Being a business owner is one of the most fulfilling ways to make a living; and often times business is mixed with pleasure as many of us highly enjoy what we do. However, running a business can also be very challenging, especially in the beginning phases when one has not developed yet the discipline of focusing on building relationships with the SALE in mind. Fact is, that there’s no business till the sale happens… and we need repeated sales to stay in business.
Here are 7 tips that will help you build your relationships with your prospects and customers that will help you generate more sales and hopefully more repeated sales:
- Treat your prospects/client the way they want to be treated! You may think that you are charming and you can impress everyone with your humor… Or you might think that you are a person of principles and you pride yourself in treating everyone the same way: with a serious demeanor – a true professional, making sure that you pay great attention to details… The Golden Rule has taught us to treat everyone as we want to be treated; but the People Smart Rule says “Treat everyone as they want to be treated” and you’ll be much more successful. Treat your humorous and light-hearted customers with more warmth and use some humor yourself; treat the more reserved and detail oriented customers, more carefully, paying attention to details and sticking to the bottom line.
- Notice your prospect/clients pace and mirror it!
- Notice what is your client or prospect more focused on: relationships, emotions, people, etc; or they are more interested about talking about task-oriented topics, such as profit, technical data, percentages, etc.
- Do your homework – try to anticipate what your prospect/client needs and provide only limited choices.
- Always collect the contact info of your prospect or client!
- Do not overwhelm your prospect or client with too much email or postal mail!
- Pick provocative, exciting, or otherwise eye-catching subject lines for your email communication.
Make sure that your name or you company name appears in the “From” field. Use powerful words in your subject line and in your headlines. Three books that can help you choose powerful words for your subject lines and headlines are: “Words that Sell,” “Phrases that Sell,” and “Turn Words into Traffic” (this last one is great if your business is heavily based on online communication and it is also a great primer in learning how to write online copy)