Loughborough

# 9 – 30th November 2007

Never Stop Selling
(How to avoid boom & bust)

Talking to a local businessman the other day reminded me of something that all businesses need to be aware of. My friend’s business has been really busy for the last 12 months. So much so, that he has had limited time to go out and prospect for new work. We were discussing 2008 and his prospects are now quite bleak as he has a number of major projects due to complete in the next 6 weeks and limited prospects for work that will bolster his order–book into 2008.

Many small businesses fall into the same trap. They reduce their sales and marketing efforts when order-books are full. They lack the time to continue their relationship building when times are good. The bad news is that good times are often followed by bad times. A couple of cancellations can leave you starting from scratch to rebuild the relationships that you allowed to become fallow whilst you were busy.

What to do?

• Never stop selling
  Even when you are really busy, keep all of your relationships alive.
  An SPS colleague is selling the majority of his time today to people he has kept in touch with over a 2 year period when they were not buying (& he may not have had time for them anyway).
• Manage your relationships
  When order-books are full, keep a close eye on customer satisfaction. Make sure that you are easily dissatisfied. Treat long-standing clients as though they may defect at any moment. Take no-one for granted.

Review
If you are at full capacity and growing the number of customers is not appropriate:

• Avoid turning potential business away (business that will most likely stay away from you if things change and you have more capacity);
• Think creatively about how you can satisfy those clients that are currently unsatisfied;

Things to consider

• Look for alliances and other mechanisms to satisfy these customers without adding to your cost base;
• Think about price as a tool to manage your customer base to become more profitable so that you can fully satisfy all the highest spending clients;
• Use Segmentation tools (Tip #4, 21st September) to better understand your customer base;
• Adding flexible capacity that has no fixed cost (outsourcing, sub-contract, …..)
• Additional products with lower costs or new processes;
• New, higher value, products / services may be appropriate for some.

 

Paul Fileman MIET CEng MCIM
Chartered Marketer
paul.fileman@talktosps.com
Tel:  01509 854447
Mob: 07969 188820
www.talktosps.com