The Most amazing Customer Appreciation event EVER!!!

As I was driving home on Sunday night from my brothers I had the most incredible experience. I live right outside Boston in Concord Mass (Henry David Thoreau) and I stopped to take a walk through the town. It is one of the most beautiful places regardless but I love walking the streets at night much like Mr. Thoreau did to sort out my thoughts in complete peace and silence. Tonight when I got my car expecting silence I heard what I though was music in the distance. I thought I was hearing things I followed but it anyway a block and half away I hear this crisp voice that was covering music of the sixties. The closer I got the more I found that it wasn’t just one person was a whole gallery jammed to the hilt with several people. I look and see that this is a customer appreciation event. Here was an great singer literally jamming out with this stores customers. Now considering that they are closed on Sundays it was probably  an invitation only for the best customers. Now the crazy part everybody there was following right along, dancing, singing and hitting the tambourine. I snuck by and stood the next store over in absolute amazement at how much fun everybody was having. This wasn’t a customer appreciation event this was much more this was life celebration with friends that happen to be customers. I walked across the street completely blown away and I just enjoyed the moment. The next event will really bring home the magnitude of this.  

There were two young women walking past this gallery a  just like I was and they stopped in the doorway just to see what was going on they literally got pulled in. The people inside invited them to be a part of this party. They couldn’t  just sit back and watch they were completely jamming, singing, and dancing just like everybody else. Nobody that was part of this experience will forget Montague Gallery 10 Walden Street Concord Ma. They sell fine art sculptures go to www.montaguegallery.com The Do you think that everybody will taking about how it was on of the most unique events they have ever been to? Do you think that little event will drive more sales? Absolutely it will. Turning a customer appreciation event into a life celebration event that is PRICELESS in building customer loyalty I guarantee it.

How many customers have you lost in the last year?

This is a question that focuses one the harder facts in business but shouldn’t be avoided out of fear. Actually this tough question has the enormous potential of really growing your business once again. It stems from that quote” you don’t know what you got till its gone”. You need to find out what your attrition rate is.If you are adding new customers to your business but not looking at the ones you are losing and more importantly the reasons why they are leaving then its like catching fish in a boat that has a leak in it (it does you no good cause you will still drown.)

The first part of this inventory is looking at how big that leak is and then determining what it will take to fix it. Find out what percentage of customers are leaving is crucial to putting programs in place to find out what you are doing wrong in their eyes so you can make your business stronger. There are only a few reasons why they left and often times the fix is so simple it will amaze you. #1 reason they don’t feel they have a need for your product or service anymore. In this case all you need to do is follow up with them and show them they are still important to you and how they can still use you business to their advantage in their life. It’s strange how the only thing that businesses FAIL to do is follow up with existing customers to find out what is it going to take for them to purchase another product or a second time . All you need to do is create an AUTOMATIC process for you business to do this. If you write to me at tom4change@gmail.com I can show you exactly how to do this to get the best return of customers possible. 

How much is it REALLY Worth? A guide for SERVICES pricing PART 1

I have many clients that all the time undercut their value to give customers great pricing. Unfortunately it completely BACKFIRES on them and here is why. The job you do is directly tied to your price. Customer can’t see a service so they HAVE NOTHING to compare it against except itself. What I mean is this — if a customer has had the same service done in the past then they will judge your price and quality against that. However that being said if they have never needed a service like you offer in the past (and the majority of the time they haven’t) them they have nothing to compare it to. They can’t SEE the product before you complete the work they can only see the problem or challenge that they need to be solved. So they are really trying to your compare price against the RESULTS that you will produce for them.  The old FEAR about “you get what you pay for” is definitely true in the service sector your clients are scared that you are not going to be able to solve their problem to their satisfaction AND they will have to pay for your services. 

So when you undercut your price it direct correlates in their mind to the quality and your ability to deliver. Customers do not shop around for services the way they do for products because they do not understand what it will take to resolve their challenge (that’s why they are calling you). So NEVER EVER say to the customer you are the cheapest . What you perceive as helping them out actually does the opposite it provokes fear. This is why you may find customers don’t end up choosing you. So what do you do?

First of all spend more time with your customers understanding how much solving this problem is worth(more on this in future parts). Show them how you can solve their problem a little better then they expect(fear reducer). Guarantee your RESULTS (not enough service people do) it builds serious confidence in your potential customers in your ability because you are TAKING the risk(fear) away from them. Then OVER DELIVER and ask for referrals when they feel that you have.

