Business development – Page 10 – Tom Fuszard's Business Builder

Great customer service and sustained marketing lead to business success

December 28, 2015September 20, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

Although two distinct topics, customer service and marketing play integral roles in the success of your business.

Needless to say, without customers, your business fails in a heartbeat. (Indeed, you won’t even get off the ground.) Problem is, too many businesses lose customers due to poor service. You’re a customer, and you know what drives you away.

– Surly employees
– Late delivery
– Shoddy quality
– Not following through on promises
– No follow up on complaints or other communications

You note I haven’t included price. High price isn’t an issue when you treat your customers right. If you’re losing customers, it’s probably because of one of the issues listed above. The customer may claim price, but that’s often a cover. Review your practices to see if there’s something you can do to improve the level of service your firm supplies.

As I share in another blog post, you don’t need to give away the farm to please your customer after a problem arises. It’s the gesture that counts.

Of course, you can’t have customer service problems if you don’t have customers in the first place. That’s where marketing comes in. Whole courses are devoted to this subject, so we can only touch on it briefly here.

Consultative selling leads to selling solutions

December 28, 2015September 11, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

Solutions-based selling starts with the proper selling techniques

Selling involves more than merely taking an order and delivering a product or service. To be successful—and to stand apart from old-school salespeople—you need to develop a consultative selling approach. It’s a specialized sales technique that entails looking at the matter from the customer’s perspective.

The buzz word today is “solution.” Salespeople often say they offer solutions for their clients or that they are solution providers. It’s easy to say, but requires a fair amount of thought and, in some cases, restraint, to implement. You must avoid the temptation to sell your entire portfolio or at least your most expensive products and services. A sincere salesperson considers himself or herself more of a partner or team member; hence the term consultative selling.

Even if your firm can offer a host of good solutions, your client may not need all at one time. He may not be able to afford them either. It’s OK to discuss future sales, but concentrate on immediate needs. Use your first sale, as modest as it might be, to establish your relationship. Provide exemplary service after the sale, and you’re more likely to be offered additional opportunities.

10 tips for planning a conference

January 7, 2016August 20, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

Hosting a conference? These tips will help you prepare.

Conferences can be really valuable for an organization or association. With hundreds of people under one roof, you as conference host have the chance to impart a lot of information quickly and efficiently. Plus, attendees benefit by sharing and learning from each other.

I have attended numerous conferences. All were well-done overall, but in some cases certain aspects were lacking. If you are hosting a conference, keep these suggestions in mind to help ensure your program runs smoothly. (I offer more tips in another blog column.)

3.5 more tips for advertising on Facebook

January 7, 2016August 12, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

These 3.5 tips will help you advertise on Facebook successfully

There are many benefits to advertising on Facebook. Indeed, Facebook is becoming the go-to advertising medium for businesses large and small. However, it takes some practice and, quite frankly, you will benefit from purchasing training from a veteran Facebook advertiser.

I recently started my second Facebook advertising campaign. The first ran from late last fall to early February. Back then I wrote two blog posts discussing what I learned. You can read those here: “Tips to help you advertise on Facebook” and “Monitor Facebook advertising closely, adjust as needed.”

The following tips for advertising on Facebook are gleaned from my latest ad campaign, which began on Aug. 7. Consider these as you begin to advertise on Facebook.

How to create content for your blog

January 9, 2017August 2, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

How to create blog content

Most people have a pretty good understanding of how to write a blog; that is, fundamentally put one together and then post columns. Odds are that not too many bloggers have developed a blog content strategy. With that, the blog may end up all over the place in terms of content, and not achieve the desired results.

How do I know? I was that way for several months. I started this blog in the spring of 2011. Initially I would post columns based upon material I had used in the past for my company’s newsletter. The material was good, but I wasn’t really focused on the big picture as I needed to be.