(Originally posted June 26, 2009)
Understanding why existing customers buy your products or services is a great start to figuring out how to approach new customers. What is their number one reason for dealing with you? Trust? Product quality? Customer service excellence? What comes second and what comes third? Knowing what it is that excites and satisfies your existing customers helps you determine what you should promote to potential customers.
You also need some basic research on your prospects. At minimum you need names and titles of decision makers. You can often find out such information from other non-competing vendors who deal with the company and who will be happy to exchange information if you are willing to do the same for them. Scott’s Directories and others are available in every library and often list names and titles of key management.
Google names of key managers to see what comes up. Get active in your local Chamber of Commerce and build your network of contacts. Sign up for Linkedin and other business related networks. Become a Rotary member. All these pursuits can bring you a wealth of information on potential customers and you might even meet some of them along the way.
At this point I strongly recommend that you have experience with sales and marketing or you align yourself with a local marketing agency. You’ll be surprised at how reasonable they can be with costs, especially if you have already done the research. For a few hundred dollars they can help you design the right kind of marketing materials like sell sheets and brochures. If your budget permits, you can get an amazing amount of help for under $5,000. Once you’ve got a budget in excess of $10,000 you are into wide range of marketing support. The best approach is to give them a budget and see what they can do with it.
If you don’t have even a few hundred dollars then scour the internet for all the free information you can find and check out competitors’ web sites to see what their marketing themes look like. Buy books on marketing and read them cover to cover. Don’t take shortcuts or you might miss something critical.
My next post will cover how to use the information you’ve gathered and the marketing materials you’ve prepared to get in front of prospects.
Your comments are welcome.
Doug