 

Promotional Tip#1 — How use your top seller to get a new product the attention it DESERVES

I just was trying to help a small business owner market a brand new product so people would try it. Now this a product that once they try it once they can decide from there but we thought they would like it. So what I suggested was simple– launch the new product but to take away some of the risk tell the customer that you’ll discount the top seller if they try it. I am going to add here that over 50% of all the customers purchased the top product so the people would be purchasing the top product regardless. This way if they were willing to try something new they could have it at a lower price.

In this case it worked with great success because once people tried the new product they loved it almost as much as the old one. The idea was to generate interest to see if the customer would like it as much as we thought they would or not. The key here is that we were able to speed up the feedback by discounting the favorite product. Now they have two top sellers that don’t compete with each other directly but actually complement each other so now customers come in an ask for BOTH products.

It’s like getting 2 sales for the price of 1.

Why you need to look at Apple retail stores if you want to run a great(and hugely profitable)business

Here are a list of just some things that you need to incorporate into your business Right NOW. I have picked them all up from Steve Jobs design of Apple retail business but they run a better business then anybody on the planet and it’s not because they make great products(wait that’s another post). Instead they understand what all customers want more than anything. An experience that literally transcends any other business (or human) interaction you have had before. Just look at this ever growing list of things they have given society.

1. The close when the last customer(s) leave not when a clock tells them to<shows customers they are #1>

2. The don’t sell they educate <people are mature enough to know when they are ready to buy>

3. They have instore classes all the time <even though you own their product that are not satisfied until you are in using it>

4. The use the clearest and lightest colors in their store <to make it some place you want to come in for the atmosphere and show you they HAVE nothing to hide>

5. You can stay as long or as little as you want with or without an employees help<please make yourself at home and I’m ONLY here if YOU would like me to be–to make your visit more ENJOYABLE >

6. All employees are armed(literally) with a credit card device that is ready where ever you are WITHOUT HAVING TO STAND IN ANY LINE(that’s a 1st–no waiting in line imagine that one)

7. They make ALL APPLE Store grand openings the EXPERIENCE of a life time. <Just like Disney World once in your life you have to attend an Apple store grand opening —you WILL feel the same emotion that YOU are KING>

8. If you Ipod breaks under warranty they replace it <they Don’t make you suffer because their product is defective or breaks–others try and find a way to put the blame on your actions and not honor the warranty–They feel it’s more important doing whatever it takes to keep the customer happy>

9. All employees are HAPPY to be there <makes the fact that you might need help less threatening because they WANT to give you anything you desire, instead of making you feel that they are only there because it’s their job requirement(ahem WALMART excuse me).

I’ll continue this list as I think of more great ideas

NOW the busiest time of year don’t forget this

Most business pass or fail for the WHOLE year in the next few weeks. i’m sure that you’ve prepared for the busiest time of year. However I just wanted to share a big hint that business owners forget about or think they can live without(the Superman principle). SALES Support or Support in ANY busy area of your business during the holiday rush. Your goal is not only to have what your customer needs but to make your customers lives as easy as possible. Why? because everybody else is stressing them out.

Then there are your employees they matter most because if the are stressed it shows straight thru to your customers almost immediately. So the people you have that are supporting your frontline staff are extremely important to your success. The reason why is simple when things get crazy and hopefully they will they will be the silly putty that holds it all together. You have to make sure they are strong and cross trained in all area of your business customer service, sales, etc. So many times its the littlest things during those rushes that completely back things up  the last thing you want is lost sales this times of year . You never will get the chance again.

Great support will cover breaks, replish register tape, or answer phones when everybody is busy and the list goes on. They can’t truely make your break your best selling season.

3.75 keys to eliminating sales objections

One of the toughest parts in business is overcoming objections that your potential customer has about your products, people or your company.  So here are three general key I use without fail to save the customer.

1.Build confidence in the customer objections.Just remember that all an objection is them trying to find a reason NOT to buy. THEY WANT to buy if they didn’t they just walk away without saying anything. Most salespeople think the customer is saying no where they are trying to say yes they just need more information to back up their willingness to do so. I love objections because the customer is trying to buy what I have. It’s my job to make it as easy as possible to do so. So I always tell them I welcome objections and then when they occur I always start with ” I’m glad you brought that up” or “Many of my customers feel the same way you do….” I want them to feel good and confident for bringing up these points. Most people are scared at this time because they want to buy but they don’t want to here they aren’t able to.

