The Only Thing Missing to Access More of the Market

Let’s say you own a bike store and you are trying to generate more sales from those individuals who have already bought from you.  Your typical thought pattern would be to take care of and market to the best customers with products and services that are of value to them with messaging that resonates with them.  Let’s look at three customer categories:

The first category is those that have spent the most money over the years, perhaps $4300.00 on all kinds of different things.  This would usually be categorized as your number one customer.

The second category is the person who just bought a $2000.00 bike… the big sale.

Category three just came in for apparel and spent a couple of hundred dollars.

All three types of customers are categorized and collected through your CRM.  Good for you….. seriously.  Now someone on your staff researched LinkedIn, found out that the category three customer leads a bike club, does a biking blog, has tons of fans and social media followers and is part of an association that tracks needs, wants and trends of bikers. 

WOW!  Wouldn’t you want to develop a more personal relationship with that person?  Wouldn’t they really be your #1 target customer?  This person can impact your business.

Does this cause a shift in your thinking?

We heard this example from by Eric Gales, CEO of Microsoft, at a Microsoft workshop last week in Toronto that my son Kevin Robert was involved in.  In their efforts to deal with the realities of today’s marketplace, deliver results quickly, and keep up with the latest cutting edge technologies, too many businesses create expensive, bloated plans to access the market that miss the big picture.  And, they don’t see what is missing.  Reaching their target audiences and constantly selling to them for the least amount of money and for the greatest return is the big picture.

Business people can get caught up with technical solutions to people problems. (customers are people too)  We should not get caught up with social media or CRM solutions unless they actually work for our business.

There is an old saying, “If you want to run with the big dogs, you have got to learn to ‘do your business in the tall grass.”  Any size company can access the market well, large or small.  Any size company can be ridiculous and impractical with their plans.

So, what is practical?  What works?  What’s missing?  If you have CRM and social media tools but you or your team haven’t fundamentally shifted away from trying to get people interested in you to deciding out how to get your team more interested in your target customers, you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

We learned from Eric Gale’s example that you can in a practical way, use your CRM and social media tools from a sales and marketing point of view.  The BIG idea that’s missing is the time tested Dale Carnegie principle “Become genuinely interested in other people”.  Carnegie pointed out in his writings that you can build more relationships in two weeks by becoming interested in others than you can in two years trying to get people interested in you.

LinkedIn for example provides you the connections you need.  In ten minutes, someone in your bike store could find out all you need to know to begin a personal, one to one relationship with your potential targets.  Now messaging is important.  Using another Dale Carnegie principle, “Talk in terms of the other person’s interest”.

Now you have everything you need.  The goal is to leverage every piece of data and everything you have.  Paul Kearley, our Business Unit Manager for the Maritimes, recently pulled 30 companies and individuals together for a business and personal development program using LinkedIn.  It works.

Believe me, from my forty five years experience in impacting behaviors, especially those concerning relationships, very few business practices or behaviors originate from being genuinely interested in others.  We’ve coached Warren Buffet, Lee Iacocca and millions of business people throughout the world.  Everyone needs coaching and practice on the habits that build relationships.  Everyone thinks they are good at it until they see better results from shifting their thinking, listening and the actions they take.

Develop a repeatable process and efforts that can be multiplied through a step and repeat process.  You can do it with 10, 100, 10,000 or 100,000 targets.  It’s just adding zeros!

Put getting to know your targets into everyone’s Position Results Description or job description.  Ensure your job descriptions are about outcomes and standards rather than just lists of things to do.

• Get everyone doing it – this week – now!
  
• Re-read How to Win Friends and Influence People.
  
• Better yet, take some coaching.

Thanks Eric for your example.

Have a great week!