More sales from better clients

November 6, 2008 at 1:24 pm

Imagine if every customer that walked through your doors knew your service was better than the competition, and their only question was “How soon can you deliver?”, and not “How much is it going to cost?”. Here is a little insight into how you can get more sales from better clients.

If you were to think in terms of opposites, you’d think that branding was at the opposite end of the spectrum of business to sales. I recently went to a workshop on ‘Closing the Sale’* to learn more about the world of sales. Expecting to learn how to become the sharp salesman and having an answer for every ‘no’ that I would encounter in business I was surprised to find that it was actually a session on branding. We discussed our 60 second elevator pitch (what can you say about your business to capture a persons attention in 15 seconds, much like a headline should grab attention) and what we could say about our business to leave them wanting to know more. It was also about you helping your customer to buy off you and not how to create a pushy sales pitch at all! Fantastic! Their approach was that your business is solving a problem? And isn’t this why we got into business in the first place — we discovered a problem that we had the answer to and built a business around it. The further we get away from why we went into business in the first place the harder it is to get great clients.
I’ve already discussed the importance of focus in your business (see Blog Successful business, or branded business?) but I believe there is something other than the perceived risk of saying no to work that may be holding you back from focusing your brand (and your business): If you make a promise to your customers you then have to deliver.

Put your money where your brand is.

“Companies that put their money behind their brand and not their business fail to realise that the business is the brand.”

John Moore, author of Tribal Knowledge, Lessons learned from working inside Starbucks.

It’s all very well being told how you present your business, how to advertise, and what to say, but now you’ve made a promise, you’ve got to keep it and that falls on you, the business owner. The thought conjures up visions of complaining customers, 12 hour working days to keep up the demand and the fear that your staff may not deliver the same level of service as the owner.
This won’t happen – if you do it right. Ideally you should be working on your brand at the same time as your business. As you find focus in your company and discover the clients you really like to work with your brand will grow alongside. If you provide focused products or services along with your focused branding, and “say what you do, then do what you say”, you cannot fail to meet your customers expectations, and your staff will have a clear understanding about what it is that makes your business unique.
As John Moore states in the quote above, your brand is your business. Simply throwing money at your design and advertising is not enough to build a strong brand, but in keeping your brand promises you will create a better brand and a better business.

Published Canterbury Today Issue 91, September/October 2008

More sales from better clients

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