eBusiness Weekly
Robert Gonye
Last week I learnt a new word: Pistanthrophobia, a rather long word for me I should say.
So I guess you are wondering what this has to do with the price of cheese. Well, everything.
Especially when what your business brand typically tries to communicate is a philosophy of building relationships and repeat business relationships from your customers.
With the festive season promotions and campaigns in full swing, it is estimated that the Black Friday week which ends today will see consumers spend in excess of US$7,9 billion, with 65 percent of those sales taking place online.
As a sales manager, you then start wondering, will we, did we or should we position ourselves for such a market uptake. In fact to be efficient and truly effective as a business driver you need to focus on the metrics that impact your bottom line such as revenue, conversions, or purchases.
Furthermore, you owe it to yourself to have a working landing page in the sales journey with meaningful interactions with a consumer, which ultimately drives future revenue outcomes. Any business needs to have touch models which convert the consumer journey and propels them to a lead, and ultimately a sale. The sales pipeline is still a necessary business sales tool. However, while it is the ultimate tool, it should not be credited as the means to an end, rather an end to a means. It will not deliver based on executing without the right determinates to achieve the expected goal.
When your brand, team, and product are all aligned and have clearly defined goals, performance is almost immediate. When you have access to previous performance and audience data that informs you of your efforts which are falling on the way side, and those which are reaping huge rewards you are in the right channel.
Technology allows a business to integrate such data through the pull of reports, such as a landing page and the number of people who visit your page. Where they are getting your business’ heart beat then becomes critical to how you proceed and continue to engage them.
Pistanthrophobia, the fear of trusting people (in this case, the fear that the consumer has of trusting business entities) will cause you to miss out on the valuable relationships that drive your business.
Business is all about trust, being the trusted advisor and communicator to customers on service and product. With the new digitisation ecosystem consumers are leaving traces of their shopping DNA, also known as consumer journey where they share their preferences, in the form of free data.
The mandate is for us as business people to collate this information and make use of it to drive our business revenues. In this article we discuss some of the core metrics for the right measurement which when implemented become business strategies that keep a business thriving.
Lock in Sales in Advance. This concept can be applied to any business that offers an ongoing service, like a hair salon, a car wash, or an office cleaning service.
While simple and extraordinarily modest, it results in nothing less than guaranteed future cash flows which start by offering the first service free (or at a very low cost) with one stipulation. The customer must agree in advance that if they like the brand, they will continue to purchase it for an agreed-upon duration, at an agreed-upon price. A give-away introductory offer is a definite attention-getter.
An elaborate car service station which performs an oil change and basic car checks free of charge for a customer, provided the customer agrees in advance that if they are happy with the work, they will sign up for four more oil changes at the regular price during the year, to be automatically billed to their payment is an excellent example.
Instead of waiting for customers to come in when they need an oil change (and hoping they do not go to your competitor’s service station), you are now guaranteed that the customer will pay for four oil changes annually. Yes you will lose money giving out free oil changes on the front-end. But the loss will be more than made up for by the back-end profits from the four additional oil changes you will be performing during the year. And the marketing cost for these oil changes is zero. An added by-product of this is the goodwill which will naturally develop between your business and the customer. Not only will your customer appreciate your benevolence, but they are very likely to refer your products and services to others.
Lastly, licence your successful concepts.
This is a great way to make increased revenue. All good brands are followed, and the more offering they have in terms of customer reach, the better their chances are of engaging business for growth.
Customers by nature want the great service and brand both far and wide across the nations and countries. It is no secret that there are a lot of businesses struggling to survive and ardently looking for new ways to attract customers.
Almost anything you have developed that works — successful advertorial headlines, specific offers that increased sales, time saving production procedures, a powerful email — are all of value to other companies.
By paying you a licensing fee for your intellectual property, they gain the benefit of your expertise and efforts without having to put in the time and expense themselves. And you get to earn something extra for the hard work you put in.
Again the immediate impact of these endeavours will be apparent, but more importantly, they will substantially increase your profits. You can lock up numerous deals and make yourself a small fortune in the process. Give it a try.
The views given herein are solely for information purposes; they are guidelines and suggestions and are not guaranteed to work in any particular way.
Robert Gonye is a Business Growth Expert and Influencer. He writes in his personal capacity. Comments and views: [email protected].Twitter @robert_gonye.
