You May Not Be Doing As Badly As You Think….
February 23, 2009
Is your business doing as well as you expected it to? Some new business owners are way too hard on themselves. Your first few sales will be the most difficult. And just because you’re not doing as well as you’d hoped in the first few months, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure.
One of my readers mentioned that she’s not pleased with the progress of her new business. We’ll call the reader “Molly”, as I want to maintain her confidentiality. And we’ll call her business “Big Ass Busters”, although that’s not the real name.
Big Ass Busters offers a variety of packages. Most of them are time consuming services, so they’re quite costly. And that makes it more difficult for Molly to sell those services.
When you’re selling more expensive items or services, it’s often better to offer something smaller, so you can upsell your customers later. So Molly, offered an inexpensive – “lose a couple of inches” package, in the hope that folk who had accidentally squashed a few small children and animals, would sign up for the “Huge Ass Reduction Package” .
Not long after offering the taster session, Molly signed up one customer for the “Huge Ass Reduction Package”. And Molly feels a bit disappointed in her progress but I think she’s doing great. Selling a service, especially a more costly service, to your first few customers is far harder than selling a product, because you’re selling the invisible – they can’t see what they’re going to get.
Instead of feeling deflated because customers aren’t queuing up outside “Big Ass Busters”, Molly should remember that if she’s done it once, she can do it again. And her product must be good, or the first customer wouldn’t have signed up for the “Huge Ass Package”.
So What Can People Like Molly Do To Get More Customers After They’ve Signed Up The First One
Ask For Referals: If your customer is impressed with your services, she’ll be doing her friends a huge favour by recommending you to them. And if appropriate, also ask if you can take pictures.
How Did You Find Your First Customer? Continue marketing to others in the same way/place.
Ask For A Testimonial: However much they love your service, few folk will write and tell you about it, unless you ask them to do so. So ask them at the first opportunity – don’t write to them a couple of months later – ask when your service is still fresh in their mind. And don’t be afraid to ask specific questions. Use your customer testimonials on your website and marketing materials.
Continuous Marketing: Make a marketing plan and stick to it, unless it really isn’t working. Too many businesses give up far too easily when it comes to marketing. Sometimes, you need to be doing the same things over and over for as long as 3 months before you begin to see the benefits.
Don’t Try To Make A Profit On The Taster Package: Molly needs to continue offering the taster package to all prospective customers, in the hope of converting a percentage of those people to the “Huge Ass Package”. If she’s converting one in ten people and the profits from the “Huge Ass Package” are greater than the costs of the taster package, she’s onto a winner.
Give An Incentive To Upgrade: She could also offer a reduction to folks signing up the “Huge Ass Package.” If the taster package costs $30 and the Huge Ass Package costs $1500, she could offer to deduct the cost of the taster package.
Only Target Potential Customers Who May Have A Need For Your Bigger Package: Only target folk who have a need for your bigger package and don’t give away too much in your taster package. We’ve discussed this before and some people mentioned that folk had got all they needed from the taster package, so they didn’t sign up from the big package. In the Case of Big Ass Busters, Molly should be looking for folk with huge asses, not those who only need to lose an inch or two.
Don’t Dwell On What You Haven’t Done: Molly’s self-confidence is getting hammered every single day, because she’s telling herself that she’s only managed to get one big customer, so she’s doing badly. If she keeps telling herself it’s great that she’s already got one customer, out of only 10 sample packages, she’ll be far more confident in her ability to go out and get more new customers.
Have you found yourself in the same position as Molly? How did you turn things round, or are you still struggling for ideas? Do you have any advice to share that could help Molly?
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Great tips! I especially like “don’t try to make a profit at first” — that’s a mistake people make constantly — to try to milk their first few customers (because they exist) when really you should do exactly the opposite.
Allow me to add another tip: Don’t create more work for your customers. For example, you want a testimonial, but just asking for them to make one means they have to take time out of their day, think about it, craft something, decide how long it should be, research numbers, whatever. That’s work!
Instead, just ask them to talk to you about it, over the phone or informally through email (whatever’s convenient for them). Record it (if it’s on the phone) and just let them talk. Then YOU collect their thoughts, make it make sense, perhaps pull out some choice, short quotes as well as a longer doc, then ask them to proof/edit your doc to make sure they still agree with your version.
Jason Cohen’s last blog post..High-concept pitches are not your friend
Excellent ideas! One great way to get customer testimonials is to add a customer-care followup autoresponder series to your sales – on the 4th contact, proactively ask your customer for their review. In many cases, if they’re happy, they’ll be glad to do so for you.
Datat points, Barbara
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach’s last blog post..RANT – When bloggers are PAINFULLY clueless
Hi Catherine – What you’ve said is very true – not just for online businesses, but offline, too.
