Have you ever had a scenario where you are talking to a customer about his or her needs, and you realize what you have to offer isn’t an exact fit? Maybe you can provide part of the answer, but you know that you can’t solve the whole problem. What do you do in this scenario?

Hopefully you treat it like a good doctor would. You diagnose and provide the necessary referrals to the people who can help. If you think of your customers in terms of relationships, you will always be looking to add value. One of the best ways to add value to a customer is to truly listen to their needs, be honest about what you can and can’t provide, and provide suggestions and referrals when you can’t solve the problem.

Listen First

If you want to be able to give good advice, you need to be able to listen to your customers and diagnose their issue. If you are too focused on what you are offering, you will miss what the customer is saying they need. If this happens, you will not get the sale. The customer will realize that what you are offering isn’t going to be a fit for them. They probably won’t tell you right away. But eventually, when you catch them on your third or fourth follow up call, they will tell you that they aren’t going to buy.

If you do take the time to listen, a different dynamic will be in play. You will see that what you offer is not an exact fit, perhaps even before the customer does. If you do, you can adjust. You can honestly tell them that you see their need and that you don’t have a perfect solution. Then, in that moment, you can build trust with that person by telling them your suggestion and referrals for people who might be able to help them further. When you do this, one of two things can happen, and perhaps both.

First of all, you will have the opportunity to continue to build a relationship with this customer. You want to do this whether or not you get the sale. By listening and providing pertinent info, the customer will be happy to engage in a continuing relationship. You will be a valuable source of information going forward. You will have the opportunity to stay in contact via newsletters, phone calls, and more. The door remains open, even if the sale doesn’t happen.

Secondly, when you recognize that you can’t provide a complete answer and recommend some other options and ideas, you may find that you still end up with a sale in the end. Because you provided good advice, you will be valued. If you can provide a piece of the puzzle, the customer may want to work with you on that piece. Finding a business that can provide good advice and be trusted is a valuable thing, after all.

Network and Learn

Listening is the key to being able to give good, pertinent advice. But you are also going to need to know what to say and who to recommend when you find a need that your business doesn’t fill.

Educate yourself about broader issues in your industry. Read books, blogs, and go to conferences. If you have a solid understanding of things that your customers need to know, you will be in a position to provide great advice.

Just as importantly, network with people and businesses who provide answers that you don’t. Get to know the people you may end up recommending. Remember, trust is the most important currency you have. If you refer a customer to a business, you had better trust that business to do a great job. If you don’t have that confidence, it is better to not refer. Go out and find companies that share values with you. Build a network of complimentary businesses so that you will have someplace good to send customers on referral. Chances are, if you build these relationships, you will receive referrals in return.

Give the Best Advice

Its okay to be known for giving advice, as long as its good advice. Don’t spout off about things you know nothing about. Do your research. Put in the time to provide great information. Yes, you will be providing the extra information for free. In some cases, you will even be convincing customers to take their business somewhere else. But here is what matters, your relationship and your reputation.

Be a fountain of good advice and you will attract quality customers as well as a great network of complimentary businesses. You will also be trusted, which makes getting sales a whole lot easier. So don’t be afraid to be honest and to be helpful, even at your own expense. It’ll pay off in the end.

photo credit: laughlin

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

I wrote the other day about how much impact customers can have in telling your story. Friend to friend recommendations are the most powerful form of marketing there is. Today, I want to explore a little bit about how to find people who will talk and how to encourage them to do so.

First, for the sake of this post, I want to define what I mean by talker. I am not referring to the person who might tell one friend about your business. A talker is someone who can’t shut up, who has lots of good things to say about you and doesn’t mind saying them. An ideal talker also has an outlet to say these things to many people. A talker may be a blogger, for instance. It doesn’t matter what the outlet is. All that matters is that when this person talks, people listen.

For someone to promote your business on their own time through their own outlet, they need to have had a positive and interesting experience with you. Either they find something special about your product or service, or they had a great experience during the sale process. This is enough to get them talking. But just having them mention your product once is not enough. You want to encourage them to keep talking. Here’s how.

Recognize and Thank

If you are going to encourage talkers, the first thing you need to do is find them. It is important to pay attention to what is being said about your business. Once you hear someone talking up your business, you have found a fan in the making.