2.Face the challenge head on. Customer are trying to see if you really stand behind the product because if you do then they can. ALWAYS be honest!!! If your not the customer will see it no matter how good you think you are. Make sure that if you put the objection do for now you get the customer to agree to it. Say something like ” That’s an good point you have brought up and I will get to it in minute okay?” Then make sure you do.

3.If your are ever unsure to the answer to an objection say this” That is an excellent point that I hadn’t considered,I don’t know the answer but I will find it out for you.” Then find out.

0.75 — Never make something seem less than ( ex a competitor) in order to make your product look stronger. It make your look weak and pushes their decision more toward them. They see it as you think they are better that’s why you have to knock them down you can’t compete on a level playing field.

Little things that make the biggest difference

Many business owners are so close to every part of their business because  they are responsible it ALL of it.  What I do most often as their consultant is I show them the impact that the little things have on the bottom line that they never noticed.Unfortunately those negative little things absolutely destroy businesses. Listen businesses don’t fail because somebody stopped trying  just the opposite is true. Most business fail because they are trying to hard in the wrong direction. So many time I teach business owners how the little things they do make more of a fundamental difference than the huge things. I show them how specific actions or intangible assets are the things that create long term success. For the most part the physical aspects of any business don’tmmake nearly as much of a difference as the things that you can’t see.

An biggest of them all is attitude (yourself, your employees and your customers) and it surprises me how many people in businesses think that it doesn’t matter. They think people don’t care or notice attitude. Everyday you wear you attitude on your sleeve and there is not a single person that doesn’t notice it. Like in the earlier post on colors and judgements, your attitude you have is how people judge you what you do, think, say and in your case if they will do business with you or not.

The reason I’m bringing this up is I was doing some shopping tonight myself.  It astounded me how many salespeople at the mall (one of the most successful in the country) had either bad attitudes or apathy(they just didn’t care about the customer). I began to wonder how we got to a place where we accept this as customers. The experiences I witnessed other people having some where scary and downright disrespectful. Then I watch CNBC and see retailers are having tough quarters and cutting 4th quarter forecasts. Do this people (CEO and board members ETC) actually go to their store and look at the product they are putting out? By that I mean the sales person on the floor that argues with a customer or is on their cellphone with a friend(yes I saw both tonight)? There are customers that those employees don’t realize that are making judgment about their WHOLE company based on that ONE person. GREAT attitudes are free if you make sure you hire them in the first place.

S o I want to leave you with this question for all of you and your employees that will create a minefield of gold where these other people see only losses.

What have I done today to give my customers OUTSTANDING service?

How to get your best customers to shop more during the holiday season!!!

Hold a sale for a specific item at your store at a rock bottom(maybe below cost) price for one hour. Then two hours later do the same thing with a completely different item.  Call and send a postcard to all your customers two weeks in advance. Make it a party day —create positive energy(free food, balloons, pens with your name on it). You get the idea just go all out. Hold a raffle for something one another hour. The idea is to create a specific reason for customers to come in. You know that once they are in they will buy more don’t you? The hour creates URGENCY– if they want it at that price they have to come then. By the way a store full of customers creates interest among others who just want to know whats going on in there. People that never planned on coming in will stop by just to see why the heck everybody is there (it’s like the gaper delay in traffic but with much more positive results). The specific item (hopefully a Bestseller already) creates desire.

That my friends in what you need to make ANY sale EVER — DESIRE as well as URGENCY .

Do it during a slow time to pick up momentum or during a busy time to create utter chaos(just be prepared). You want to to paint the picture in the customers head when doing the phone call and postcard that if they don’t show up they will be missing out on a once in this Holiday shopping season buy of a lifetime. Tell me how it goes or write me for further implementation ideas.

Are you sending the right messages with how you dress?

This is a topic that isn’t discussed enough when talking about presentation of how you come across to your customers. The first clues people notice usually in any situation is usually the physical ones.  What people notice about you pretty much tells them all they need to know before you open your mouth. Now the easy ones are proper dress, hygiene, and stance-confident or not. Then there are the less obvious ones which I want to discuss just one of today.

Color!!!!! Colors dominate our sight driven world and we make decisions so fast with colors we don’t even realize it. We all know that in today world we have thousands of more stimuli coming at as then we have the ability to focus on. So how do we deduct out what not to focus on? COLORS are first because our sight is our top sense we use.  Every company on the planet at some level uses color or lack there of to get attention from people. Now most people focus on what the most appealing colors are in any given situation–basic manipulation in customers stimuli response. We make thousands of judgements on what each color represent to make the right decisions in all parts of our lives.

