• 5.Defining your business now
• 6.Evaluating how well your current marketing is working
• 7.Assessing the value of your current customer base
• 8.Finding out what existing customers value about your business
• 9.Seeing your business through the customers’ eyes
• 10.Assessing your personal strengths, skills and resources

5 Defining your business now

The journey begins from where you are now…

You are where you are now as a direct result of the actions you have taken and the decisions you have made along the way. Where you will get to in the future will be a result of the choices you make, starting now. Imagine today as the first day of the rest of your business life.

Why take stock first?

It is important to assess exactly where you are now before you embark on your journey. Many people are so busy doing that they rarely take the time out to take stock and reflect. It is vital, from time to time, to take that vital step back from the cut and thrust of your daily workload. If you keep on doing what you have always been doing, you will always get what you have now.

Your challenge

You will need to be honest with yourself and focus on the facts. This may involve some detail that you haven’t paid attention to for a while. You will need to be disciplined as you gather this information. Don’t rely on guess work or gut feel. Get the specifics as it is these details that will form the bedrock from which you can move forward. If you want to grow your business you will need to know exactly where you are starting from.

YOUR BUSINESS NOW – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

Your business

• Describe your business right now. What words express exactly where you feel you are? Brainstorm and just jot down what comes to mind.
• Make a list of the main services/products that you offer.
• What is selling well?
• What isn’t selling well?

Turnover and profit margins

• What is your turnover?
• What is your current end of year profit?

Customers

• How many customers do you have?
• Where do they come from?
• What kind of profile do they have?
• Who are your best customers?
• Who are your worst customers?

Business strengths

• What are the key strengths your business has?
• What are the key skills contained within this business?

Your attitude towards your business

• How do you feel about your business?
• What do you find difficult?
• What is it that you like and enjoy?

How to use this information

Having answered these questions you will have some specific facts, thoughts and feelings to work with. You now have a starting point. This is where you are now. It is a good idea to mark the date in your diary or on your calendar when you did this exercise. This information gives you a basis from which to start to think about your future and where you want to go.

6 Evaluating how well your current marketing is working

What is marketing?

Marketing is everything that you do to communicate your business to both your existing and potential customers. There are many different ways that you can market your business. Most people use a combination that works best for their particular business.

What works and what doesn’t?

If you are spending money on marketing your business it is vital that you know what works and what doesn’t. There is no point in investing money when what you are doing is not bringing you a good return. So how do you know whether it is working or not?

Your challenge

Your main challenge is continually to test and measure your marketing efforts. Relying on gut feel is not enough. You will need some tangible feedback. Try the following checklist indicating what you have tried and whether it was successful or not. Note down any tangible evidence that you have to support your definition of success. Have a look at this marketing evaluation checklist and evaluate how successful you consider your marketing efforts, to have been to date.

CURRENT MARKETING EVALUATION CHECKLIST

Which of the following have you tried and how successful has it been?

Rate each area: 1 = no success, 5 = very successful

Brand identity	1	2	3	4	5
Newspaper advertising	1	2	3	4	5
Advertorial	1	2	3	4	5
Radio advertising	1	2	3	4	5
TVadvertising	1	2	3	4	5
PR/articles	1	2	3	4	5
Direct mail	1	2	3	4	5
Sales letter	1	2	3	4	5
Networking	1	2	3	4	5
Telemarketing	1	2	3	4	5
Events/talks	1	2	3	4	5
Newsletter	1	2	3	4	5
Website marketing	1	2	3	4	5
Referrals/recommendation	1	2	3	4	5
Sales person	1	2	3	4	5
Window displays	1	2	3	4	5
Host relationships	1	2	3	4	5
Special offers	1	2	3	4	5
Email marketing	1	2	3	4	5

How successfully to test and measure your marketing

You can do this in a number of ways.

• Ask the people who enquire where they heard about your business.
• Keep a note of this information over a defined period of time and analyse it.
• Run specific offers in selected marketing options and keep a record of responses.
• Test headlines on adverts or flyers in smaller batches until you find out which gets the best result.
• You can do the same with sales letters sent by post and email.
• When you run an event, or speak at a networking group, keep a record of how many contacts you make and whether any business results from them.
• Do the same for networking events you attend as a participant.
• When you write an article for a business publication offer a free report that requires the reader to make contact with you. This way you will not only get the details of some potentially good prospects but you can test how many people read and responded to your article.
• Before and after sales data is useful when you are running a brand awareness campaign.

MARKETING EVALUATION – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• Decide how you are going to evaluate your activities in advance.
• Keep a record of the evaluation data you collect.
• Work out which has been the most successful marketing activity.
• Plan to repeat all successful activities.
• Ask yourself why certain activities have not been successful.
• Check that the marketing activities you have chosen are right for the audience you wish to target.
• Stop any expensive marketing activity that is costing more than the return it gives you.

