Making new friends and building relationships - Simone Douglas

Simone Douglas - "#SeriouslySocial"

​Introduction

What's the hardest thing about growing a business? For many small businesses, the answer is finding clients or getting customers. Customer acquisition is particularly difficult if your marketing budget is limited. IN today’s show I will take you through some time-tested strategies to help build your customer base.

Like any good business customer acquisition in the beginning is easy to a degree, but eventually you find yourself asking - what's next? How do I grow without reinventing my business model? What else is out there?

By the end of our time together today you will have a clearer understanding of how to Define the ideal customer, create and refine a plan for customer acquisition, Look for and follow your ideal prospects and suspects on social media in a way that connects and engages, work within and expand your networks in the ways that count.

It is easy to get distracted by all the noise in the business world at large but jump day is your chance to settle in and work on your business in ways that allow you to make the most of your opportunities today, tomorrow and forever. 

The purpose of today's show is to  explore whether you are happy with the current type of customers you have and, more importantly, are they happy with you? Or, do you feel that you’re not appropriately targeting the people who would value your business the most?

IBGR is a global community of commerce committed to your success and our programming is designed to give you the tools and resources as well as the one percenters you might be missing. So settle in because all the best stories are told with the audiences full attention and today is no exception. If you put the learnings into place you will have started your preparation to belt 2021 out of the stratosphere. After all We didn’t wake up this morning and decide to own an averagely successful business now did we?

Listen>Apply>Engage

​Show Objectives - The Why
The evaluations you undertake now are more important than any you have done in a while. Getting this right and connecting with those that matter to both customers and referral sources in a meaningful way is something you can build on and replicate for the rest of your business evolution just like good old compounding interest. The steps you take here will pay dividends of increasing value over time. First we need to identify what our best customers need and want.

Key Issues - Owner Perspective:

1. How to find new customers and increase sales.
2. Defining the market for my product or service
3. Generating sales leads and closing the deal.
4. Building your referral networks and strategic partnerships.

What You Need to Know - What we will be covering
In today’s business environment, sustaining growth and profitability is never a guarantee. Technological and scientific advances shorten life cycles of products and services, business models change and new competitors appear from outside the industry. 

First, you need to define a framework to help search for opportunities. To do this, it is necessary to understand your businesses direction and have knowledge of the resources, strengths and capabilities that you have
 

1. Define the ideal customer.
2. Develop a plan for customer acquisition
3. Look for and follow business prospects on social media (define your SNAP)
4. Market research - the top 100.
5. Work within and expand your networks.

 

What you need to do​ today
 
You can get to know your customers and segment the market any number of ways including the ones below:

1. Demographics -- statistical data on a population including income levels, age, etc.
2. Psychographics -- the attitudes and tastes of a certain demographic.
3. Ethnographics -- examination of particular cultures.
4. Buying habits -- how, what and where customers purchase products and services
5. There are a variety of age-old staple techniques and newer tools you can use to find new customers and increase sales. It's best to understand the choices you have in order to determine which may best allow you to reach new customers
6. Cold calling - tried and tested but works on the basis that it is a numbers game
7. Networking - it is important to evaluate both structured and unstructured networking events
8. Digital advertising - Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, instagram and Twitter
9. Event Sponsorship
10. Run your own events
11. Cross collaboration and promotion

 
SNAP - Your Social Networking Action Plan - there is way more to Social media than just the marketing understanding and mapping out your “SNAP” will drive action and success
 
Identify the top 10 mid tier companies in each market segment and reach out to them by phone to do some market research (100 calls in 10 days).
 
Plan to spend time putting lessons learnt and aha moments into practice.  Let me know how it goes.
 
ACT! Nothing changes if you don’t set aside time to make it happen so once you have worked out what you need to do start putting timelines and deliverables on your action plan. Get clear on what you want your customers to feel, what actions you want them to take and what pain points you are here to solve for them.
 
Shows
Previous: Episode C3.06.3 Hidden wins and missed opportunities - What opportunities do you have to increase purchase frequency, upsell, cross sell, or diversify to grow your wallet share with your customers?

Next: Episode Season 3 Episode C3.08.3 Bright Shiny objects and old favourites when it comes to sales - The difference between Acquisition and Retention within your organisation and what it costs you on both sides of the coin. How to evaluate your processes to ensure you have a balanced book and who contributes to the journey.
Written by Simone Douglas 

The Publican & Licensee of the Duke of Brunswick Hotel, Executive Director for BNI Adelaide North one of the biggest networking organisations in the world, the driving force behind South Australia’s leading social media agency, Social Media AOK and best-selling author with her first book “Seriously Social – turning your online game into real-world gain”. and the recently released Confident Networker

Simone also serves as Deputy President of the State Chapter Committee South Australia for the Franchise Council of Australia and sits on the Franchise Advisory Council for BNI Australia

You can connect with Simone on any of her seriously social platforms
Connect on LinkedIn
Follow on Twitter
Follow on Instagram
Like on Facebook
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