However have you looked at colors close enough to see the message you are sending because they are not all created equal? Ask yourself “How do I want customers to feel in my presence ?” The reason I bring this up is I saw a major retailer make A HUGE color mistake. What is the worst color you can display if you want people to feel comfortable around you? If you guessed ALL BLACK (from head to toe) you are RIGHT. black is a great color to contrast off of with another more vibrant color but never solely by itself. When I saw this I said to myself “what are they having their own funeral ?” When you find out who they just may be. I then found out that solid BLACK is the required dress code for all employees which is not only stupid it is crazy. Here’s why the two hardest colors to notice by themselves in the color spectrum is the ones at the ended BLACK and WHITE. The are the first you use to block things out because they are what I call the NON colors. This is why USA today is a major paper you notice it first in a newspaper rack it is the only one the USES color to its advantage. But anyway their reasoning behind this was good in theory but DUMB in the real world. The company colors are RED , WHITE and BLACK and they are trying to give you a unified message. Their commercials are primarily white –Good. The store displays are RED and White–again Good. I’m being so harsh because NOBODY would ever do this–Name me one place you have shopped where the dress code is universally is all black? Nowhere right?  Nowhere except MACYS department stores. So it’ll probably be pretty hard to find an employee to help you out this holiday season because you going to have to start looking for something you normally block out

B2B Sales–build your business –getting more customers

One of the things I love in business is watch the different ways businesses grow through discovering new customers. I love business owners that like to think out of the box. See a lot of business owners think that if thy advertise in the right places or market to the right people then people will show up at their doorstep. I say “maybe” but what is your back up plan if that doesn’t happen? If you don’t have a good back up plan I’ve got a successful one I have used in all the businesses I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of.

Being in outside and retail sales for many years I learned that if my customer wasn’t standing in front of me it was my responsibility to go out and find them. So I used to ask myself a series of questions in order to find my BEST customer. Notice I didn’t say just “a customer” I wanted to find the person or company that most desired my product or service. So I would imagine somebody using my product– sounds stupid but the details of the visualization were extremely helpful. Rather than explain this let me show you how I did it.

One of the companies I worked for was Sprint. I was lucky enough to get in right when people where realizing how much having a cellphone could change their life for the better. I primary enjoyed focusing on business customers when I wasn’t busy at the store. So I asked myself the most powerful question that you can ask in sales “who would benefit most from having the ability of the features that my product offers?”

Then I just sat down and wrote out a list of who and more importantly why they would be able to use my product to better their business. If I understood and could communicate the reasons why it showed them that I had their best interests in mind. What also separated myself is that I wasn’t just a salesperson rather I was someone that was trying to help them achieve their long term goals while achieving short term savings. Then I looked at the areas that I had the greatest opportunity of positively impacting the bottom line. Why did I do this? Those where the areas which I would be able to utilize my time and get them to say yes the fastest. After that I look at the who and wheres of that industry, company of division.

Who is the best person in this segment to prove my products worth to? I never looked at normal purchasing channels which really helped my success in that I never fought through red tape. So if I knew that a sales manager could make the most money I lent him out the phones for a couple of days so he could see it himself then he sold the purchasing manager on the decision. Most others started with the purchasing manager instead of the end user.

Where is the best place to find get in touch with that person? I molded my schedule to where and when was the best time for them. This was critical for me because I into place that others couldn’t access. I was always looking for the back door if you will. So if they were on the road I met them for breakfast, or I would show up at a trade show that I found out they would be attending. Needless to say I was never that guy waiting in the office for the appointment unless I absolutely needed to be.

I have this little thing I say to myself in business to business sales “If I can find the area which I can make the most difference to any business it will help me to penetrate the whole business”

WEBMASTERS – LISTEN–What can you do to make the customers experience Amazing

The other day I was on Amazon.com and I was updating my recommended list. Once I got 5 minutes into that list I realized why it is that I stop working on it every single time. Amazon.com make the layout of the site easy but once you want to do something they make it a lot harder than it needs to be. So I wanted to tell them about the laundry list of things I saw they could do to make the customers experience easier and more productive. Guess what? I look through 3 pages from where I was and I couldn’t find a feedback link. Listen Amazon finding out what your customers think should be more important than selling stuff because when you frustrate customers you lose them PERIOD. So a feedback link (unless I am blind) should be as easy to find and as noticeable as that stupid gold box that I have never opened. Of course I instantly thought of my readers and I thought this is a hugely important topic that isn’t discussed often enough LOSING CUSTOMERS and what you can do about it. So this post is lesson one the customers experience.