When you do discover someone saying positive things about your business, reach out to him or her. Show that you are paying attention. A simple thank you can go a long way.

Open Up

Once you make the connection with a talker, throw open the doors of your business to him or her. There are lots of things that you can do. Invite them to a webinar, invite them to your newsletter, tell them about what’s new before anyone else knows. One thing that can go a long way is this, make it very clear to the talker that they can reach out directly to you at any time. Make yourself available to them.

Being open should be a company policy no matter what. If people are going to become real fans, they are going to want a personal connection. You aren’t a rockstar, you are a small business owner. Always be personal and always be available.

Stay in Touch

Don’t expect people to stay excited about your company on their own. In order to maintain the energy its takes to keep a person talking, you need to feed the fire.

The main way you do this is to keep being an awesome business. Keep your ears open and shape your business so that it continues to please customers.

After ensuring that your business stays on top if its game, you want to make sure you stay active with your talkers. This means being involved with communities that intersect with your business. This may take the form of going to trade shows and conferences, being active on social networks, posting on forums, or any number of things. Contribute in the spaces that are relevant to your business and customers.

Also, create your own community. Once you identify a few fans, get them on a list. Offer things like beta tests, free samples, even get togethers where you share and listen. By continuing the conversation and focusing on building relationships, you can really encourage your talkers to keep talking. Remember, they like to talk in the first place. You just need to be sure to give them lots to talk about.

Be the Model

Another good method of gaining fans and getting people to talk about you is to be the model. Make sure you do your own talking. Talk about the businesses and people that impress you. Connect with them, and build a network.

Doing this will get you out there in the communities that relate to your business. You will become recognized for giving recognition, and for being a business owner that thinks of others first. You will also find outlets for talking that you can later point your talkers too. If you have never given an online review, how can you expect or even show customers how to do it?

By modeling the habit of talking up people and businesses, you set the precedent for your own talkers. The important thing to know is that people talk as part of a community. That is why you need to reach out to people who mention your company. You can build relationships with them and create a community, which when constructed, will begin to grow.

Don’t just be thankful that someone helps spread your story. Interact with that person. Build something with him or her. Take it to the next level by building a community of talkers, of which you are a role model.

photo credit: Spuz

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

You already know that it is important to listen to your customers. Perhaps equally important is to stay in touch with what is happening in the world around you. As a small business, you should strive to stay ahead of the pack on new technology, new methodology, and new information.

If you can get a sense early on of any shifts in your industry or in the world as it effects your customers, you can position yourself as a leader, capture market share, and be leagues ahead of your competition.

So, how do you stay abreast of what is new that will affect your world? In simplest terms, pay attention!

Read as much as you can

You need to be reading. Its an absolute must if you want to be a successful business owner. To keep your ear to the ground, make sure you are reading a wide variety of stuff. You have your industry magazines, sure. But also, check out small business magazines like Inc., general business magazines, news, blogs, books on all topics. Just read all sorts of things.

By having a broad base from which you draw your information, you will be able to get a clearer picture of what is going on in the world. You will also be able to pull out bits of information and ideas that will help you succeed in your business.

Try out new tools

There is a steady stream of new software, hardware, gizmos, and the like being introduced. You can’t try them all, even if you would like to. But you should be paying enough attention to them to know which ones might be good for your business.

Look at social networks. When Twitter was new, I didn’t get it. But some people, those who had their ear to the ground, did. They are now tapping the power of the tool to grow their business.

Yes, its okay to jump on to something after it is proven. But there is also great value in being able to figure out if something is going to be valuable to your business before others catch on. You can quietly tap the power of the new tool while others are still in the dark.

Also, be on the look out for tools that will help you do your business better. Don’t be afraid to change things. There may be a CRM out there that would be a far better fit for your business. If so, why aren’t you trying it out? The same thing goes for everything, from phones, to computers, to advertising outlets, the list goes on. Try and master new tools.

Attend conferences

A great way to find out what is new and what people are buzzing about is to attend conferences. This includes conferences in your industry, for sure. But everyone in your industry is attending those and seeing the same thing. You can get ahead by paying attention and spotting the next big thing before the competition.

