35 Building trusting relationships

What is a trusting relationship?

A trusting relationship is built when your customers feel connected with you as a person and confident that you have their interests and needs at heart. You will be their first choice when they have a relevant problem that needs solving. Trust is built up over time and through experiences. If you have always maintained a level of service that delivers exactly what has been promised, you do what you say you are going to do and your customer is completely satisfied then it will be easy to build trust. Trust is about integrity and values. It matters deeply to people and is very personal.

Why is trust an important relationship ingredient?

Trusting relationships form the backbone of successful businesses. In a world where there is a lot of choice people will always support those that they trust the most. Customers are actually looking to build trust. They want it. It builds buyers’ security. Trust is a high value for many. If the trust is there then customers will listen to your advice, make decisions based on your suggested solutions and often not question your prices as much as they would if they were unsure of you. Building trusting relationships can help you to retain customers, gain customers and increase the amount of referrals that you get.

Your challenge

Depending on the nature of your business you will no doubt come into contact with a lot of people. You will need to work hard to maintain your standards and make sure that however brief your contact is with each individual, it is positive. Small things can break trust in an instant: not getting a proposal or a telephone follow up you have promised done in time; a sharp word when you are tired or stressed, forgetting a name, an important detail about a business or worse making silly mistakes that affect your customer’s belief in your service. Trust can take a long time to build and an instant to break.

What builds trust in relationships?

• Demonstrating a natural respect for people.
• Asking questions and really listening to what people want.
• Showing you understand what matters to each individual.
• Being honest, even if it means that you do not sell your services.
• Giving ideas and advice away for free.
• Delivering whatever you promise.
• Letting people know if for any reason you cannot deliver.
• Doing the best you can for people.
• Being genuine.
• Time and contact.

YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

Consider the level of trust that you have with your existing customers. Ask yourself the following questions and be honest in answering them.

• How do you know if a customer trusts you?
• Name the customers you have with whom you think you have a trusting relationship.
• What is the difference between those with whom you have a trusting relationship and those you don’t?
• How do you build trust with people?
• What could you do to build more trust?

How to use this information

Be conscious of the trust you have with the people you do business with. Notice the signs. Work harder to both build it and maintain it. It will be worth it.

36 Reviewing customers’ needs

What do customers need?

The reason a person became a customer of yours the first time may not be the same reason that they continue to buy from you in the future. Existing customers have changing needs the same as any new potential customer would. They need ongoing understanding and communication.

Why is understanding them important?

Taking the time to understand what your existing customers’ changing needs might be will ensure that you are right there with answers before they think of using anyone else. It is important that you keep talking to your customers as they are a great source of information for you. Their changing needs can be representative of market demand which could influence the longer term development plans for your product or service. Taking the time to find out what your existing customers’ needs are likely to be in the future could give you business development ideas. Taking your existing customers’ business for granted without reviewing their needs could be dangerous. Do they know about the full range of products and services you offer? If not they could be attracted elsewhere if someone new comes along with an answer to a problem you didn’t even know about. You could be missing out on new business opportunities with existing customers.

Your challenge

You will need to introduce a system for reviewing your existing customers’ ongoing and changing needs. Your system will need to fit with customers’ schedules, your resources and will need to produce feedback that you are able to action in the appropriate way.

What are the key elements of a successful review?

The right approach

It is important to use a customer review opportunity to build on your existing relationship. Your customers are busy like you and will need to be given a good reason to spend the time reviewing their needs with you. So your approach is key. Just inviting your customer for a long lunch without setting up the reason for that lunch is likely to waste both your time and theirs. You have to give them a reason to meet you. The review meeting could be set up as a form of regular free consultancy, where you follow a distinct structure looking at the past, present and future.

The right time

It is a good idea to set up the expectation of this with every new customer. It could become part of your commitment to your customers when you start your relationship. Your review meetings need to be set at a time that anticipates any changing needs your customers might have. This might be annually at the end of their financial year, or end of the year. It might be biannually. It might be seasonally. Each business and customer relationship may differ. The time needs to be right for both parties.

The right preparation

To successfully review your customers you will need to have full details of their purchasing history with you. You can anticipate some future needs based on past patterns. Taking the time to find out a little about their marketplace and industry may also predict some future needs of which the customer themselves might not yet be aware. You will need to have available a list and/or samples of the work that you have completed for them.

