Approaches to Getting New Customers

The purpose of every business is primarily to start up and make profit in the long-run. This profit can only be made if there are customers who readily purchase products or services offered by the business. Most times, businesses have great services or products but they fail or fold-up due to their inability to find and retain the right customers. You can do this by cold calling and collaborating with other firms or businesses. We will examine some of these options below:

Methods to finding new customers

• Budget to Acquire New Customers

Businesses that are new, needing to replace customers or launching new products have to try a number of different methods to find new customers. Yet, majority of businesses work with limited budget to find new customers while big multi-national companies spare a lot of millions just on advertising and marketing budgets to launch new products. The estimate means that they can afford to purchase a variety of online and offline advertising, sort out promotions to build traffic and launch multi-media public relations campaign to increase their brand’s visibility and awareness.

However, considering a small business that has one product that needs to find a few customers to make payroll, its budget for finding customers will be extremely limited and there will be need to find creative ways to get their products noticed. Quite a number of ways exists by which a business can find its first customers or more customers as the case may be. But bear in mind that these methods are quite similar whether you are a one-man business or a medium sized business with dedicated sales professionals.

• Cold Calling Leads

This is the least favorite method for anyone in a sales function. Cold calling refers to a situation where a sales person or a business owner calls a potential customer and gives them a sales pitch without the person expecting it. The viability of this type of method all boils down to the list of potential customers. A lot of companies offer lists of certain types of potential consumers or businesses that can be purchased.

These listings are created by selecting certain parameters such as business type, location, size of the business, annual income or any of more than hundreds of parameters. It will be better if these lists are specific because that is the only way that the chances of someone listening till the end of the sales pitch will be increased. Furthermore, it is advised to always have an opening statement prepared because it will allow you to organize your thought process and avoid common mistakes in the opening that would give the potential lead an opportunity to terminate the call on receiving it. Always remember that it is not an assured sale but a lead.

• Networking and Collaboration

This is one step away from cold calling and it is the process of finding a potential lead from the people that a business owner has some tie to or connection to. This networking could be through trade shows, trade organizations, former employers, chamber of commerce, vendors, event marketing or any number of persons or organizations where there is a form of business connection. There are also many available options in the digital sphere or internet through social sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. On these platforms, the possibility of interacting directly with potential customers and generating lead is very enormous.

On the other hand is collaboration, it is the cousin to networking. Here you have to work with other complementary businesses or individuals to build a joint customer base. Having to work with other businesses can produce positive results. If you work with another company or business that is not competing with you directly but looking for similar types of customers, one option that can stimulate more sales lead is a collaboration. For instance, if you are a manufacturer of furniture, you may consider collaborating with someone who specializes in interior decoration as this could help both companies in finding new customers.

• Advertising to Snag New Customers

Statistics and recent studies have shown that businesses or companies will spend at least three to five percent of its revenue on advertising. New businesses that are yet to make sales may find it hard, regardless advertising can produce good sales lead. Every business must be mindful to use every money allocated as ad budget wisely as this is key in achieving maximum results. Increase your social media efforts or presence and this also depends on the type of customers you are seeking to attract. The likes of Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter will come in handy or a combination of all. Large companies have lots of thousands to spend and sometimes runs into millions in advertising, however a company whose advertising budget is just a few thousands has to be very specific in determine where each penny is spent. This means that such company will have to identify which method of advertising will be best and most effective in reaching its target audience. Once you have researched and found out who your target segment is, then you can go ahead and decide which medium will best pass you message across to the audience furthermore, which will offer the best return.

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