Besides your industry conferences, try to go to some broader topic conferences. Two that come to mind are SXSW, which is a huge conference in Texas that covers all sorts of topics, and 140Conf, which focuses on the power of Twitter and communication. There are a ton of interesting conferences dealing with marketing, sales, social media, and more. Get to some.

You will learn a lot at conferences and trade shows. One of the best things to do is to meet new people and have conversations with them about what they see in the world. You can compare notes, learn new things, and stay ahead of the game. Plus, you may make some great new friendships that will also be good for business.

Its in your best interest to keep your ear to the ground. If you know what is happening, or trending, in the world around your business, you can capitalize on it. Be the first, the brightest, the fastest, the smartest, all just by paying attention.

photo credit: theseanster93

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

The best marketing that can ever take place for your business is when one friend recommends your business to another friend. That close bond of trust between two friends cannot be replicated on a large scale. Yet, you can tap into the power of that trust by using the referral.

You do this by helping spread the real stories that real people tell about your business. You can also play a big part in encouraging those stories to be told.

You have doubtless seen ads where real customers tell their stories. Even if you doubt just how real these customer are, there is a good chance that you trust what they are saying a little more because of the perception that they are real. You don’t know the people in the ad, but you can relate to them because they are real.

Why do you have an easier time relating to what a customer is saying about a product than to whatever is coming directly from the company’s marketing department? Here’s why. A marketing department often thinks from inside the company. A real person thinks about how the product or service betters his or her life. In other words, a real person thinks like you or me.

What does all of this mean for your business? Well, for starters, whenever you get the chance, shut up and let happy customers do the talking for you. They will have a very easy time connecting with other potential customers, because they have been in the exact same place. In this way, a customer can often do a better job communicating your message than you can. They speak from a place of trust and focus on the points that are going to matter most to their friends. Often, they will tell friends about you after they hear their friends complain about something or mention a need. They have a relationship and out of that they can provide a recommendation that would be worth gold if it could actually be bought.

Good referrals can’t be bought, by the way. They must be earned. I don’t mind if you offer a reward for referrals, I just don’t think its that useful. If you want consistent referrals, you need to build consistent communication with your customers. You can ask for referrals at the end of a sale if you want. But the fact of life is that people make suggestions through daily interactions. Your customer may not know anyone who needs your product today, but they may have a conversation a year from now where a referral will make perfect sense. Your job is to keep your message fresh in that customer’s mind, even if the sale happened a year ago. You do this by providing useful information via blogs, newsletters, webinars, and more.

Keeping the conversation going is probably the best way to ensure that your story is being spread. You put your effort on keeping the story alive in the minds of your customers and fans. They do the job of spreading the story, one to one.

Since asking for referrals one time is not the most effective thing (you will basically get a list of cold leads), use the capital of trust that you build up during the sale to ask for something else instead. I like to get a few things from the customer. Of those things, a testimonial is an important component. Ask your customers for testimonials that you can use in your marketing. And if you get a great testimonial, take it further by asking to sit down with the customer, record an interview and make a case study out of that relationship.

And there is one more thing that you can ask for at the end of the sale that will help spread your story. Ask your happy customers to post online reviews. Sites like Yelp, Google Maps, and Angie’s List can drive referrals and make it possible for customers to post comments and reviews about your company.

This is a better use of the after the sale ask, because that review or testimonial will be viewed by people who are considering your service. That is the magic of letting customers spread your story. Whether they do it one to many with online reviews and testimonials, or if they are doing one to one referrals, real customers can communicate with real customers and get your message across better than you could ever hope to.

photo credit: hectorir

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

How many businesses do you hear from after you make a purchase? All to few, I would bet. And the ones you do hear from are usually larger businesses and all you get from them after a sale are catalogs and advertisements.

The moments during and after a sale are when you are closest to your customer. He or she has decided to trust you enough to buy from you. You are having a meaningful interaction, one that could and should lead to a growing relationship. And then you never call until you want another sale? How rude is that?

Keep the Conversation Going

You did a lot of work to get your customer to the point of making a purchase. It took a building of trust, among other things. So why would you want to waste all of that effort by ignoring the customer after the sale?