The right questions

Your review will need an outcome and an action plan both of which can be achieved with the right questions guiding the review. Here is a list of some questions that you might like to incorporate into your customer reviews.

• What do you want to achieve at our review meeting?
• How happy/satisfied have you been with the service/product we have provided for you over x period?
• What, if anything, could we improve on?
• In terms of the services we offer, what is most important to you?
• What are some of the problems you anticipate might need solving in x area over the next year?
• What is your focus for the next six months to a year?
• What are your priorities?
• How could we help you over the next 12 months?

An action plan and new proposal

It is important to have an agreed action plan at the end of the review which could be confirmed by a review proposal for future business. A good structure for a review proposal is as follows:

• introduction
• summary of achievements over x period
• your feedback
• your aims for y period
• suggested solution/proposal/follow up
• price
• next step.

Create yourself a template that you can adapt for use with all your customers. This will save you considerable time and effort.

YOUR REVIEW – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• Who are you going to review? – make a list.
• How are you going to approach it? – what is in it for your customers?
• Decide on a timescale for completing your reviews and set a deadline.
• What is your aim for each review?
• How are you going to structure your review? – what questions do you need to ask?
• Have you done your preparation? – can you anticipate any future demand or needs?
• What information do you anticipate each customer will want to know about your new products and services? Do you have that information to hand?
• Have you got a proposal template to use for following up reviews?

How to use this information

If you do decide to review your existing customers’ needs in a structured and focused way, it will be useful to measure the outcome noticing the impact that it has on your business.

37 Encouraging referrals and recommendations

What is a referral?

A referral is when one of your satisfied customers who trusts and values what you do, actively refers your service to other potential customers. Having referred you they will give you the potential customer’s contact details to follow up. You are in control of the follow up.

What is a recommendation?

A recommendation is when one of your satisfied customers simply gives your name to one of their contacts endorsing your service. This contact will call you themselves if and when they need your service. The new potential contact is in control of the follow up.

Why are they important?

They are important because there really is no better way to get new business easily than through a referral or strong recommendation from someone who is already sold on your product or services. If you are active in encouraging referrals and recommendations you could build your business very inexpensively. People love to refer and recommend someone they have received a good service from. You will find that business that comes from a referral or recommendation is a virtual guarantee. The more trust the potential prospect has in the person that refers or recommends, the more likely they are to buy from you, bypassing any initial concerns or scepticism. This will make it much easier and quicker for you to build business.

Your challenge

Many people don’t like to ask for referrals or recommendations although welcome them with open arms when they get them. Many do not have an active procedure for encouraging referrals and recommendations. Your challenge will be to develop a system for encouraging referrals that you feel comfortable using and that motivates your satisfied customers to help you. You will need to remember that when you have performed and delivered a high standard that delights your customer, most will be more than happy to refer you. This is especially true as most people like helping other people. It is up to you to make it as easy as possible for them to do that.

What gives referrals and recommendations the best chance of leading to business?

Of course there will be a type of referral or recommended business that is ideal for you and there will be some that do not fit with the type of customer you are looking for. When encouraging referrals you will need to be clear about the type of problems you can solve and the type of potential customers that you are looking for. This will enable your referrers to recognise someone who would benefit from the service you offer.

How to ask for referrals

The key to getting more referrals is to have a strategy for it and plan ahead of time. If you choose to ask someone at the end of their contract with you to make sure they send people your way they will almost undoubtedly say yes. But will anything happen as a result?… unlikely. Or if they do, the person they mention you to may still not call because they don’t know you and it still feels risky.

There are ways of encouraging referrals and recommendations that ensure that you get the best chance of making personal contact with the referred potential client and that your happy customers do actually take action in generating some for you.

Timing is key when you ask

When you ask for a referral it is usually best when you are discussing the successful results of your work and your client is at their most enthusiastic about you and what you can do. At this stage you might say ‘Who else do you know who would benefit from a service like this?’ You then take details of this person there and then.

Plan ahead what you are going to say

You could also try, ‘I am really glad that you are happy with the work that we have done for you. Much of our business comes from referrals or recommendations. Do you know of any business associates who are looking for the same kind of results we were able to accomplish for you?’