So the first thing about their website is that they make it easy if you want to place an order but hard if you want to do anything else it become progressively harder. Let me give you an example I want to put something on my wish list and the next thing I see is a page of recommended items which I appreciate. However They don’t make it easy to do your only two choices — there is no direct link back to what you where doing before your wish list or selecting multiple things on the recommended list without having to go back and forth. At this point I have forgotten what I started and get frustrated and leave. My dumb ass forgets though every time I go back why I left–I was frustrated, lost and couldn’t find help so I start the hopeless crusade again. Hopefully I’ll remember now that they only care if I’m purchasing something.

So what does you customer feel about your businesses experience on line or off line? Have you keep with the times in your store design? Every knows that JeffBezos hasn’t done anything to make that website any better in 5 or 10 years. He probably thinks that since his company makes billions that he is okay but so did AOL when they pulled this junk of being the best.So talk to your customers and ask them (don’t ASSume) everyday about all the parts of their experience. If they give you things that they didn’t like be grateful because they my have just saved you. Sometimes just talking to our customers can save us more than a sale would give us in profit–not all the time sometimes. Become a people watcher step back and look how easy it is for your customers to see prices, get something off a shelf to look at it, or walk without trip over a display. Here’s the rule= just because you think something is completely obvious doesn’t mean that your customers will .

Your goal is to make the process of doing ANY type of business with you as enjoyable as possible. Give you customers an experience that leaves them saying &quot;WOW &quot;and that is one the keys to them coming back again and gain. After all look at Disney World the rides don’t change but why do people return year after year? Simple they want the experience of how they feel when they are there. If Disney could bottle that up and let people take it with them they would be trillioniares. Make your customers viewpoint and their experience be your number one goal and it will be sure to help your profitability

Does your neighbor 4 houses down know what business you own?

Small business owners are always looking for that great idea that will make their marketing and advertising bring more customers to them. Start with yourself and work your way out instead of advertising in some magazine or newspaper and guessing if it will work.

<>When I started in retail sales and management years ago I started with the easiest and least inexpensive way to grow your sales. I went around to all the stores and I introduced myself and told the employees where I worked. Then afterwards if I walked by their store on the way to lunch I always waved saying hi.Now I was doing this at first for many different reasons and creation of sales WASN’T even a goal. It was primarily for safety reasons “I keep an eye on your store if you do the same”–etc.

<>However I noticed that over 20% of the people I talked to never even realized that my type of store was even in the mall they had been working in. Many others came down to buy from me specifically just because I was thoughtful enough to reach out to them. I created SEVERAL employee and family appreciation events that grew my businesses over 10-15 % in profits just by this one activity. How these people gave me great refferals without having to ever ask for one is a whole other topic.

So if you can find time to take a walk through your neighborhood and knock on doors and introduce yourself and your business. If your can’t get another family member to. Don’t try and sell them just introduce yourself and get to know them. Just how they will help you out by returning the favor of you being a good neighbor will make the walk(s) worthwhile. Just watch sooner or later they will come though your businesses front door when they are ready for what you have to offer. They will choose you just because people naturally want to do business with people they know and like.Your neighbor would LOVE to support the local businesses and once you tell them that you own it they will start coming in.

The line” if you build it they will come” from Field of Dreams is absolutely true here. The “it” is the relationship with your neighbors

Customer Appreciation and Gratitude why saying Thank You is so important

Earlier tonight I was having a conversation with small business owners that was very enlightening to me. We had a round table discussion about why somebody else that owned another business and why he should have been really busy on a Satuday night but he wasn’t. As I was listening in somebody said “boy when he first bought this place he used to have a ton of repeat customers but they all just stopped coming in.” Of course I asked “Does anybody know why?” The answers all came at me at once —comes in to work on the business (inventory, bookeeping) while the business is open and doesn’t say hi to employees or customers, doesn’t care if people come back, doesn’t ask customer if they are enjoying their time there, let’s his emotions show. Now this isn’t a bitch session and he is a friend of all of ours and we all are patrons of his business. To the everyday person he runs a great business who is extremely social on most days with customers. However since we have know each other over a long period of time we all understand the ebbs and flows of each others business and we all help each other to be successful.

