Thu, 28 May 2015
Do you have the customer you deserve or do you have the customer you want? Episode 70
This week’s quote- "Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." -- Winston S. Churchill
I ask this question to many contractors the response that I usually get is yes I want all the customers I can get customers are the lifeblood of my business the more customers the more money. REALLY! That’s what we ae going to discuss today.
Then I say that was not the question I asked the question I asked do you have the customer you deserve or do you have a customer you want. Then I get this weird look and I have to continue on. You see most contractors going to business think about getting business and not about business as a whole. So the first thing most contractors do when I going to business as they enter the marketplace is they sit down they figure out what everyone else is charging and start competing on price. They figure they have a good product they are great at what they do so they throw away their greatness their ability to do what they do excellent and start competing on price just to get into the market place. How do I know ,I'm guilty I started there I guess what real fast because going in a direction I realize it was that thinking, that action would eventually put me out of business I had to change that direction change or it would put me out of business. That’s why I found a mentor and hired a coach more on that some other day. business. So how do I have the customer that I've deserved and as painful as it may sound if you are competing on price alone then the customer you are attracting is the price shopper. The price shopper will eat up your time, they will eat up your profits, and they will eat up your sanity. They will complain the most about everything and when they refer you it will be to likeminded people unfortunately when you only sell by price you get these types of customers. I say this is a customer you deserve because you are either lazy or don’t any better. I’m going to go on the premise that you don’t know and today we are going to try to change that. Right now you are on hamster wheel going round and round feeding the hamster (your business) with bad food (prices hoppers) there is no nutrition (profit ) to keep him going so he is running as fast as he can to keep the pace and he is dying from malnutrition and over work. Get off the hamster wheel. Here is what you need to do .Take the time to go after your ideal customer; stop going after the money your ideal customer has the money. Think about business as business owner not as a trade’s person, sales person or installer. How do I make my business and stragiticaly get the customer I want.
First of all you now you have to define who the customer that you want is. Everyone's definition of an ideal customer is different so you have to figure out who your ideal customer is and how do you start going after that type of customer. Here is an example of defining your ideal customer. What type of house do they live – 300k 500k or higher What neighborhood or zip code. What type of income? Where do they shop? Why do they buy what they buy, Value, makes them feel good?? Who is main purchaser of your service or goods male or female? Get the point the better you can define your ideal customer the healthier your business will be.
So if you haven’t figured it out by now selling by price only as a commodity is easy mentally but hard on the pocketbook yours. Choosing a customer going after a specific customer type going after that target it's harder in the beginning mentally because you have to learn about your ideal customer but so much more rewarding monetarily you make the choice. Survive maybe or thrive. Now you know how to move in the right direction.
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Direct download: Do20you20have20the20customer20you20deserve20or20do20you20have20the20customer20you20want20Episode2070.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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