7 Ways to improve your Customer Offering

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"Adam, over the past six years, I've had the pleasure of 'bumping into you' on at least three business and marketing related forums. Your contributionsto discussions have always been courteous, astute, incisive and practical,delivered with good humour, and based upon 'real-world' business experience. You are clearly an experienced business professional who actually knows what he is talking about. I wonder if your clients know what a gem they have in you? As one business professional to another, I salute you.

Good Wishes,
John Williamson - The Wealth Coach
www.thewealthcoach.com
www.retaildisplaysecrets.com

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I just LOVED "7 Clues to a Profits Leak".

Steven Walker - Profit Improvement Advisors
Calgary, Canada

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You will be proud how your protégés are proceeding! We have expanded the business to Katherine and Alice (Tennant is also on the list). T he catering side of the business is far less stressful and is actually profitable, now that we only take the good jobs.
We will never forget the assistance you gave us in re-inventing our business!

Karen Sheldon

Managing Director

Karen Sheldon Catering

Darwin, Australia

+++++++++++++++++++

The chap is Adam Gordon whom I have known for many years. He is a former resident of Darwin having lived here for perhaps 25 years, is an excellent communicator and has a very good appreciation of small business, business plans and all that goes with it. In fact Adam is regarded as a business guru.

Charles Wright, QS Services, Darwin, Australia

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Thanks for the catch-up the other day. It's great to be working with a legend in the small business community.

AJ Kulatunga, BLKMGK ICT

Darwin, Australia

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The 7 Clues is a great.

What I like the most in the Seven Clues report is that it clearly explains that accounting is merely a subset of proper financial management and

that only the business owner can practise financial management. The accountant does the accounting, and in doing so supports the business owner's financial management. And the business owner uses the accountant's information, but relying on the accountant to do full-blown financial management is short-sighted.

The report nicely "grounds" an otherwise complex topic which many business owners are afraid of touching, so they often move ahead in blissful ignorance. The water hose and the soggy soil under the leak makes an excellent and easy-to-comprehend example, upon which the financial management concept is nicely built.

Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur Dynamic Innovations Squad
Personal and Firm-Wide Performance Improvement for Management Consulting Firms

Vancouver, BC Canada

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You have played a very important role in my development in business.

You were there with the right information at the right time, I thank you for that.
By adding the next level of systems, and marketing knowledge that you brought to the table we able to identify our objectives, acknowledge the gaps in our business and put in place the planning so as to achieve those objectives. Within 5 years we achieved 9 of our ten stated objectives. In that same year we won the NT Telstra Small business of the year"

Greg Haigh
Director - Trade Group
Regional And Northern maintenance services
RANms

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Without measurement there can be no improvement!
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Mastering core marketing principles
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Profit leaking processes
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Lies, damn lies & statistics
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Confidence leads to action
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7 Ways to improve your Customer Offering

You have made changes, haven't you?

The only constant thing is change. An old saying, but not a trite one. It's not trite because it's true. You don't have to be reminded about the global financial crisis to know that. Dramatic changes can suddenly imperil your business. Gradual changes can cause it to leak away.

So what changes have you made to your business in response?

Let's start at the sharp end, with the customers; the people without whom you do not have a business. They may not have changed as a target market but their expectations may have changed. Their propensity to buy may have changed. Their buying patterns, and frequency of purchase may have changed, as might the average value of their purchases.

Houston, we have problem.

So maybe the symptom of a problem causing a profit leak in your business is that there has been 'no clear improvement in the customer offerings over time'.

Let's face it. You should be continually improving your customer offer no matter what the times. But when there is dramatic change the imperative is even greater. Wait and see is not a strategy to maintain your profits.

It all comes back to value from the customer's perspective, the value package you are delivering them to meet the problem you are solving for them. Whatever they are seeking it is driven by an underlying problem, be it cost saving, improving their operations, making life easier for them, improving their efficiency or whatever.

What could you do? Here are 7 ways to improve your customer offering.

1. Talk to them - yes, I know you do, but you need to get an even closer understanding of their situation, how the current climate is impacting on them, and their expectations, in order to improve your offering or the mix you offer them.

2. Offer an option of a downgraded package at a lower price. That doesn't mean slashing your price. Take some features out so you can offer a lower price.

3. Balance that with an upgraded offer offering increased benefits, at a higher price. In other words, offer a variety of pricing options to increase your opportunity of winning over prospective customers.
4. Link your offer to a reason for it. People are more likely to buy when there is a reason for offering specials. In recent times I've seen "Stimulus Specials", "Beat the Recession" specials, and in my part of the world, "Flood Recovery Specials".
5. Develop and offer a freebie that provides value. Try a free report relating to your area of expertise: how to save freight costs (trucking company), how to reduce your water bill (plumber), how to reduce the running costs of your car (auto mechanic), how to reduce your computer down time (IT business). It needn't be long; a single page of dot points will do, as long as they are real.
6. Try at least one marketing medium you haven't tried before. You probably have a Yellow Page advertisement, and maybe a newspaper advertisement that you run regularly. But have you tried a personalised sales letter (with one of the above offers), an email marketing campaign, a letter box or post office box drop, and on-line offer (as opposed to a boring on-line brochure). I'm sure you haven't exhausted all the available marketing media. And by the way, measure the results.
7. Be odd. Find something you can do to stand out from all the others they could be buying from. Face it, there's no competitive advantage in me-too marketing. Customers won't talk about you if you are just like everybody else.

Counter those constant external changes, whether they be dramatic or gradual, by continually improving your customer offer and you prevent a profit leak.

And if you would like a hand in developing any of these responses This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to see how we can help.