This is the best time to start a deeper relationship with the customer. By this I mean that you can become a more important part of your customer’s life, not just a company that he or she bought something from once. This all starts right around the time that you make that sale.

You should have some kind of plan for staying in contact with your customers on a regular basis. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to do this is with an email newsletter. Invite each customer to subscribe to the newsletter at the point of sale. That way, you have an outlet to keep in touch with them regularly.

Remember to Be Personal

While email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with a large audience, don’t ever forget that the decision of a customer to purchase from you is a personal one. Keep that connection alive. Plan on several personal connections throughout the year. This could be anything from hand-written birthday cards, to phone calls just to say hi, to regular face to face meetings (perhaps at a nearby restaurant).

By being personal, you are showing the customer that you remember them and are grateful for their business. Don’t be pushy on getting new sales on these contacts. Just be friendly. Throughout the conversations you have, you will learn the customers needs and can lead them gently to new sales.

Reap the Rewards

No customer is a one time customer. Whether or not they ever buy from you again, each customer is an extremely valuable resource for your business. There are three things that I talk about your being able to tap past customers for. They are repeat sales, testimonials, and referrals. But there is also a fourth thing that shouldn’t be ignored. That is, feedback. Each customer can help you get a better picture on how you are doing and how well you are meeting customer needs.

By staying in contact after the sale, you are giving yourself a much better shot at bringing in new business as a result of a customer.

Provide good information, consistently, and the customer will be more likely to remember to refer you to the a friend. By the way, that referral is most likely to happen when that friend is in need, which is exactly what you want. If you just ask for out of the blue referrals at sale closing, all you will get are cold leads. Stay in contact, and you are bound to get some very hot leads via referral.

Staying in contact also helps to keep your business in front of the customer, so if they are going to buy again, they are much more likely to buy from you. You already have the trust factor since you closed one sale. Now, you just need to maintain awareness. But please note, just sending postcards doesn’t cut it anymore. Provide your customers with valuable information on a regular basis.

Having the relationship also makes it possible to get honest answers from customers regarding your business. It makes asking for things like video testimonials easier, as well.

There are great depths to plumb with any old customer, and you are letting a lot of potential go to waste if you just disappear after a sale (only to reappear when you want another sale). Find ways to stay in contact. You can provide great value to your past customers. At the same time, you can gain great value from them.

photo credit: Lucy Boynton

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

One way to keep communication healthy between your business and your customer base is to tell interesting stories. You do not have to become Stephen King or Dan Brown, but you should learn how to hold the interest of the audience.

Here’s a look at how becoming good at stories can change how you communicate.

Hey, Look at Us! Aren’t We Great?

A lot of marketing and sales focuses on the business, not on the customer. I don’t think this means that there is an undue amount of hubris among businesses. It simply means that most businesses do not know enough about their customers to tell interesting stories from their point of view.

All of your marketing and sales should focus on the customer more than on your business. Customers are interested in stories that they can relate to. So, instead of telling customers why you are the best, you need to find out customer needs and show them how your business meets those needs.

This means dropping the lists of features and all of the extra services in favor of a more personalized approach. People don’t care about your lists. They care about their own pressing needs.

Here’s a hint. Talk to some of your best customers. Interview them about why they bought from you, how you helped them solve their needs, and what their experience with you was like. Turn these interviews into case studies, blog posts, videos, and any number of marketing pieces. One story about a specific customer solving their specific need will go a lot farther than your business-focused sales pitch that lists all of your products and services.

Buy This Now

Another favorite technique of many small businesses is to do all of their marketing through specials, discounts, and buy this now advertising. Now, there is nothing wrong with this as one tool in the toolbox. But, if the only time you are getting the sale is when you offer a discount, maybe your price is just too high in the first place.

That aside, there just isn’t much to engage the customer in a buy this now approach. Either they are ready to buy now, or they aren’t.

Consider adding some story to this approach. You can talk about how buying your product will improve your customer’s life, for instance. I am a big fan of educating the customer. Spend time showing them why your product or service is essential to them. Get good at this, and you won’t have to offer that many discounts.