Be clear about what you are looking for

It is much easier for your clients to think about someone when you are very clear about the kind of person, organisation or problem you are able to help with. ‘The kinds of people that I am able to help are small business owners who want to make their marketing work. They may be start-ups or existing businesses which need to create a new or fresh identity in the marketplace.’

Tell customers how to refer people to you

You need to stay in control here and not just hand over the reins to your prospective referred customer. If you say, ‘If you know someone just get them to call me,’ this will just leave it up to chance that they will. Instead you could say, ‘If you know someone, give me a call first and we can discuss the best way to approach them’. This puts you back in control of the opportunity.

Direct them to your website

If you have a good way of capturing the attention of new prospects and an incentive for getting their details, then asking your referrers to direct prospects to your website is a good idea. People are more likely to check out a website before they call you and if yours is good then it will create a positive first impression.

Reward your customers for their referrals

If you get a good piece of business from a customer referral you could send them a thank you note and a gift in the post. The chances of that person doing it again for you because they feel appreciated are much higher.

You could also consider referral incentives to encourage customers to give you referrals. This may be a discount voucher for future work with you or other incentives that they would value highly.

How to use this information

Try it out and see what works for you. Measure the return you get. Make sure you always thank people for any referrals you get and reciprocate if you can.

38 Publishing case studies

What is a case study?

A case study is a description of a piece of business you have carried out for one of your customers. It is a success story that acts as a working example of how the work you have undertaken has yielded practical and positive results.

Why is getting them published of value?

Case studies are powerful because they speak about real results. Getting case studies published can help both you and your clients. You can help to build your clients’ profile as well as offering an added bonus for doing business with you. Business people in similar situations with similar desires can be motivated to take action by reading case studies. Case studies make ideas real, tangible and believable.

Your challenge

Your challenge will be in researching opportunities to get your case studies published ensuring that you get your clients’ buy-in to the idea. You may need to enlist your clients’ help in writing the case study content.

What are the key elements of a publishable case study?

• It must have a strong reader interest.
• It is constructed in a way that is easy for others to relate to.
• It is topical and fits in with the publication’s/website’s agenda.
• It is well written.
• There are some obvious learning points contained within the study.
• Case studies can be integrated into reader interest articles and used as live examples to illustrate the ideas presented. A good example would be an article that I wrote for a number of publications called ‘How to create a memorable brand identity’ where we used a number of our clients’ re-branding projects to illustrate the points.

The simple structure of a case study article

USING CASE STUDIES – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• What case studies do you have currently that would be worth publishing?
• What context could you create that would gain reader interest?
• How could your clients help?
• Where would you like to get them published?
• Who do you need to contact? – research relevant publications and find out.
• What contacts do you have that could help you?

How to use this information

Consider the opportunities that exist for case studies. You can publish them on your own website, other business-related websites that are looking for reader interest information and as part of articles that you write for business publications or magazines. The local press might also be interested if your case study relates to a local business issue.

39 Selling up and selling more

What is selling up?

Selling up is what you do when you increase the value of the sales transaction at the point at which your customer has made a decision to buy. If this takes place at the point of sale it is often known as a ‘bump’. The amount the customer spends is literally bumped up by offering something bigger and of greater value. A good example of a bump can be experienced at any McDonald’s or Burger King when you are offered a meal deal or a bigger version of what you have originally ordered.

Additional complementary products

Selling up can simply be offering additional and complementary products at the point of sale. Shoe shops do this when they offer the special shoe cleaners that are required for the shoes you have bought. Some car service garages do it by offering care car products. Hair salons often offer the products that have been used to create the condition and style you are happy with at the end of your appointment. Beauty salons and health spas sell up by offering you the products that have been used by the therapists during your session. Travel companies sell up when they offer holiday insurance and car hire once you have bought a holiday or a flight.

Upgrade

Selling up can also be introduced during the sales process by offering an upgrade on the particular model or make a customer is interested in. Many electrical retail outlets do this well. If you do this, selling the added value of the upgrade will be important.

Packaging

Selling up can also be achieved by packaging your products cleverly. This is covered in more detail in the next chapter.

Why is selling up important?

Selling up is important because it potentially offers you easy access to a big pot of gold. It is so much more costly both in time and resources continually to strive to attract new customers than it is to sell more to a customer who is standing right in front of you.

