Gaining New Customers Lytham St Annes

Gaining new customers is a key part of growing a business and can also strengthen an enterprise by reducing its reliance on just one or two major customers. Winning new business is much harder than maintaining what you already have, but there are a number of ways of going about it.

'Create an environment that shows you are easy to do business with, that you can handle complaints and that you mean what you say,' explains John Leach, of management consultants Strategem, and author of Pitch Perfect. 'When you've won a contract, it’s important to deliver on your promises. This is the starting point for building trust, which is key to winning new business.'

Know your customer
Understanding your existing customers in some detail will go a long way to helping identify new ones, believes Leach. Being selective about which prospects you go after means you can make the best of the resources at your disposal. Decide how you are going to reach your customers and choose your marketing tools carefully, based on their effectiveness and relative cost.

Once a prospective customer has been earmarked, it is well worth doing some more research to find out as much as possible about them before actually making contact. Make sure your sales team learn how the prospects’ industry operates and their position in it, their strategy and history, and gather information on the key people running the business, including, most importantly, who makes the buying decisions. Subscribing to a business information service can be an effective way of doing this.

In the interests of saving time, if you are accompanying sales staff to meet potential client yourself, attempt to arrange meetings with several target prospects in the same area so you can maximise the value of your journey. Furthermore, potential customers are often interested to know that you are busy in their region.

Personality goes a long way
Once you’ve made contact and have an appointment to meet the right people, make sure you are prepared. Anticipate any problems that may arise and questions that will be thrown at you, particularly about your unique selling points.

People often make decisions based on the people they meet, so building a relationship is vital, particularly if there is no significant difference between rival products
or services. This is where listening skills come in. Be attentive, remember details and make the buyer feel special.

Even at this late stage, if there is doubt in your mind, do not be afraid to walk away; a difficult customer could cause hassles for your company such as lengthy payment periods, or worse, not being paid at all. It may be better to let one go now than to deal with problems later.

Should you still be interested after the meeting, do not let it slide. Following up means they will remember you and shows you are hungry for their business, without appearing to pester them.

When the deal is in the bag, ‘don’t miss the opportunities to cross-sell withi...

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