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Some businesses have this problem. They spend more money than the customer is worth to attract them as well as to keep them coming back. A great example is the continual couponing and discounts that businesses use in order to attract customers in. Unfortunately, continuing this may result in lots of cash flow but little profit. A retail store I am familiar with had $5.5 million in sales per year yet only $150,000 in net income. The point is to determine what the “lifetime value” of a customer is and compare that to what you spend to attract and retain that customer. In our free consultation, we work through these numbers with you. 2. Where else does your client or prospect spend their money? When you go to the dentist for your teeth, do you get your molars cleaned by one dentist, the Incisors cleaned by another and any dental work or fillings completed by a third? Why do you allow your clients and customers spend their money at other businesses where you could easily provide the same services or products. The key is to develop systems that allow your business to provide more value to your customers and prospects WITHOUT adding unprofitable overhead. 3. Tell me about your strategic alliances or partnerships. Many businesses have formed partnerships with other businesses but the partnership is not profitable one.
4. What strategies do you currently use to collect the contact information of every person who visits your store, calls you on the phone, visits your web site, reads your direct mail piece, etc.? Many retailers have no way to connect with these prospects of continue to follow up with them. I worked for the fifth largest business entity in the world for several years. One day I asked my manager to name ONE of my customers. His response was that I knew my customers better than he and I knew my customers better than most of the other managers. (But if I wanted to contact one of these customers I spoke with and called them by name on a daily basis, I would have had NO clue). I had no address, no email, no phone, No nothing. They could have dropped a $100 bill on the counter, walked out and I had no way of contacting them to tell them of their loss (this actually happened). So how do you collect this information? You need to provide something your customer believes is of value to them. 5. Name all of the strategies which you currently utilize in your business to ensure that your customers come back to your store again and again and again. There is no business in existence that makes so much profit on one sale that they do not care whether that customer ever returns to their place of business. Even the most obnoxious, full-of-themselves billionaire purchasing a Porsche Carrera GT is welcomed back over and over again. A business owner I know who caters exclusively to the rich told me in confidence how “stupid a certain multi-millionaire was, but they sure liked his money. . .” This was an inappropriate comment on my acquaintance’s part, as he could probably make much more money if he got rid of that limiting belief. The point is, however, that you better have methods, preferably multiple methods, of attracting your prospects and clients and having them visit your business over and over again. I call my insurance man every time I have a need for the house – even when I don’t have a claim. That’s because he knows the good as well as the bad plumbers, roofers, carpenters, painters and so forth in the area as HIS insurance company writes the claim checks to these maintenance companies. With service like that, Mr. Insurance is taking care of my house and cars on a regular basis, not just when I am writing another premium check to him. As a result, my agent’s competitors don’t have a chance to woo me away from his service. And as a result, I return to him again and again. How many strategies do you have like this? 6. How do you analyze the contact information for your new clients in order to determine trends or commonalities? Do you analyze your current client base as well as your new client base? In other words, do you know the demographics of your existing clients as well as your new clients? Has the demographic changed over the years? Simple demographics are probably available that you do not even take the time to consider - such as zip codes, addresses, number of children, ages of the children, colleges attended, sports teams followed, etc. Why all this information? With this, a business owner can determine who their ideal customer is. And make WISE business choices based on them. 7. When is the last time you introduced a new product or service? I was recently observing a webinar and the following questions came up. How many of you are introducing a new product one a year? How many are introducing a new product or service on a quarterly basis? A monthly basis? A weekly basis? It was found the businesses with the highest monthly sales volume were regularly introducing new products and services. The more often the better. I recently met an Idaho business owner who noted he starts 6-10 new businesses every week. These businesses may be complementary to his core business or something entirety unrelated. Yet because of the business model the entrepreneur has built along with the ease and low cost of entry into this business model, he can open 6-10 businesses per week and shut down the businesses that are not doing well after a couple of weeks. Similar questions in the same seminar were how often the business owners were doing split testing. Again, it was found that the business owners who did some type of split marketing test on a DAILY basis had the most sales. Let’s discuss what new services or products you should be providing your clients. 8. In what ways do you regularly communicate with your clients (customers) as well as your prospects? I run into business owners on almost daily who say their clients and prospects know them and where they are located. When they are ready to make a purchase, they will come and buy. To those who have this philosophy, let me ask you a question – When you were dating, did you sit back and WAIT for that exciting, wonderful, sexy, tantalizing person to visit, or were you wooing them on a daily basis? Having said that, if the only communication between my soulmate (and wife) and me was “Would you like to go into the bedroom?” and I asked her daily, do you think the message would be meaningful or self-serving? Do you think I’d have a lot better chance of enjoying some intimacy in the bedroom if I were to woo her – with flowers, a dinner out, a foot rub, a shoulder rub, planting the shrubbery she recently bought, washing her car, putting my clothes in the laundry rather than letting them lie on the floor, etc. Why shouldn’t you then be wooing the prospects and clients that give you the patronage through additional offers, providing value to them on a regular basis, etc. The more value you give, the more return you will receive. 9. Tell me the ways you utilize the Internet to attract new clients as well as your existing customer base. How much did you spend on your website? The layout of the web site – the graphic design and possibly the copyrighted photos, the photographer or videographer, the programmer, etc. Many business have spent THOUSANDS to simply get their web site up and running. Yet there web site does nothing more than act like an extra-large institutional yellow page ad. Business Name, bullets about what we provide, address, phone and email address. And they don’t call? Amazing! Maybe you should have kept the money at the Yellow Pages . . . I met with a local business owner recently that designs web sites. His company has over 500 clients paying him roughly $100 a month to maintain the web site. The business owners also paid a 4 figure fee for web design and initial programming. I noted he is leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table because all of his web sites are missing the same ingredient. You want to know the name of the ingredient? It’s a way to connect with those who visit your site. There is no compelling offer. No discount. No freebie. No Buy One Get One Free (B1G1F). Nor is there any way to capture their email address or other contact information so you can continue to follow up with those prospects regarding additional offers, services and new products. The Leithart Group, LLC locates Windfall Profits and additional Streams of Income for Organizations using Low Risk, Low Cost Strategies. When do you want to begin receiving some of that additional cash flow. Complete the FREE Consultation Questionnaire, forward it to our attention and we will give you a 41 minute FREE consultation in which we promise to divulge 5 strategies to grow your business or (see Your Guarantee).
Phone: 513-833-7966
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The Leithart Group,
LLC