Expert View: Grow your business by giving!
As a leader in your organisation, one of your aims must surely be to expand business cost effectively. Advertising budgets are finite, and we all know anyway, that business is about people not just transactions.
My own marketing mission to; develop my business through giving not selling, may sound completely barking, but boils down to a belief that you reap what you sow.
The concept of selling can sometimes be interpreted as manipulation, persuasion or in the worst cases bullying, but sales should be win:win for both parties – the buyer and the seller. My view is that business can benefit by an approach that focuses on giving not selling.
There are many opportunities to put this into practice in an economically viable way, and you may want to consider building some of the following into your marketing strategy:
• Call/Meet key customers:
Ask what they need, give them attention, provide ideas, become a valued resource and if you can’t help directly—help them contact someone who can!
• Communicate regularly:
Use direct mail, E-marketing etc. to deliver simple, compelling messages that can add value to a customers business
• Network:
People buy people first, network with an abundance mentality—see how you can help not sell
• Public speaking:
Research potential customer groups and use your knowledge to support and inform them
• P.R.:
Ask yourself, ‘in what ways can I further develop the reputation of my business and earn the support and trust that will influence customer behaviour?’
• Up-sell:
‘Is there something more that I can offer to my customers, something that they need or value?’ Each sale provides an opportunity for another, provided that you have already exceeded expectations
• Sales skills:
Constantly appraise, revise and improve the sales skills of customer facing staff within the business by making sure they sell solutions, not services/products
• Joint ventures:
Be alive and open-minded to strategic alliances—working together with ‘competitors’ can often bring added opportunity for both parties
• Business mentoring:
Become a business mentor through organisations such as the Princes Trust. You may not generate business, but the personal benefit in terms of empathy and self-development is enormous
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
~Winston Churchill
Best wishes
Val Davies Consulting