How to use this information

Over a period of time, monitoring and measuring the success of your marketing will enable you to build a very clear picture of how to spend your valuable marketing budget. There will be no more last minute decisions or trial and error, as you will have the evidence you need at your fingertips, and you will be able to use the information to make informed decisions.

7 Assessing the value of your current base

Growing your current customer base

There are three main ways to grow any business:

• get new customers
• increase the amount your existing customers spend with you
• increase the frequency with which they do business with you.

It is easier and less expensive to build on the existing base you already have than it is to develop new customer relationships.

What is the value of your current customer base?

Do you know?

To work out the average value of your current customer base all you need to do is find the following figures.

• How many customers do you have?
• What is the average amount these customers spend with you?
• How many times a year do these customers spend this amount?
• What is the average length of time your customers stay doing business with you?

          Number x value x frequency = value of current customer

                            base x length of time as a customer

               100 x £1,000 x 3 = £300,000 x 2 years = £600,000

Based on these figures each new customer you get is potentially worth £6,000.

Why is this important?

It is important to know what your current customer base is potentially worth to you, as it gives you a starting point, a base from which to decide how you want to grow your business.

If you use the marketing techniques detailed in this book to

• attract new customers
• get existing customers to spend more
• get existing customers to spend more often

you could potentially increase your profits by whatever figure you decide you want. There is a vast amount of untapped potential in your business right now. All you need to do is decide what you want and then get really good at marketing to make it happen.

Your existing customer base probably holds the most potential for you. These are people who are already happily doing business with you. They already spend money regularly and probably would spend more if they had a good reason to. You need to give them that reason.

Your challenge

Your challenge is to both maintain and develop the value of your existing customer base. No business can afford to stand still.

What makes a customer base valuable?

If you can answer yes to the following questions, your existing customer base has value.

• Do your existing customers spend money with you?
• Are they happy with the service you provide?
• Have you built up a relationship of trust and rapport?
• Do they come to you for the solutions to their problems?
• If asked, would they recommend or refer you to other people?
• Are they likely to have needs in the future and problems they want solving?
• Would they spend more with you if you could help them?

CUSTOMER VALUE – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

Get specific with your customer sales information.

• Create a list of your main customers.
• How many customers do you have?
• Where do they come from?
• How much does each customer spend with you every year?
• How often does each customers use you?
• What are their particular spending patterns?
• What interests does each customer have in your business?
• What potential does each customer have to spend more with you?

How to use this information

Once you know the value of your existing client base you have a starting place. Once you have specific customer information you can work out which business building strategy will be most likely to appeal to particular customer groups or individuals. If you think of each new customer having a life time value potential it makes it even more important to value them right from the start, no matter how little they start off spending with you.

8 Finding out what existing customers value about your business

What is customer feedback?

Customer feedback is the information that you get from your customers about the work that you do for them, positive and negative. How do you get yours? There are several different ways in which feedback can be gathered.

• Best and worst selling products/services.
• Repeat business.
• Behaviour and body language observation.
• Questions asked.
• Complaints.
• Verbal comments.
• Conversations with customers.
• Testimonials and letters.
• Recommendations.
• Survey information.

Why is this important?

It is important to be aware of the feedback you are getting from your customers. This is how you learn about what is and isn’t important to the people you wish to influence. If you are selling something that people want and you are delivering value, you need to know about it!

This is information that you can use to attract more customers. It is also a confidence boost for you if you know how much people value what you offer. You can allow yourself to feel good and very proud of what you are doing. If your business is missing what customers value most, you need to know about that as well. This information can teach you how to make your business more attractive to the people that you value most: your customers.

Your challenge

Your challenge is to set up a system both to gather and evaluate this information on a regular basis. You need to be open and able to listen to customers’ views. You will need to be prepared to ask and develop questions that are targeted to extract the right information. When asking for customer feedback you will need to be careful about guiding the customer’s mind in the right direction. If you ask ‘What didn’t you like about the service today?’ the response can only be negative. Whereas if you say ‘What did you think about the service today?’ and give a choice of responses, there is a greater chance of a positive result.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• What are people buying?
• What do people want to buy?
• What are their service expectations?
• What is really important in terms of product/service delivery?
• What irritates and frustrates people?

Great questions to ask

• When choosing a [your service] what do you look for?
• When buying [your service] what is most important?
• What prompted the decision to use x services?
• What have you found of most value?
• What (if anything) could we do to improve the x service we offer you?
• What do you like about x?
• Which aspect of x do you find of most value?

Depending on whether you are using a written or telephone survey, or holding a one-to-one conversation the way you organise your questions will vary. You may use multichoice, with a range from most important to least important, or leave them open for comments. The important thing is that you make it easy for people to answer the questions when you ask them. Any surveys you do ideally should comprise no more than 10 questions. If you are conducting a telephone survey and you get some really positive statements always ask if you can quote them. This is a very easy and quick way of getting testimonials.