Most of our business is built on referrals, and we don’t hesitate to ask others if they know of others who might need our services. If we don’t speak up, others will assume we don’t need/want more business.
One thing I’ve seen is that many will market their business as being hugely successful to the extent that those who see the ads/websites begin to believe their job is too small (for that “large” business), so they don’t even approach the company/website. Although I think it’s good to “look successful”, it’s also easy to overdo it and drive away business.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Is Blogging A Hobby, A Time Suck, Or…
Hi Cath,
I don’t really have a business, but I am now working for a small company and we have a product we are trying to sell. This is great information for me just so I can have a better understanding of the business world! Not to mention I’ve missed you! “Big Ass Busters”! You crack me up!
Debbie Yost’s last blog post..I’m Famous!
Great suggestions, Cath! When I was first growing my blog consulting, I sometimes felt terribly unsuccessful. But looking back, I realize that it wasn’t so bad…and that I’ve built a lot of repeat customers, people who like to blog but not doing backend work or who run small businesses and have no IT department. I’ve also gotten great recommendations from some of them.
I’m sure it’s even tougher to get that initial momentum going when you’ve got an expensive package with less tangible product. Good luck, Molly, you can definitely do it!
Ruth’s last blog post..Those Six Magic Words
Haha @ “Big Ass Busters.”
Referrals are so important. I am getting more freelance writing and social media projects now, and it’s all thanks to referrals from happy clients.
Vered – MomGrind’s last blog post..The Joys Of Parenthood
Nice thoughts, Cath. I think we all will at least facing the above situation once in a while…
wilhb81’s last blog post..The Useful Business Tips 18: The 5 Great Tips For Training Within Your Budget!
Hi Cath. You’ve got a lot of clASS
(And I don’t mean a lot of Ass.) I adore how you can use the “A” word and not be offensive. This put a smile on my face.
I’m a firm believer in giving things time to manifest. It’s been more difficult for me to “trust” as I see the money running low and very little coming in to replenish. A part-time job would help, but they are very hard to find these days. Eventually it HAS to turn around cause rent has to be paid. I’m grateful to have made 2 additional contacts last week. Nothing is confirmed yet, but I’m crossing my fingers that I will hear a positive response to our initial contact.
The other key is to really KNOW yourself. What sets you apart from the others in your field — why would people choose you over another: that also takes time as a niche develops. I also believe it’s important to not shy away from competition but to encourage them. We’re stronger working together than against each other.
Davina’s last blog post..The Morning Muse — Inspiring Hands
Hi Jason – Good advice. If your customer will agree to it, getting a testimonial over the phone is a great idea, or by email. So many people just don’t have time to do the pen and paper thing anymore.
Hi BarbaraL – Setting it up via autoresponder is a great idea – and it saves a lot of time. I stopped using Aweber a good long time ago – as I couldn’t keep up with doing the letters in advance, but I plan to start using it again soon. It really is worth it, once you have everything set up.
Hi BarbaraS – That is a good point. I find it far easier to refer folk when you know the business actually wants more customers. Sometimes they’ll go on about being too busy etc and that just puts me off.
I know what you mean about folk thinking you’re bigger than you are. That was a huge downfall for me in my plumbing business – I couldn’t accept many of the jobs we were offered because they were far too big for us.
Hi Debbie – I’m glad it helped. I was wondering if I was wise to use “Big Ass Busters”. I don’t want to annoy the huge ass brigade.
Hi Vered – That is brilliant. The freelance writing seems to have taken off really well for you.
Hi Wilhb – That is true – but at least there’s something we can do about it.
Hi Ruth – Things always seem better when you’re looking back, than they did at the time. I know that stories like yours will be encouraging to Molly.
Hi Davina – Thank you. And I’m glad you’ve made too new contacts. As you say, time is an important factor. Often is does take a while to discover what sets you apart from the competition.
I’ve noticed, that folk in your business mostly seem to work well with the competition. You’re not all targeting the same type of customer, which helps a lot.
I love the last point about not beating ourselves up for not reaching out pie in the sky goals right away. Patience is something few of us ever master well.
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post..Deciding to live: Joely Black interview
Hi Alex – the patience part is tough isn’t it? But you really can work on it – especially when it comes to marketing.
I think you’ve offered great advice. Plus patience and not expecting instant results is very important. I wonder what compels us to think we are failures for what we haven’t accomplished rather than being proud of ourselves for what we have.
And referrals are the best
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Hi Cath
You’ve brought up some excellent tips for Business 101. The one thing that I would add would be to continuously follow up to make sure that your customers achieve their goals. Molly should do everything in her power to make sure that her customer loses that big ass. Developing personal relationships with your customers cannot be underrated.
T
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