As a small business coach and entrepreneur, I love to read customer service answers to questions that a business’s customers actually ask.  Here’s one that came to my inbox this morning.
Question: Do you take orders over the phone?
Answer: We can take orders over the phone, but we go through the same account creation process that you would go through yourself over the Internet.  If you want to phone in your order, we will be happy to help you, but you can do it all from the comfort of your own PC as well!

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As a small business coach and entrepreneur, I love to read customer service answers to questions that a business’s customers actually ask.  Here’s one that came to my inbox this morning:

Question: Do you take orders over the phone?

Answer: We can take orders over the phone, but we go through the same account creation process that you would go through yourself over the Internet.  If you want to phone in your order, we will be happy to help you, but you can do it all from the comfort of your own pc as well!

I don’t know about you, but as a customer I’d rather have a “hell, no!” than two “yes, buts” in one answer.  It’s obvious from the answer that the business REALLY wants their customers to go order by themselves on the Internet, right?  But some unwise person in the customer service department tried to wiggle around the answer and ends up sounding off-puttting and weasley.  This answer also comes off sounding like the business doesn’t REALLY want to be bothered taking your order over the phone.  Do you feel welcome to call in an order after you read their answer?  I doubt it!

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With apologies to one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Gilbert, I want to ask you to assess your marketing with a cold eye and an honest look.  Tell me…..is your marketing system based on the wish, hope, and pray method?  Here are some signs that it is:

1. No one in your organization has a clear mission of responsibility for creating and running a constant marketing system.
2. Marketing falls to the back of the list after client services, bookkeeping, scheduling, errands, and dusting the office.
3. Networking in the community and on the Internet is catch-as-catch-can and is handed off to the least busiest person.
4. You have no idea how many new customers you have gained in the last 30, 60, or 90 days.
5. You have no idea how many customers you haven’t heard from in the last 30, 60, or 90 days.
6. You don’t really like to market, think it is hard to do, and believe that great customer service alone will do the trick.
7. Your marketing system consists of trying to upsell existing clients when they are in (think about the hair salon syndrome….you can’t get out of there without running the gauntlet of hair product, make-up, and spa service suggestions every single time you are there).

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Here’s a fun way to figure out why people are willing to get out their credit card to buy.  Ready?  Sit down and think about why YOU bought the last dozen items you spent money on.  You’ll be amazed at the reasons, and you can use the insight to help structure your offers to your own customers.

I just spent over $200 on Magellan’s travel supplies website.  Why?

1. I got their new spring/summer catalog in the mail (direct mail, timing was right as I have several trips coming up, the catalog renewed my TOMA (top of mind awareness) about Magellan’s.)  The key here?  Timing! I regularly receive Magellan’s catalog and most usually pitch it without looking.  But I’m excited about upcoming travel, and I needed to refresh a few things.  Lesson Learned:  Keeping in touch with your customers over time is critical, even if they haven’t bought from you in a while.

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The new year is off and running already!  Is your business off and running, too?  I don’t know many business owners who would say no to making more income right now – before the end of this month.  Here are three ways to boost your income, and if you implement even one of them, you’ll have extra money to show for it.

1.  Increase the number of clients or customers you have.  This  means letting folks who are new to you and your business know about you and the problems you solve.  How can you do this quickly and efficiently?

• Ask existing customers for referrals
• Find a business networking group you’ve not been to before and attend
• Send out an e-newsletter and ask recipients to forward it to one person who might benefit from your services
• Ask friends and family to specifically mention your business to one person this week
• Post helpful resources and advice to your social media accounts
• Revamp any existing paid advertising and look for a higher return on investment
• Partner with an aligned business to advertise or do a quick special promotion

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Getting interviewed by another entrepreneur on one of their teleclasses, radio shows, or in their e-zine or blog is a great way to build visibility and credibilty.  It’s a win-win thing – the host gets an interesting, knowledgeable person and you get visibility.  Here are the steps to making interviews work well for your business.

Pick Gigs Based on Your Goal

You can meet several goals by interviewing, and it works best to be clear about what you want to achieve.  You can gain visibility, get credibility, build your list, develop a product out of the interview, or take the opportunity to make a special offer.  Keep your goal in mind, and pick the interviews you most want to do based on whether the interview will meet your goal.

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There have been many studies that try to answer the question “what makes an entrepreneur?”  Sometimes, a client will ask me “do you think I will be a successful entrepreneur?”  Here are some of the ways we are “different.”  Take a peek and see how well you match up!

• We have a different view about risk, luck, convention, and decision-making.  We take risks quickly and easily, because we “get it” that one doesn’t move forward by always playing it safe.  We tend not to believe in luck as much as we make our luck by following up consistently.  We don’t think conventionally, we think “out of the box” and see new opportunities with those fresh eyes.  And more than anything else, we are quick decision-makers.  We realize that money likes speed and decisiveness!

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If you’re a solopreneur you came into that status in one of two ways.

1. For whatever reason, you lost your job and are calling yourself a solopreneur while you look around for new employment.
2. You have dreamed (usually for a long time) about doing a particular type of work, you may have felt called to get out on your own to do this work, and you sincerely hope and believe that whatever you are doing is truly your life’s work.

That’s usually how it goes.  And whichever category you are in, finding your soul (sole) purpose is important, because you will become filled with fire and passion, find a commitment within yourself that fuels focus and action, become unstoppable.  Whether you do that working for someone else or for yourself, you will be adding value to the world.  You will be adding love to the world.  You will be courageously modeling for others what it is like to live from deeply rooted, certain knowledge about your soul (sole) purpose.

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Read Part One of How to Do Transformational Selling

Remember our couple who wanted the new $15,000 patio and outdoor entertainment area?  (See How To Do Transformational Selling, Part One).  I promised I would walk you through the steps of successful transformational selling and how it ties in to good customer relationships and collaborative marketing.  Here’s what can happen when you are set up to sell this way.

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Read Part Two of How to Do Transformational Selling

If you still believe that customers do deals with you because you are logically their best option, you are stuck in an old and inaccurate marketing model.  The idea that rational thought is the prime motivator of consumer behavior was proven wrong in the mid 1990’s.  People buy on emotion, not logic.  This is actually a great advantage to small businesses.  Why?  For the most part, smaller businesses can easily do a much better job of knowing their customers and the emotional triggers their customers have at any given time.  And once those emotions are known, smaller businesses can usually be more nimble and flexible in designing offerings to meet their customer needs.

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