Your challenge

Your challenge will be to find ways to sell up and sell more to your customers that adds perceived value. Any ‘up sell’ must come across as offering more value, not simply asking for more money. Your staff will need to be aware of all the opportunities to sell more and know enough about the products to make up sell suggestions. Staff should all be given ‘bump up’ suggestions to make at the point of sale and your challenge will be to make sure that they always make those suggestions.

Some people avoid up selling because they don’t want to appear pushy or money-grabbing. This is only an attitude of mind. Up selling can be done pleasantly with a positive attitude and a belief that by offering it you are giving your customer the opportunity to gain maximum value. Communicated in this way the customer is more likely to respond positively.

HOW TO SELL UP – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• Make a list of all the possible ‘bump ups’ you could make with your products and services.
• Create a number of questions that you r point of sale staff could ask that would prompt the ‘bump ups’.
• Make a list of all the products and services that naturally link together and could be sold together as package.
• Decide which products and services have a natural upgrade.
• Try some of these up sell activities for a period of time and measure the results.

How to use this information

Implement these selling up suggestions as soon as you can. This is one of the easiest ways to increase your sales results.

40 Packaging your products

What is packaging?

Packaging your products in the context of marketing your business is about grouping your products or services together to enable you to sell more and your customer to gain greater value for money. Examples of how companies package their products are everywhere. Here are some you might recognise.

• An all-inclusive holiday where the customer pays one price and gets flights, accommodation, food, drink and often sports facilities all bundled together in an attractive package.
• A fast food restaurant that offers a ‘meal deal’, you get the burger of your choice, fries and a drink for a set price.
• A training company that offers a complete programme of modular sessions that link together.
• A coaching company that offers a set number of coaching sessions over a three or six month period.
• Amazon books package their products in a subtle way by offering you both the book you have requested and a second related book.
• A hotel that offers special weekend breaks inclusive of dinner, bed and breakfast.
• Restaurants which offer special set menus to encourage people to dine at quieter times.

Any business can package their products and services together which potentially could have a very positive effect on sales.

Why is packaging important?

Packaging will enable you to sell more by

• promoting a higher perceived value to your customer
• automatically allowing you to up sell without having to ask for it
• creating the opportunity to work with your customer over a longer time period
• helping to move slow-moving stock by attaching it to more popular new stock.

Packaging can also help you to get stronger initial commitment from your customer. This will give you a greater opportunity to build a relationship and prove your products’ or services’ value to them.

Packaging can also ensure that your customer buys enough of your service to make a significant impact. A good example of this would be marketing or business consultancy. In these cases the initial groundwork often provides the foundations on which a longer term plan must be built.

Your challenge

Your challenge is to create a bundle or package that creates value for your customer and makes marketing sense. You will need to work out what naturally links together to create a complete service. Your package will need to be priced correctly and marketed appropriately.

What makes a successful package?

• It solves a complete problem that a customer has or is likely to have. A good example of this might be a car service centre that appreciates car owners need to prepare their car for the winter. A special winter car care package that covers everything that might end up a problem to customers at an attractive price could be a very desirable proposition as winter approaches.
• It gives the customer choice. If you go to an Indian or Chinese restaurant with a group of friends the menu offers you a choice of different set menus at different prices. If you go to a garage for a car wash you can usually choose between gold, silver and bronze options. People like to have a choice. Successful packages often offer up to three packaged choices, more than that can confuse the customer and make decision-making harder.
• It takes away or limits the potential hassle a customer may have organising all the various elements of a particular purchase. If you are planning a wedding there is a lot to think about: flowers, hair and make up, reception, entertainment, guest accommodation, photographer, transport to and from the venue, attendants and much more. Wedding packages that consider what is most important to the happy couple and group services together accordingly will be successful.
• The package has a high perceived value for the customer even if some of the addon elements are lower cost to you. The more perceived value the package has, the more irresistible you will be able to make your offer.

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN PACKAGES – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• Decide what you want your packages to achieve for you.
• Consider what problems your customers have that a package would solve for them.
• Consider how you could develop a choice of package content and pricing levels that makes your offer simple and attractive.
• Consider what value your packages offer your customers.
• Decide what you are going to call your packages.
• Test your packages with some existing customers and ask for feedback.