Here’s a hint. Instead of buying advertising to push a product, why not tell the story of that product on your blog. This could go on for several posts. Talk about where it comes from, what it does for customers, and what problems it solves. Highlight stories of actual customers using it. Also, offer free training on how to use it better.

Do You Mind If Sit Here?

Any marketer will tell you, half the battle is just keeping your message in front of the customer. There are two ways to do this. The traditional approach is with interruption marketing. This encompasses things like cold calls, direct mail, advertising, and spam.

The newer approach is to use permission based marketing. In other words, generate leads through word of mouth, search traffic, referrals, etc. and get them to sign up to receive an email newsletter from you. Or get them to regularly visit your blog, or to attend your event.

The nice thing about permission based marketing is that once you get permission, you can take your time to tell interesting stories. You can fill people in on the back story of your company, share customer success stories, tell them about how a certain product is going to make their life better, all on a regular basis. In other words, not only will you be able to keep your message in front of the customer, you can build a connection and build trust while you do it.

Here is another benefit of permission based marketing. It is much cheaper than traditional interruption based marketing.

If you think about your sales message in the context of sitting down next to a stranger and striking up a conversation, maybe it will all make sense to you. Only an absolute bore would start of a conversation with a stranger using a sales pitch. Most of us would get to know the stranger first. If the stranger mentioned some need that we were capable of helping with, then we would tell them about our solution.

Apply the basic etiquette of conversation and relationships to your sales and marketing and you won’t steer wrong.

Here’s a hint. Create a lot of helpful content. Package it it many ways, including blog posts, ebooks, speaking engagements, and videos. Give it away for free in return for permission to keep the conversation going. The more great content you provide, the more customers you will attract to hear your story.

photo credit: Torley

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

There is a lot of talk about listening these days. Listening is one of the most important skills that you can learn. If you can truly stop and listen to your customers, you can pave the path to ongoing business success.

What Does It Mean to Listen?

Listening involves paying attention and responding to the needs and desires of customers. Listening is when Facebook pulled Beacon, because of public outcry over privacy rights. Better listening would have been if they never introduced it, because they knew the response would be negative.

As a business, you need to practice the art of active listening. It is not good enough to react to customers. You need to be able to anticipate their needs. Listening to customers is about positioning your company to be the answer to customer needs, ideally before they even ask.

Listening is also about getting involved with your customers. This includes actually spending time with them, researching things that are important to them, reading magazines and books that are written for them, and becoming an expert in the things that matter to them.

Who Should You Be Listening To?

You’re business should have an ideal customer. This is the prototype of the perfect customer for you. You want to attract this type of customer, and the more of your customers that fit the ideal, the better. So, it makes sense that this is the kind of customer you should be paying attention to.

A customer is someone who has purchased from you, but it is also someone who might purchase from you. You should treat customers, prospects, and general public with equal respect. However, you should spend your time listening to the people who you most want as customers.

Where Can You Listen?

Listening can (and should) happen everywhere. That being said, you can hone your listening by using certain tools and techniques.

Offline, you should be conducting customer surveys and just be getting out and talking to customers and prospects. Attend trade shows and conferences that are also attended by your ideal customers. If there are none in your area, start one. As your expertise grows, you may want to consider doing some speaking engagements. This is a great way to meet prospects and to get people to tell you about the issues that they face.

Online, the possibilities are endless. You can listen on Twitter with the help of Twitter Search. You can track key words and phrases across the web using Google Alerts. Forums are an outstanding place to listen. You can also create your own listening posts with a blog or podcast. Sure, this is about you talking, but it will also force you to research and learn about your customers. And you can encourage dialog and reader comments.

Be sure to listen where customers are talking. If you can find out where ideal customers congregate, online and offline, then you need to be there too.

Active listening will help you to better understand and connect with your customers. It will make sales and marketing easier, because you will be able to position yourself right between the customer and the need. Being a good listener will also endear you to the people you want to reach. Everyone loves being listened to. So close that yapper, put aside that profit and loss sheet for a moment, and start exploring the world of your customers.

photo credit: Travis Isaacs

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

Last night I got the chance to be the guest on one of the premier small business chats on Twitter. #SmallBizChat takes place every Wednesday at 8pm-9pm EST. Its an interview format chat, with a different expert every week. One of my personal favorites, Mike Michalowicz, was on recently. Another favorite person and business plan guru, Tim Berry, will be the guest next week, so be sure to check it out. Follow @smallbizlady on Twitter and go to TweetChat.com at 8pm on Wednesday nights to get in on the chat (type smallbizchat in the search box).

