Your Best Customer
Do
you know your best customer? Do you know where they shop? Where
they gather? Where they play? What influences them?
Knowing
your best customer (not the customer off the street) is the most important
marketing information you can have. Focusing on your best customer is the
quickest way to increase your sales. It is through your best customer
that you have access to their network of friends and their rampant word of
mouth that can drive dramatic increases in sales.
Just
think Apple and look at their product launches. That success is driven by
a core focus that surely adheres to the following guidelines:
-
Run an aggressive sales incentive program. Aggressive in terms of
announcing the existence of the incentive program as well as its rewards. Start
talking about a new product launch with your sales people months before the new
product arrives. Keeping your salespeople in the loop builds stronger
loyalty with your sales force. And announce the sales incentive early as well.
This will enable sales staff to build enthusiasm with your best customers
early. Sales incentive effectiveness is based on the enthusiasm that the
company creates for the program – think Starbucks’ launch of VIA. The
best programs are simple and attainable.
-
Provide your customers with "behind the curtain” information. Last week I
went into my local drug store to purchase some envelopes. When I got to the
cashier, he informed me that this was a two-for-one special. I went back
to pick up another box of envelopes and only then noticed the two-for-one sales
going on around the store. My initial intention to purchase one box of
envelopes turned into a multi-purchase of a number of items. And yes the
first thing I did after I left the store was tell others about the sale.
-Tier
your customers. Not every customer is the same. Know your best
customers, communicate with your best customers, provide them extra value, from
simply knowing their name to offering a customer reward program. Treat your
best customers differently from all other customers.
-Treat
your internal and your external customers with great care. Your internal
customer is anyone that you come into contact with who works for the company.
Getting a paycheck is no longer reward enough for doing the job.
Treat your internal staff in the same way you would treat your best
customer (because they are). And then create programs that enable you to
separate your best customer from someone off the street.