How to use this information

Once you have developed your packages and are clear and confident that they are right for the people you are targeting, you will need to communicate them. This can be done by describing them in your company brochures, sales letters, direct mail, on your website, in your advertising, on posters and in your proposals. Monitor how well they work for you and be prepared to review their content from time to time as customer demand dictates.

41 Creating a newsletter

What Is a newsletter?

A newsletter is something that you produce and distribute to your customers at regular intervals. Newsletters can be distributed by electronic mail or in a traditional hard copy format by post.

Why are newsletters valuable?

Newsletters are one of the most powerful tools for generating customer traffic and encouraging more sales from existing customers. A newsletter that offers your customers some information that has a high perceived value will maintain an ongoing relationship between you and the people you have been doing business with. This will keep your name in the forefront of their minds until they need your services again. A newsletter can also act as a business stimulator reminding customers of that problem they need solving, or action that they need to take.

Free newsletters that offer useful ideas and information can also act as bait to attract the attention of new customers. Once these potential customers have signed up to your newsletter you will have the opportunity to communicate with them on a continuing basis. Newsletters can be promoted to attract subscribers who ultimately could become customers.

Newsletters enable you to continue to sell your services by offering advice, suggestions, ideas and recommendations.

Your challenge

Your challenge will be to create a newsletter that is of use to your potential and actual customers, is easy to put together and uses a system of delivery that is inexpensive and efficient. Publishing a hard copy newsletter can be time consuming and costly. Using on online system for sending out an e-newsletter is by far the more attractive option.* Once you have developed your own simple creation and delivery system, sending out a regular e-newsletter couldn’t be easier. Your only challenge will be to decide on its name and write the content.

What makes a newsletter work?

A name

This will give it an identity and brand of its own and will become memorable to the recipients. The name needs to convey value to the recipient and ideally be snappy and easy to say and spell.

My newsletter is called ‘Money Making Marketing Ideas’.

Useful reader-orientated content

Content can be made up of news, answers to questions, ideas, tips, case studies, articles, recommendations and updates: anything that has perceived value that your customers will look forward to receiving.

Sent regularly

Everybody receives so much these days via email you should consider sending your newsletter out once a month or bimonthly. Choosing the same day of the week is a good idea. Choose a day of the week when the people you are targeting are most likely to read the newsletter. Sunday evenings can be good for some businesses or for others Friday afternoons. Once your customers get used to receiving your newsletter they will expect it, so you need to make sure that they get their copy as promised without fail.

The right length

If it is useful information then people will read it. Most people these days will tell you that they suffer from information overload. So, bearing that in mind, consider how you can make your newsletter both interesting and easy to read. If it passes this test a newsletter that runs to the equivalent of one or two sheets of A4 paper will be perfectly acceptable. You can also have just as much impact with a much shorter newsletter with links that offer customers who are interested an opportunity to explore further.

Make it personal

The newsletters I like reading are the ones where the writer talks from the heart and shares a number of personal experiences in the field of my interest. I personally like to sense humour and character in the words I am reading. It depends what you want your newsletter to achieve and the style you have chosen to deliver your content. If you are giving ideas or answers to problems, sharing stories from your personal experience is a very good way of doing this. People often relate better to a story than they do to logical facts. Make your newsletter a reflection of you.

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN NEWSLETTER – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• Decide who you are targeting with your newsletter.
• What information would be of value to your readers?
• Find out about your customers’ interests by running a short survey.
• Ask you r customers what some of their burning questions are about subjects related to your business.These questions could be answered in your newsletter content.
• Look at what else is being written about in newsletters in your industry.
• Find out where you could access important information on a regular basis that could be of value to your readers.
• Use a standard format to create the layout. Use the same layout, design, colour and structure for every newsletter. This will promote consistency which will help you to build your brand identity and credibility with your audience.
• Make sure that you get your newsletter fully proof-read and edited. Silly mistakes can damage your credibility as an expert in your field.
• Test your newsletter before you send it out to your complete database. Send it to a colleague or two and ask them to give you feedback.
• Make sure that you ask your customers for feedback about the newsletter’s value to them. Ask for suggested improvements and do your best to incorporate the ideas you receive.

How to use this information

The success of your newsletter will be dependent on the number and quality of people that sign up to it. Read the chapters of this book that give you valuable information about building a customer database, opt in email list and driving traffic to your website. This will enable you to create a complete marketing system of which your newsletter will be one important part.