Marketing 101 just for you!

I regularly talk to prospects and discuss with them that the secret to successful marketing is to know your ideal customers (clients) better than your competition do…

Who is your ideal client:

The first question you want to ask yourself is “who is my ideal client?”

Most people say “anyone who walks through the door or calls my phone”. Well yes, when you are marketing in the yellow pages, local paper and with TV and radio, this is often the case…

What most business owners don’t realise is that you can pick exactly the type of client you want based on what they buy, how often they buy, how they deal with you and ultimately how well they pay you.

You can create a marketing process that attracts your ideal client, so that in time, you can pick and choose who you want to deal with.

I remember presenting at a BNI networking meeting and a number of the people in the group were outraged that clients could be classified good, OK, bad and ones to be avoided, but that is possible and I encourage it if you are sick of working with customers who demand blood from you, complain about everything, never pay on time and apply their own discounts to the goods or services that you have previously sold to them, you know the type I mean…

Once you have defined your ideal client, you can market to them surgically, to attract them with an offer everyone else is too busy to come up with

You can retain them with an attention to detail, that your competition has never considered and you can have them coming back spending more, more often, loving your service and raving to their friends, family and associates about you…

Sound too good to be true?

Think about the last time you were ‘blown away’ with service?

For me it was eating out at Jacksons Restaurant in Mt Lawley. The service was great, the food was excellent but what really made the evening for me was the amazing knowledge the wine waiter had about each of the wines he was serving and how he explained it matched the food.

Here I am telling you about that experience, some 6 years ago since I enjoyed it!

Find out what they want

When you know what your ideal client wants (and needs) better than anyone, they come to rely on you for your input, contribution and problem solving, you are considered and expert in your field and they are happy to pay you, because the value they get from doing business with you, far exceeds what you are charging…

I was speaking with an associate of mine this morning and her daughter is an expert in mining law; she is one of the top three lawyers in this area, nationally.

The fees her firm charges for her services start at $850 per hour and they go up around $1650 per hour for appearing in court.

Many people would say “how can you justify charging rates that high?” and her response is “I save my clients millions!”

Market to your clients and prospects with information they value

When you have information that can change the fortunes of your clients and prospects, they will literally push others out the way, to let you in and talk to you, its only human nature…

Keep doing this and you will keep a client for life, what is the lifetime value of a client?

How much they buy each time they purchase
How often they buy it
How often they buy it from you
How much they could buy from you, if they purchased everything that they need, that you stock, from you
How many months, years, decades they buy from you, until they buy elsewhere or they die

Life time value – Here’s a real example

Lets look at a client who purchases $150 per purchase from their supplier, they purchase 9 times a year.

$150 x 9 = 1350

They purchase from you for the next 10 years:

$1350 x 10 = $13,500

Lets say they buy some other products from you and their spend increases by 20%

$13,000 x 20% = $16,200

Then because you are a trusted service provider, they purchase from you for 40 years, and they are still buying from your business, even after their partner has died…

$16,200 x 4 = $64,800

Look at the cost of attracting that client in the first place, lets say you spend $5000 attracting 25 clients = $200

Most business owners, who advertise to attract clients, spend a fortune on attempting to attract “buying” a client, and if they are lucky enough to attract one, then they often never see them again…

The above example, a business could be spending $200 to attract a client who spends $150 on their first visit. If this client doesn’t come back, the advertising exercise is ‘going south fast’ and the business isn’t able to advertise like this for long, most business owners fall into this category.

If however, they keep that client, like spelt out in the above example, they have invested $200 to generate $64,800, from a client for life!

Better than shares and better than property, in actual fact they are generating more from their business marketing than they can get investing anywhere, which is how it should be!

I had a new client on the phone two weeks ago, Luke Thistle from Brisbane, we talked about is marketing and what he should to attract new clients, immediately. Last week he had attracted new clients and he wasn’t sure how to ‘up sell’ or how to rebook them. That was the subject for us to cover at his next mentoring session.

What to do next…

If you would like help in defining who your ideal client is, understanding what they want and need, how to communicate to them using pre emptive techniques, but you don’t know where to start…we can help!

At ABC Business Improvement we have or are assisting builders, tradesmen, retailers, restaurants, wholesalers, manufacturers, mechanics, professional service providers like accountants, lawyers, pharmacists, dentists, importers/ exporters and we can assist you too!

At ABC Business Improvement we will organise a meeting where you will;

– Uncover the challenges you are facing

– Define a path to overcome them

– Create a first step plan to move forward

– Gain a sense of excitement and relief, knowing where you are going

Be one of the first 5 to contact us this week and we will organise a ‘clients for life’ strategy session today…