My topic last night was on cold calling, or more specifically, alternatives to it. I am not a big fan of the cold call, but I realize that it is often hard for businesses to do away with it. If a small business wants to stop cold calling, it can. I believe you will actually be better off for it. However, it does takes some effort. The biggest thing is that you need to put a system in place to get leads, to talk to prospects, and exponentially grow sales.

Below, you will find the interview questions and my answers, along with a link to the transcript for the whole chat. It is hard to give deep, thoughtful answers to a whole bunch of questions in a short time frame via Twitter. I hope my answers where enough to whet appetites to go out and learn more.

To that end, I will be offering in depth discussion on sales topics with my Sales Tactics newsletter. If you do want to learn more, please subscribe. I think you will benefit from it. You can find a link to the newsletter and other goodies in my resources section in the menu bar up on top of this page.

Here are the questions and answers from the chat. Also, if you want to get the full transcript, it is available here. You will want to scroll to the bottom of that PDF and then read up.

Is cold calling dead?

• No. Many businesses still use it. However, it is losing its effectiveness.
• Cold calling relies on interruption. Today, people have access to info when they need it, so are less likely to put up with cold calling.
• People are far less likely to trust someone based on a cold call, and trust is very important.

What is the difference between cold and warm calling?

• Warm calling is making sales calls after making preliminary contact.
• Warm calling works best when it is tied to another form of marketing, such as educational or event marketing.
• Warm calling can refer back to a marketing piece, a form filled out at a trade show, or any form of previous contact.

Here is an article on warm calling.

What is permission based marketing?

• Permission marketing is when prospects sign up to receive messages from you.
• Instead of you interrupting their day with messages they don’t care about, you are invited to speak to them.
• Permission marketing is about having prospect qualify themselves.

Here is an article on permission marketing.

How do you get permission from someone to market to them?

• You need a complete marketing plan to gain a constant stream of permission.
• The basic concept is to provide something of value in return for getting permission to market further.
• Permission can include signing up for a newsletter, coming to an event, or requesting more information.

Cold calling brings results, why should I stop?

• Cold calling is a numbers game. For every yes, you have 10 or more nos that are closed doors.
• Using permission marketing, you can keep the conversation open, even with people who aren’t buying right now.
• By building marketing around conversations and education, you can create a steady stream of leads that will grow virally.

Why should businesses make the extra effort to educate customers?

• By educating, you set yourself up as the expert. This allows you to set the course of the relationship.
• Educating allows you to “sell without selling.” Prospects thank you for the info and go to you first to buy.
• When you create educational marketing, you can re-purpose it in many ways.

Here is an article on educational marketing/selling.

How can Twitter help businesses avoid cold calling?

• Twitter is a great place to communicate, attract fans, and build relationships.
• Your followers have given you permission to talk to them. Just don’t be all sales talk, all the time.
• From conversations on Twitter, you can move into a sales process.
• Twitter opens the door to a ton of prospects. It is your job to attract qualified prospects by providing quality content.

Here is an article on social media and sales.

Why is building an email list the most important thing businesses should be doing?

• An email list built on permission is a group of people who have pre-qualified themselves as real prospects.
• With regular email, you can build trust with prospects and up sell current customers.
• An email list is a database of prospects you can dip in to when you need to add sales.
• Put out a good newsletter and good value for signing up, and your email list will continue to grow.
• Unlike cold calling, you will be able to communicate 1 to many, but with a much larger trust factor.

Here is an article about creating a newsletter.

How can we use events to bring in loads of new customers?

• Events allow you to invite prospects to something they will value, without directly selling to them.
• Make your event specific, and it will attract ideal, pre-qualified, prospects.
• You can build a huge level of trust quickly by providing a quality event. People will be inclined to buy from you.

Here is an article about using events to bring in sales.

Should a small business have a blog/email newsletter?

