NOTE: The following is a guest post by William King. If you want to submit your own guest post, click here for more information.
Is your profit margin thinning out? Is intense competition the biggest challenge for your survival? Is the ongoing economic downturn troubling your business? If the answer to all of the above mentioned questions is yes, your business might be drying up.
Rather than letting it wither, you need to take action at the right time to keep it fresh and alive. If your business is not doing well, there must be some ways to keep it running.
Just as oil is important to keep machinery running, engagement of new clients is important in keeping any business fresh and prosperous. However, engaging prospects is no longer easy due to tight global business environment.
If you fail to plan then you plan to fail!
Globalization and the internet have increased competition and now local businesses have to compete with companies from all over the world to win more prospects. As a new year has started, it is the right time to plan your business activities for the next 12 months. Running a business without a clear plan to engage customers is akin to sailing a boat without rudders. The plan will bring focus to any customer acquisition and engagement activities.
Focus on creation, not competition!
The idea of copying or emulating competitor’s products and launching them with some value-added feature made sense a few years ago. But today, this won’t work for most businesses. And fighting price wars is an easy way to bring both you and your competitors to your needs. The best way to engage customers is to create a differentiated offering which leaves you with little or no competition. Look at this example of how a street food hot dog vendor created something different and had lineups to his cart.
Identify the profitability of the sales!
While engaging new clients, don’t forget that not every sale is profitable for you in the longer run. If some customers are saying goodbye to your business, do not let them go, as it is almost always less expensive to deal with an existing client than to find and keep a new one. If a customer has a problem, make your utmost effort to fix it in a timely and satisfactory way. They will remember this and will likely tell others about it. But some customers, are never happy and in the long run may end up costing you much more than they will ever give. Don’t simply cut them off, but be careful when addressing customer issues to ensure you focus more on those who are likely to have some profit potential in the future.
A helpful attitude is the right attitude!
Though people claim to giveaway free samples and even offer rock bottom prices to win more clients, showing people that you care about their needs is even more important. Even those clients who are difficult to reach can be engaged with the proper attitude and intention. Show them how you can address what is important to them and how your product or service can help them achieve their goals. In the end, if you listen to them, they may turn from a difficult customer to a real evangelist for you. And that’s the ultimate goal when engaging with customers.
William
—–
William King is the director of Wholesale Suppliers Directory and Wholesale Jackets. Being an entrepreneur and a passionate blogger he loves to share his knowledge and expertise with the industry by writing for various related blogs.