Generate More Sales

Have you ever been to a store where the person at the counter seems uninviting, almost like you are interrupting them? Or been at a check-out counter while the cashier is talking with other co-workers about the party last night, totally ignoring you, while you wait to pay for items? Or dealt with a company that was eager to get your business, but then as soon as the sale was made, the eagerness evaporated? I love these businesses!

Why do I love these businesses? Because these examples of poor customer service means more business opportunities for us, the customer-focused Master Entrepreneur!

Master Entrepreneurs create and build customer-focused businesses. What this means is the businesses we start and build provide the highest degree of value, service and results to our customers. We mould our businesses to serve others, to enrich their lives and have a positive impact in their lives, profitably.

I recently read the story of how Richard Branson tried to book a flight with British Airways. At that time he experienced such poor customer service that he said to himself, “either they are very busy or have poor service, either way, it’s a good idea to start an airline to compete”. He then called Boeing Co. in Seattle and bought a second-hand Boeing airplane and launched Virgin Airways to compete with British Airways. And Virigin Airways is now the envy and an innovative leader in a highly competitive industry.

Customers are not only external but also internal as well. They are our employees as well. So treating them with respect, fairness, compensating them fairly and looking for ways to serve them creates happy and motivated employees. This in turns creates an excellent working environment and a foundation from which to create outstanding customer service. This approach and philosophy worked great in both my restaurant and coffee shop.

When customer service, value, and results are high, we can expect to generate more sales. And why not? Customers feel appreciated, valued and respected.

How do you improve customer service in your business? Here are a few points to consider:

• Use surveymonkey.com and take a survey from customers about how to improve your website or overall customer experience.
• Hold a focus group and invite customers in to see how your business is fulfilling their needs and how you can improve.
• Create dialogue and conversations with them. Pick up the phone and call customers. Get out of your office and have coffee with them and chat about how the business can improve.
• Ask both customers and staff how you/business rate on a scale of 1-10. When they give you the number, ask “what can I do to make it a 10”!
• Hire people who recognize the importance of customer service and train staff on the importance of having a customer service mentality.

Being customer-focused allows me to put myself in other’s shoes and ask “how would I like to be treated”. This gets us away from seeing everyone as a potential “dollar sign” and allows us to develop more of a service attitude.

People do business with people they like. So adopting a “How may I help you today?” philosophy will ensure continued success in your business because people will feel that you genuinely care. This will result in generating more sales and will result in fewer opportunities for people like Richard Branson.

To your success,
Chris Castillo
Copyright © 2010 Chris Castillo
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Chris Castillo is an entrepreneur, speaker and consultant. Chris Castillo is Founder and CEO of Master Entrepreneur International Inc., a business coaching & education company. To learn more about Master Entrepreneur products & services, visit www.masterentrepreneur.com “Master Entrepreneur” is a registered trademark.

I believe we don’t need to target everyone. And why would you want to?

Let’s face it. We are faced with two key limitations in business:

1) Money
2) Time

Having limited time and money forces us to think “optimization”. That is getting the most result out of something.

If we start to think optimization, we will see that going after a general market may work against us. We maybe spreading ourselves too thin. And of course, customers get confused as well in terms of the product offering to them and as well as company positioning.

There is a better way of thinking though to help generate more sales. And that is thinking about a more focused, specialized marketing approach that will help us to generate more sales. Specifically, thinking about targeting niche markets.

Niche markets are more specialized and focused markets of people that purchase our products and services for various reasons. Here, the strategy is to think “depth” as opposed to “width” of the market.

Niches offer a “depth” of customers that have similar needs and wants and allows us to optimize both our time and money by specifically targeting these niches.

When considering going after a general market and trying to be everything to everyone, it is useful to think about the riches in niches that exist when you speak to a particular focused niche.

For example, your business might want to focus on a particular niche with its specific needs. And your positioning strategy and customer benefit statement becomes more focused and easier to communcate because of the clarity of that specific niche’s needs and problems.

How can you define a specific niche? Here are some examples of niches:

1.  Positivesdating.com – This site provides dating services for people with HIV/AIDS.
2.  Luckybreakwishbone.com – This site sells wishbones for people wanting to break more than just one wishbone that normally comes in a turkey.
3.  Antennaballs.com – This site sells a wide variety of just antenna balls.

The above are just some examples of entrepreneurs focusing on a specific niche. If we take the time to determine our niches, I’m confident you will experience more riches which will result in more time.

To your success,
Chris

Copyright 2009 Chris Castillo
________________
Chris Castillo is an entrepreneur, speaker and consultant. Chris Castillo is Founder and CEO of Master Entrepreneur International Inc., a business coaching & education company. To learn more about Master Entrepreneur products & services, visit www.masterentrepreneur.com  “Master Entrepreneur” is a registered trademark.