• Yes. Providing regular content for customers/prospects has several benefits.
• It will bring in more traffic to your site and provide visitors with instant value.
• It will educate prospects and build trust, making them inclined to buy from you and trust you.
• It will make you better at your business. Creating content on your niche will inevitably make you an expert.

What kind of conversations should businesses be having with their customers/prospects?

• Conversations should be about much more than making the sale.
• You should seek to educate, to answer questions, to ask questions.
• The biggest thing is to build trust and provide endless value.

Here is a link to a series of articles on conversation marketing.

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

Twitter is good for marketing. Yes, its a great place to connect and build followers and get your message out. But its great in another way to. It forces you to boil your message down into short sentences. On Twitter, you have to tell you story quickly, succinctly, and without a lot of fluff.

This is important. The world’s attention span is shrinking, at least when it comes to advertising. You need to know what message you want to get across and be able to do it simply. If you can, people will still listen. If not, they will just be annoyed by your marketing efforts.

Can I Have Your Attention for a Few Milliseconds?

Everyone is saying that the human attention span is shrinking. People have less time and just won’t give you the time you need to make your sales/marketing pitch. Well, we all actually have the same amount of time.

The thing is, from a marketing standpoint, you just can’t get as far with traditional methods. Thus, marketers blame people for short attention spans. But from the people side of things, we are actually just fine, thank you very much. People are still capable of giving attention to things that they care about. There are just more sophisticated ways of connecting with what we care about, so we are able to focus on them more and tune the rest out. Yes, this does have some negative consequences, especially if we become insular and don’t listen to other points of view. But from an advertising standpoint, who needs it?

Well, we are still influenced by marketing, just in different ways. One of the big shifts is that people will not spend a whole lot of time considering an option before moving on. When a Google search brings back thousands of sites, people will scroll through several quickly until finding one that appeals to them. The ones that catch the most attention are able communicate their message quickly, both visually and with its content.

Your job as a small business owner is simple. Keep things simple. The more focused and clear your message is, the better. If you can’t put your entire marketing message in one simple 140 characters or less post on Twitter, you have too much fluff.

Master the format of short and quick, and you have a much better chance of someone hearing out the rest of your story. Make your introduction your message, and elaborate if you need to. Its even better if you can boil down your message so that it needs no elaboration.

Here’s a hint. Every time you look at your marketing message, don’t think of what you can add to it, but rather what you can cut out of it.

Refine Your Message to its Core Truth

You probably know what an elevator pitch is. Its your sales pitch boiled down into a very short message. You should be able to be compelling in a very short time window, say the length of an elevator ride.

The elevator pitch isn’t just for the go-getter salesman and the super busy CEO. Normal people are just as busy and guard their time just as closely as any CEO.

Think of it this way. If you want to show respect, package your message in such a way that it can be consumed quickly by your target audience. Chances are, it will be consumed while the prospect is in the middle of something else. If its just fluff, it will be skipped. If its compelling, you have a chance to grab the attention of that prospect for a few more seconds.

Here is where you marketing message needs to fit. It needs to fit in a voice mail. It needs to fit in a Google text ad. It needs to fit in a Twitter update. It needs to fit on a business card.

Some businesses hold to the idea that they can just sit down with someone and then they can sell them. Yes, but its getting harder and harder to get people to sit down with you. If you need a lot of time to sell a prospect, you could be in trouble. My suggestion would be to switch to educational marketing. Even then, you need to bait the hook and get people interested in listening to you with short messages.

Here’s a hint. To refine your marketing message, write it up. Take as many words as you think you need. Now, delete all but the most important words. Start by cutting out your ifs, ands, and buts. Then move to your fluffy adjectives and verbs. Cut down to the core words, and then try to craft them into one or two sentences.

Say More, Annoy Less

The holy grail of marketing, in my book anyway, is to be able to talk openly with prospects without them being annoyed by you. There are a lot of aspects to this, like getting permission and providing value. One of the biggest parts is saying more when you do communicate.

Wait, didn’t I just tell you to cut down your marketing message to its barest essentials? Yes, that was me. I don’t want you to say more as in more words. I want you to say more as in make every single word count.

