequent days.

1. Go through your business cards and records and identify ten people who might buy from you but are not currently customers.
2. Come up with a reason why these ten people should buy from you now. If you've recently changed something, that could be such a reason. If you're doing everything exactly the same, that works too ("still delivering superior quality as we have since?").
3. Think of some of your best customers and make a list of reasons why you think they buy from you rather than from a competitor.
4. Think of your competitors. Take the list from 3 and choose the reasons which your competitors will have the most trouble matching.
5. Take the reasons you've come up with from 2 and 4 and write a couple of explanatory sentences about each one. If you have only one or two reasons, write a few sentences about them; if you have more, keep it shorter.
6. Choose your favourite method of written communication with your customers. It could be by letter, e-mail or fax. Take the text from 5 and turn it into a draft text depending on your choice. It should be about a half page letter or its equivalent which presents your products or services.
7. Think of your best customers and imagine how they would react if they were not yet your customers and received the text from 6. Use what you think their reactions would be to polish up the text and prepare a final version.
8. Enter the names from 1 into a spreadsheet or into a word processor which can do tables. Call the columns "Last Name", "First Name", "Telephone", "Address" and fill them in. Call the file "Prospects". If you are familiar with databases you can do something more elaborate but this is all you need for now.
9. Add a column called Key Words to the Prospects file. Think of the first name on your list and write words that come to mind in the new column. Also words from the prospect's web site or yellow pages listing can go here.
10. Take your text from 7 and use the key words from 9 to personalize the text and send it out to the first name on your list. Add a new name from your business cards or records to the end of your list.
11. Prepare a rough list of questions for your follow-up. At least you'll want to know whether the prospect has an immediate or known future need for your products, whether he will consider you as a supplier and who makes the buying decision. If he will consider you as a supplier, you'll tell him that you'll send additional information about your company.
12. Think of the second name on your list and write words that come to mind in the "key words" column of your Prospects file. Add words from the prospect's web site or yellow pages listing.
13. Finalize your follow-up. Finalize the questions and put them in the right order. Polish up the wording. The follow-up should be personal - decide whether to phone or to visit.
14. Take your text from 7 and use the key words from 12 to personalize the text and send it out to the second name on your list. Add a new name from your business cards or records to the end of your list.
15. Make a list of possible additional information material about your company and your products that you can send out to prospects.
16. Think of the third name on your list and write words that come to mind in the "key words" column of your Prospects file. Add words from the prospect's web site or yellow pages listing.
17. Assemble all the information material on the list from 15 and review it briefly.
18. Take your text from 7 and use the key words from 16 to personalize the text and send it out to the third name on your list. Add a new name from your business cards or records to the end of your list.
19. Finalize the information package from 17. If there is a lot of material, group it so that only relevant items go to particular prospects.
20. Think of the fourth name on your list and write words that come to mind in the "key words" column of your Prospects file. Add words from the prospect's web site or yellow pages listing.
21. Call or visit prospect 1. Possibly book order. Write a brief note with any important information such as names of decision makers, tender dates or special requirements in a new column in the Prospects file. If no order, you'll have told him that you'll send additional information.
22. Take your text from 7 and use the key words from 20 to personalize the text and send it out to the fourth name on your list. Add a new name from your business cards or records to the end of your list.
23. Send out information package to prospect 1 or, if prospect 1 will not consider you as a supplier, remove him from your list. If you booked an order from prospect 1, remove him from the list and add him to your customer files.

- and so on. For example, the next few days will be:

• Think of the fifth name on your list and write words that come to mind in the "key words" column of your prospect's file. Add words from the prospect's web site or yellow pages listing.
• Call or visit prospect 2. Possibly book order. Write a brief note with any important information such as names of decision makers, tender dates or special requirements. If no order, you'll have told him that you'll send additional information.
• Take your text from 7 and use the corresponding key words to personalize the text and send it out to the fifth name on your list. Add a new name from your business cards or records to the end of your list.
• Send out information package to prospect 2 or, if prospect 2 will not consider you as a supplier, remove him from your list. If you booked an order from prospect 2, remove him from the list and add him to your customer files.

This system is ideal for using in a calendar, especially a computer-based one which allows you to do recurring tasks. Carrying these activities out consistently and regularly will keep you in a customer-oriented frame of mind, in contact with your markets and in touch with what people think of your products or services. It's not valid for everything. For small items, it doesn't make sense to visit prospects and for other items it may be too much effort for one order but the general idea is to keep doing something to find new customers and get new orders consistently, every day for ten or fifteen minutes. If you can customize this idea to fit your operation, you'll increase the likelihood of becoming very successful.

Print this page

  1  2  3  4  5  6  7