Smooth Move Marketing

Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurs’ Category

How well do you know your customers?

What is the primary reason your customers or clients come to you? Or purchase your product or service? What is the Number One problem you solve for them? Do you know? Are you certain? If you don’t, your marketing could be missing the mark, and you could be missing out on sales.

Uncovering Your “Key Selling Point”

This is the Single Marketing Message that is the central message in all of your communications about your business, product or service. It can be difficult for small business owners to determine what their single marketing message should be. Why? Because they are too close to their business. And, because they are viewing their business from their side of the desk.

Keeping your marketing customer-focused can be a challenge

Even if we know we should be looking at our business from our customers’ perspective, it’s often easier said than done. As a result, it is easy to get caught up in all the amazing features of our product or service and the reasons we THINK our clients are attracted or are buying.

But sometimes our vantage point is clouded by our own perceptions and beliefs. And those perceptions and beliefs may be inaccurate. So how do you pinpoint the real reason customers are attracted to your product or service and the true reasons they are choosing to buy?

There is an easy way to stay on track

Very simply, YOU ASK THEM! Okay, I know it seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often we don’t think of the obvious.

Your prospects and customers (and yes, even your rejecters — those who visit but don’t buy) can provide great insights about the benefits they value most in your product or service and why they chose to buy.

Whether you have a lot of customers or only a few

You don’t have to have a large customer or prospect base to do some research to see if you are on track. Even if you only have a handful of clients or customers, contact them and ask them what they like most about your product or service.

Talk to your Clients or Customers

(1) What is the one thing that got them to purchase?

(2) Have you delivered on that promise?

(3) What do they like least about your product or service?

(4) How could you improve your product or service?

(5) What else (in your business category) do they have a need for?

(6) How else could you help them be successful, be happier, or solve whatever problem your product or service solves for them?

Talk to your Rejecters

If you choose to survey rejecters (which I have done very successfully for years for one of my clients) find out why they DIDN’T buy.

(1) Ask them what product or service they bought instead of yours? And why?

(2) Ask them what that competing product or service offered that yours did not?

(3) Ask if there is anything you could do to get their business in the future? Product or service changes, additions, deletions?

Talk to your Prospects

Do you have a list of prospects — those who have expressed an interest in your product or service but have not yet purchased? Perhaps they have subscribed to your newsletter or ezine.

(1) Ask them for feedback on your newsletter or ezine content.

(2) What topics are they interested in learning more about?

(3) How can you help them to be more successful, happier, etc?

(4) Find out what they want and who they are

And in all three cases — Clients/Customers, Rejecters, and Prospects — if it seems appropriate, ask for a little information about who they are. Age, gender, profession, where they live, how much they typically spend in your product or service category.

This will help you get a better understanding of your target audience and you’ll know if you’re attracting the kind of people you thought would be interested in your product or service. And if you need to change your marketing strategy to reach a different audience, or to perhaps change your target audience.

It will help you better serve them

The more you can learn about your prospects and customers the better you can serve them. And the more effectively you can market to them.

You may be in for a surprise

I’ve had clients tell me they thought they knew why people were buying from them until they asked. And what they heard surprised and shocked them.

Very often what you hear can help you zero-in on a Unique Selling Proposition that you never thought of. And because it came from the mouths of your customers you know it is compelling and effective.

Don’t change everything based on a few opinions

My only caution is if you only have a handful of customers or prospects to survey, don’t make any major changes or decisions until you are able to validate your findings among a larger group of people.

Or at least test any changes you do make before making a final decision to overhaul your entire business or marketing plan. Common sense is the rule here. Just use your own good judgment and don’t over-react to comments made by only a handful of people.

You can ask in a number or ways – Choose what works for you

There are any number of ways to collect research from your prospects and customers. You can telephone them, email them, mail them a written questionnaire, or you can meet with them in a group (called a focus group) to collect their opinions.

You can be as formal or informal as you feel comfortable. Typically the larger number of clients you survey, the more formal the survey. If you have only a handful of people to talk to, simply pick up the phone and call them. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes new money making ideas are immediately usable. However, sometimes you just have to let your imagination run wild and be impractical. This is a way to get that creativity going, and no matter how crazy the ideas may seem at first, there is usually a way to bring them down to earth, as in this first example.

