I run a management consulting business specializing in a very small discrete industry segment. We have had extremely good results through me personally visiting the CEOs or other senior executives. However, although I believe it is important for me to meet with these prospective clients early in the sales cycle, i...
We need to begin with an important distinction: Advertising—what EMyth refers to as "Lead Generation"—is the "magnet" you use to attract the customers you want to your business. Marketing is the process you use to determine who and where those people are, what they buy from you, why they buy from you, and how they...
You're a small business owner and, like most of your fellow entrepreneurs, you’re feeling squeezed from every side. The cost of doing business, being in business and getting more business just seems to be going up.
"The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer."
It is a well known truism that the best customer is a happy customer. It follows that the best leads are referrals from happy customers. Referral leads are almost always the best prospects because a recommendation from one customer to another provides credibility, a positive impression and reduces doubt in the pro...
Without customers, a business does not exist.
I'm a recent subscriber to Netflix-that wildly successful nationwide, online DVD-by-mail rental service. This amazingly simple business model has already captured my attention-and my credit card. I've been happily receiving and returning postage-free movies from them for the last two months.
You may have heard the saying that a customer who buys a drill from you isn't actually buying a drill, they're buying a hole. They don't need a drill, they need what a drill provides, which, of course, is a hole. This is equally true for your business regardless of what you believe you are selling. And when it com...
The art of marketing is the never-ending challenge to answer this question: What emotional needs do my customers have that my business could fulfill? To help you find the answer, we suggest that you start by collecting information on your customers through a variety of techniques, including conducting customer sur...
Business has changed. Excellent customer service is no longer enough on its own to separate you from your competition. Whether you want to grow or just maintain your business, start with the assumption that all your competitors are already providing the same high-level of service as you are (in addition to offeri...
The importance of understanding gratification mode and purchase preference
Creating a positive customer experience involves more than just delivering your product and service "on time, exactly as promised." At every point of contact with your customers — at every "touch point" — your business must be engineered to create positive associations and expectations of gratification. Indeed, th...
Your best customers are those who love doing business with you, and can't say enough good things about you. EMyth defines these customers as your "advocates." Looking at your overall sales strategy, are you remembering to leverage these precious resources? If not, why?
You have a business. It’s humming. Your employees are laboring away diligently.
Most business owners would agree that maintaining or increasing sales is a vital need for their business. It's a common misconception, but many businesses tend to think of increasing sales only when things get slow. There are, however, many other reasons to increase revenue aside from simply compensating for a slu...
Without customers, you don’t have a business. And unless you're offering something that the general public has never seen or heard of before, like a self-driving car for instance, chances are that many other businesses are offering products and services similar to yours.