How to use this information

A list of what your customers most value about your business can be used to help you create all your marketing messages, your brand, your unique selling proposition, your customer commitment statement, your list of attractive benefits, your website or brochure copy and even your elevator speech. Knowing what customers value is invaluable to you.

9 Seeing your business through the customers’ eyes

What does this mean?

If you want to influence your customers you have to understand and relate to them. When you see through your customers’ eyes you experience the world from a different perspective. Imagine you have taken your customers’ glasses and you are looking at your business through those lenses. What do you see? Do you suddenly see it all differently? You should. Many business owners find this exercise extremely difficult to do. Be careful that you don’t get so close to your own business by running it day-to-day that you stop being able to see things from your customers’ point of view.

Why this is important

It is important to switch perspectives from time to time. Making decisions about shop layout, website design, customer communication processes and more becomes a lot easier when you are able to imagine yourself as the customer. You will avoid the classic pitfalls that many people make when they make elements of their service over complicated and confusing. Most people these days want things simply, quickly and easily. If it is complicated, slow or difficult your potential customers will go somewhere else. This is especially true of the internet age which has brought with it choice and speed. Very few have the patience to wait.

Your challenge

Your challenge will be to spend the time taking a look at your business through your customers’ eyes and maintain this perspective for long enough to gain some valuable insights.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO? – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• Take some time out and close your eyes.
• Think about one of your typical customers.
• Describe that person to yourself.
  What are they like?
  How old are they?
  What typically do they do each day?
  What is important to them?
  What are they looking for when they consider buying x?
• Now imagine yourself as this person coming along to your business or finding you on the internet.
  What do you see?
  What is your first impression?
  What do you feel?
• Checkout every individual aspect of your business from this perspective. You can enter your website as a customer, you can use your service as a customer, you can pretend to have a complaint as a customer. You can look at your advertising – any number of things. Look at what goes on in your business through your customers’ eyes.
• Note down the things that you see.
• Try seeing through the eyes of a number of different types of customers.
• Notice what is different and what is similar.

How to use this information

You can use this information to make changes to your business operations and your marketing. If you do, make sure that you monitor the results of those changes. Notice the impact that they have on your customers. Take time out to switch perspectives as often as you can. It is a skill that you can develop and one that is very useful to your business. Many top business entrepreneurs are very good at this. Think about Richard Branson for example. He regularly takes time out to see his businesses through his customers’ eyes.

10 Assessing your personal strengths, skills and resources

What are your strengths, skills and resources?

There is no doubt that your own personal strengths, skills and resources are a major reason for your achievements to date. They are sure to play a major part in the success of your business. They may well be the main reason that your customers choose to use your service or buy your products. Are you aware of exactly what those strengths, skills and resources actually are? You can take them for granted because they are with you every day. Being too close to yourself can make you blind to your own brilliance.

Why is it important to know?

Your strengths and skills are unique to you and could be a major part of what differentiates you from others in the marketplace. They are also a major reason for the value placed on any advice and consultancy you may give your customers.

Your strengths and skills are part of your history, the history that created the business you have today. You may have spent years developing these skills. You may have years and years of experience behind you. Your customers may not necessarily know anything about this. If they did, the question is, would they see more value in what you offer?

An awareness of and the ability to communicate the strengths and skills you have is a very important part of your business marketing. You are at the centre of what you are selling and the more value you place on that, the more others are likely to as well. It can help you to communicate what you do more effectively to the prospects and new contacts you meet. This may form part of the process you go through to help them to appreciate the true value you are able to offer.

Your challenge

Your challenge will be to become self aware and find a useful way of making your customers aware too. Your challenge may also be to see the value in yourself and what you have to offer. Many of us are conditioned not to blow our own trumpet and to be modest about those things we are good at. That is fine, but you must not ignore the things that your customers would value and have a right to know about.

Your customers and prospects want the best. They want someone whom they can trust to provide top quality expertise and deliver with skill. If that person is you, then you are duty bound to tell them.

SELF AWARENESS – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• What do you think your main strengths are?
• How do these strengths impact on your business?
• What are your key skills?
• How have you developed these skills?
• What kinds of experiences have enabled you to gain this expertise?
• How essential are these skills to the service you are able to offer your customers?
• Which of your skills is valued most by your customers?
• What parts of your personal history have had an impact on the strengths and skills you are now able to demonstrate?
• What kind of training and education have you had?
• What resources do you have access to as a result of your experiences?
• What is your special story?

How to use this information

Going through the special response questions may make you see the true value you bring to the table. Once your eyes are opened to your own brilliance you may find yourself feeling more confident and more self assured. It is empowering to feel that as a result of all your hard work and effort developing skills, strengths and resources that you are really worth something. The benefit you offer your business can be integrated into your marketing messages and materials. There will be plenty of opportunity to find exactly how to do this as you read later chapters of this book.