So now I ask what do you do to keep customers coming back to your business? These are the responses I hear “I serve a good product”, “If I have a customer who is unhappy I give them something free”,”I make sure all the employees are running a top notch business”, “I alway smile and say thank you to all my customers”. Now they are all good replys but none of them answered my question. They are all things that help to give a good experience but they don’t get customers to directly to come back. That’s where the light bulb went off for me these business owners don’t understand the difference between good customer service and showing customers gratitude and appreciation.Being humble enough to share how their patronage allows to be  the business successful creates an enviroment where they really want to come back again. Taking the extra steps to show your customers that you care and they really mean everything to the well being of your business. Because without them there is nothing.

So I started telling them about the different ideas each of them could do with their specific business some of which I have share about in the other posts in this blog on customer appreciation. I related how they could implement each one why it would be so successful for each of them. They were blown away how extremely easy it was to do and how inexpensive also. They asked me how I knew this and I simply said how much experience I had helping other businesses across alot of industries implement these programs and watching them blossom because of it.

Just remember customer appreciation and gratitude is part of who you are as a person and as a business owner, IT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU DO WHEN TIMES ARE TOUGH AND BUSINESS IS SLOW. The attitude behind customer value and appreciation is the reason i’m writing this. Honestly none of the customer appreciation ideas in the world will work if you aren’t truely grateful for every single one of your customers.

Here is the absolute key to all of the customer appreciation ideas that you will learn about here— What can I do right now to make this person feel better about themselves than they did before they walked into my business? Sometimes it is a just a smile or a complement. But the universal answer to my question about customers coming back is this. A customers feels something postive about you or your business that they can’t get if they went to another business. Simply when the have that experience they want to come back because people want to feel good as much as possible. Just look at the place you’ve been that you would recommend to a friend. It’s not because you didn’t like it something occured that was memorable enough to you that it suck out enough to tell you friend about it. I compare it to the idea of all the cars you see everyday on the road but its not until you get a new car that THEN you happen to notice all of ones like your make and model car. Your commitment to YOUR car caused you to notice the other cars without really ever thinking about it. Have you ever noticed how good you feel when that happens? Showing customers how important they are to you and making them feel good is by far they best thing you can do. THEN you will be that business that they are telling everybody they know about.

Knowing when your customers will buy!!!

There is a way to easily tell when you customer is going to purchase your product. Then after they purchase it’s really easy to tell when they will purchase again. Every product or service has a life cycle . Most small business owners know when that life cycle is for their customer but rarely do they ever do anything about it. They simple wait for the customer to decide when they need the product then they hope that they marketing they have in place when the customer does feel they are ready is successful. Then hopefully they will get the opportunity to try and sell the customer. I don’t like the sit back and wait approach to getting the customer. My goal would be to be the first one in line when I know the customer is ready to make that decision.

Now going back to the basics I was talking about a life cycle. It can be a usability cycle meaning how long your product will last till they have to replace it. For example if you buy a tank of gas for your car how long will that tank last before they need to purchase another one? It depends on how much they purchase and what is their average speed and how many miles per gallon do they get. If you owned a gas station and started asking your customers these questions you might be able to use it to have them make their next purchase(s) from you. Give them coupon for soda or an oil change they could use they next time they make a gas purchase. The problem is most business owners think that they don’t influence the decision so they don’t try. When customers are crying out for these simple transactions to be made more valuable though either time savings or cost savings.

The next life cycle is not based on use but rather on trends When a customer FEELS they need to replace the product that is when a new sale is made. These are a lot harder to detect when they are going to happen but if you can find out the specific values and buying pattern of that individual you can have a good start. A great example of this is cellphones many people will not wait for a cellphone to die but rather when a new feature comes out that they desire then they get a new cellphone. Finding out how these individual people tick is the key to finding out when they will buy again. Maybe it is something as easy as they have to be a early adopter—somebody that has the desire to be the first to own new technologies. All those people that went out the very first weekend the Apple IPHONE was available and had to own it. However usually it is more involved as to why people want the new product.

Using your knowledge of what is influencing your customers decision can greatly help you out at this point. You should be finding out your customers purchasing motivation during the sales process. The question of what is most important to you when buying a ____________? This will help you to determine value about a feature or benefit of a product or service. There are several more questions surrounding this one that you can ask to determine how people make decisions that I can teach you about your business if you send me a email.

One of my mentors who in my opinion is the best at this is Harvey Mackay who own the Mackay Envelope Company and all of his sales people are required to to use the Mackay 66 which tell them everything that anybody would ever want to know about their customer. Look him up at Mackay.com

Lesson –the better you understand the customers reasons for wanting to own your product they better chance you will have to have them choose you over your competition when the time for them to buy arises.