If you can have people hanging on every word you write or say, you won’t be thought of as annoying. This means limiting your sales pitches and making them count when you do make them.

If your words matter to the people that hear them, you are going to win. If they are seen as annoying dribble, you are going to lose.

You decide what you want to do. Either take the time to craft a concise and powerful marketing message, and build an information and education campaign around it, or don’t. As the options for people continue to increase, they will be tuning more and more noise out. Don’t be the noise. Instead, be the trusted insider. And when you are, never waste people’s time with excess. Get to the point, and stay there.

Here’s a hint. Disguise your marketing message as a public service announcement. You can inform and sell at the same time. If people digest your marketing message as information, they are more likely to be predisposed to buy.

So, I’ve just taken over a thousand words to tell you to keep it short. See, its a process to learn to be brief and get to the point. You won’t be able to do it right away, but with time and practice, you will be an expert at marketing zingers that speak volumes. Good luck!

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

I am a huge advocate of blogging and a weekly email newsletter. I think every small business should employ these tools, for a bunch of different reasons. Perhaps the biggest thing that stands in the way of accomplishing this is that small business owners don’t think that they have enough to say.

The truth is, there is always plenty that you can talk about with your customers. As you start to do it, chances are pretty good that your passion will be reignited and that you will be able to think of new things each week or even every day. Here are a few things that make good conversation with customers. As you practice talking to your customers more regularly, you will discover what works best for you.

Educate Them On Your Product

If you sell a product that has any kind of complexity at all, you might be able to talk to your customers about it. By providing eduction on how to use the product more effectively, you are providing a serious service. Don’t just hide your information in a user manual. Be proactive and highlight uses for your product and provide trainings on how to use it.

Smartdraw is a company that does this very effectively. They sell a software program that allows you to make all kinds of charts, mind maps, and really a ton of different visualizations. They use their blog and email newsletter to teach customers how to use the product better. They also include case studies of customers and how they are using the service. It is all very helpful and turns Smartdraw into more than just a software provider. They are also an information provider and an asset to each of their customers.

Provide Related Information

When you are looking for topics to talk about with customers, don’t just focus on your product or service. Instead, think about how your business intersects with customers’ lives. You attract a certain type of customer. Your customers probably have similar interests with other customers. Find out what these interests are and start writing or talking about them. If, for instance, many of your customers are teachers, talk about topics that would be interesting to teachers. Sharing news, tips, and event information with customers is a great way to connect as well.

Stevco Fundraising is a company that does a lot of work with school parent groups and youth sports organizations. So, instead of blogging just about fundraising, it provides advice and news of interest for this type of customer. What’s really nice about this is that a company can easily speak to a wider audience, beyond its existing customer base. By speaking on wider issues, your small business can attract new customers.

Talk About Issues They Face

Your customers have unique concerns and issues that they face daily. They may not be the same issues that you face. Find out customer needs and then talk about them. In this way, you can become a trusted advisor for your customers and for others who face similar issues.

The point is to connect with customers where they are at. This is sometimes in the sales interaction, where they need your product or service. But your customer is probably thinking about that need on a limited basis. Find out their other needs and help with them. In some cases, you may be able to provide an answer with your business. Other times, you will just need to be there. Building trust builds loyalty and will lead to sales.

Give Them an Insiders Look at Your Business

Okay, so if it is killing you that you can’t talk about your business all of the time, this one is for you. By being transparent and interesting, along with a bunch of other stuff, you can actually get customers interested in you and your business. If you can create that dynamic, you can talk about the inside baseball of your business. Fans will always want to hear what is going on inside. The trick, of course, is to create fans. In order to do that, you need to do the stuff from the other suggestions and always focus on your customers first.

Don’t spill all of the beans. Always keep your fans asking for more. At the same time, be transparent. Talk about your challenges and invite feedback from your customers. By bringing customers in to your story, you are creating a family. You will supercharge your fan base and they in turn will do more for your business in terms of sales then you could ever do by yourself.

Talking to your customers on a regular basis is not really that hard. The biggest trick is to just do it regularly. When you do, you will be inspired. As you can see, there is plenty to talk about. Just take the focus off yourself and plug in to the world of your customers.

photo credit: Silveira Neto

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com