Rental Cabins In The Air

I started with a crazy thought: “What if people could rent a cabin up in the sky for the weekend?” Right away my mind tries to make sense of the idea, and because the over-all goal is to have profitable innovations, it looks for ways to make it into a money making idea. I first imagined cabins which are suspended under large hot-air or helium balloons.

As much fun as it might be, this didn’t seem very practical. When I explored the idea further, though, I wondered if existing balloon-ride businesses could tap into other markets. If, for example, the gondolas were outfitted properly, and the balloons tethered, so they could be allowed to float two thousand feet overhead, would meditators then pay for a peaceful meditation retreat in the sky?

Another thought came to mind. Balloons could be high in the air, but easily cranked back in on a line. This might be simpler and cheaper than traditional rides, which involve chase vehicles and unpredictable landings. Perhaps this could be another way to make money with the balloons, charging a lower rate for simple up and down rides, and so getting new customers that couldn’t afford the usual rides.

This is how a crazy idea comes back to earth. Perhaps even the “weekend cabin in the sky” idea could someday be a money making idea, but if not, that’s okay. The point here is to get the creative flow going, and then find more practical ways to channel the output.

More Crazy Money Making Ideas

The following are pure imagination. I leave it to you to find a way to make these ones into potential money making ideas. Good luck and have fun!

- Put seats on the wings of an airplane and sell rides to thrill seekers.

- Sell advertising scratched out on the face of the moon.

- Rent out the animals at the zoo.

- Start an underwater school.

- Make a roller coaster course people pay to take their personal cars on.
Read the rest of this entry »

Working as computer consultants for small businesses can be very financially rewarding and very gratifying. In this article you’ll learn about some of the benefits you’ll realize as computer consultants.

You Can Pick Your Work

As computer consultants, you have so much flexibility that you’re not likely to get bored. You choose what you want to do. It’s a lot of fun. You get to select exactly which technologies and the platforms and the products that you’re able to sell, service and support. You don’t have to get boxed into working with products that you don’t want to deal with anymore.

You Can Find Plenty of Clients in Your Area

It doesn’t matter where you are located. If there are small businesses, no matter what the industry, you can build a very nice business servicing and supporting their IT needs. But let’s face it, it really isn’t just about the financial rewards. You can make a very good living as a computer consultant for small businesses right in your local area. And if that two-hour commute is really getting on your nerves you can set up your computer consulting business right in your own home.

You Have Freedom to Choose

With your own business as a computer consultants you can choose your own bosses, your clients, your colleagues, partners, vendors, and contractors.

You Can Pick Your Own Schedule.

You also get much greater control of your working hours and when you’re on call. You can hand-pick the “perfect” clients that will allow you to work more realistic hours and you won’t feel like you’re going nuts around the clock.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re the typical person who’s considering becoming a computer consultant, then you are probably a LAN administrator, doing some kind of PC support job for big enterprise or maybe even working for a smaller integrator. In this article, you’ll learn what you need to do first to realize your goal of becoming a computer consultant.

From talking to hundreds of people in this situation right now, the number one thing is that you have to decide that you really want to and really need to do it. Don’t put tons and tons of time getting all this IT training and business training and spending all this money until you’ve decided that you really want to do it.

Why Become a Computer Consultant?

There are lots of reasons why people want to become a computer consultant. You may want to be more responsible for your own career destiny, you may want to be able to build something from scratch that you can call your own, or maybe you’re just totally fed up with being stuck in the cubicle, reporting to your boss, and just in general being held back in your career over things that are way beyond your control.

Take Some Action Right Now

As your first step toward becoming a computer consultant, take out a piece of paper right now and write down “The Top Five Reasons Why I Have To, Need To and Want to Become a Computer Consultant.” Then go ahead and list them. This is really your declaration of independence.

Set a Deadline

You are now laying it on the line and saying all the reasons why you want to, why you have to, why you need to make this happen now. Why you need to start taking the right steps to get going in the right direction. Most importantly though, is when you get done narrowing it down to the top five list, preferably putting the most important reasons to you at the top of the list, give yourself a concrete deadline. Read the rest of this entry »