One of the toughest tasks for a SME business owner is generating new business. This may be necessary to either replace lost business, or to grow the business itself on the back of consistently increasing the volume of new business, whilst simultaneously minimising the loss of current business.
A common reason why many business owners find the going tough when it comes to new business acquisition, is because they are doing the all of chasing to find the new business, rather than new business seeking them out, to provide the products or services, required to satisfy their needs.
We all know that the cost of acquiring new business via promotions, advertising, direct selling or indirect sales activity can be quite high. We also know that often the budgets available to SME business owners, are not as extensive as usually required, to fund the costs of acquiring a constant flow of new business from such activities.
An alternative way of acquiring new business, is to get the new business to come to you as a consequence of the recognition of your expertise, and the reputation you have established in providing that expertise, to the market.
Unfortunately, as good as your expertise and reputation may be, unless the wider market that you wish to serve, is made aware of how good your expertise is, and you then continually reinforce this message at every opportunity, you will forever be chasing new business to maintain momentum in your business enterprise.
There are many cost effective ways to raise your market’s awareness of your particular expertise in producing something for sale or providing a particular service. The important thing is to develop a specific strategy for increasing your profile in your designated market, and then work this strategy until you see your expertise acknowledged via the avenue of business coming directly to you, without you having to be the hunter all of the time.
Steps you can take to promote your expertise in a cost effective way include;
Are you doing as much as you should be doing to promote your expertise?
What is it currently costing you to acquire a new customer/client?
How much more profitable would your business be if you could reduce this cost yet continue to acquire new customers at a satisfactory rate to continue to grow your business?
BLOGGERS THRIVE WHEN READERS COMMENT - if you have a moment, please provide your feedback /reactions.
If your business is based in Melbourne Australia, and you need assistance to develop and grow it in order to provide you with a certain level of future prosperity, check out our website http://www.rhodan.com.au and, if you think we can help you, please don't hesitate to contact us.
A common reason why many business owners find the going tough when it comes to new business acquisition, is because they are doing the all of chasing to find the new business, rather than new business seeking them out, to provide the products or services, required to satisfy their needs.
We all know that the cost of acquiring new business via promotions, advertising, direct selling or indirect sales activity can be quite high. We also know that often the budgets available to SME business owners, are not as extensive as usually required, to fund the costs of acquiring a constant flow of new business from such activities.
An alternative way of acquiring new business, is to get the new business to come to you as a consequence of the recognition of your expertise, and the reputation you have established in providing that expertise, to the market.
Unfortunately, as good as your expertise and reputation may be, unless the wider market that you wish to serve, is made aware of how good your expertise is, and you then continually reinforce this message at every opportunity, you will forever be chasing new business to maintain momentum in your business enterprise.
There are many cost effective ways to raise your market’s awareness of your particular expertise in producing something for sale or providing a particular service. The important thing is to develop a specific strategy for increasing your profile in your designated market, and then work this strategy until you see your expertise acknowledged via the avenue of business coming directly to you, without you having to be the hunter all of the time.
Steps you can take to promote your expertise in a cost effective way include;
- Write and publish articles, that demonstrate your expertise, at your own blog site or submit articles to other blogs which cater to your target market,
- Write and submit articles relevant to your industry to your local paper, relevant industry publications, regular newsletters that circulate in your business community, and as many relevant online forums that seek such content,
- Volunteer to provide some of your expertise to local community groups or major charities,
- Volunteer to be a speaker on subjects within your area of expertise at as many local business and local networking groups as you can find,
- Register your business and detail the expertise you offer on as many of the free online business registers that will help people find you in your customer/client catchment area,
- Get well structured testimonials that highlight the key elements of your expertise as well as the quality of your products/services and make these as prominent as possible on your website,
- Ensure that your e-mail signature block highlights your expertise as well as your contact details, and where possible includes a link to the testimonials on your website, and
- Where you have a telephone system that has the capability of putting callers on hold utilise a message on hold system to ensure they are listening to a message about your expertise whilst they are on hold.
Are you doing as much as you should be doing to promote your expertise?
What is it currently costing you to acquire a new customer/client?
How much more profitable would your business be if you could reduce this cost yet continue to acquire new customers at a satisfactory rate to continue to grow your business?
BLOGGERS THRIVE WHEN READERS COMMENT - if you have a moment, please provide your feedback /reactions.
If your business is based in Melbourne Australia, and you need assistance to develop and grow it in order to provide you with a certain level of future prosperity, check out our website http://www.rhodan.com.au and, if you think we can help you, please don't hesitate to contact us.
6 comments:
Hi Daniel
This is a very good and well written article on how to generate a customer lead. Thank you.
I love your blog name Unique Insights, my business is Kinique which is "Kinesiology uniquely for you"
You may like to check out my website as I have released a Report on unique de-stress methods,
http://www.kinique.com
Cheers and have a great day.
Marney Perna
Professional Kinesiologist
I also find writing and video marketing how to's, instructions and demonstrations very beneficial to promoting oneself as an expert. My site is also loaded with free pdf's which are available without me harvesting e-mails.
Great article. Really great insight into some key strategies that can help SME biz owners can use to really let customers know about their company.
www.kdf-comp.com
Dan:
Solid steps. Two points.
1.) A good SME biz owner should always remember, you best customer is your existing customer. I always try to focus first on how to go deep with current balanced with trying to look for new customers.
2.) To a degree I follow you steps, but find it difficult to get people to focus on my message. Example is I published a marketing brief, followed-up only to find a lot of people either A.) Never opened the attachment; and B.) Hide under the cover of I will get back to you later. Why? I am advocating change. Not easy given the economic turbulence out there. Key now is to work harder on my messaging, appeal to the emotional side of making changes, script the steps visually.
Keep blogging!
Jimmy
Some great tips here. Really like the simple and sweet one about area of expertise in your signature. Although the idea of the hold tone, (where a caller listens to your expertise) isn't done to perfection it may end up with irritation.
Excellent article with great insights and tips. VIdeos are excellent for promoting one's self and expertise. Great article.
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