If you are interested in growing your business more people must hear about you.  The cycle that a lot of small businesses find themselves in goes like this.  They do a little marketing which turns up some good leads that they then proceed to try and sell to.  While selling, they tend to forget about marketing.  Once they have made a sale or two the focus shifts to servicing that customer.  This is especially true for larger sales or sales like mine where once the sale is made, a fair bit of time has to go into getting a customer up and running with our service.  When this is going one, it is easy to stop selling just like you stopped marketing because now you have something else more pressing on your plate.  Once that customer is up and running and satisfied, most small business owners come to the conclusion they need more customers so they start marketing again.  And the cycle repeats.

This is a difficult way to run a business.   Like most things, once marketing has some momentum, it is much easier to do.  But momentum can not be built in a stop and start fashion.  It requires constant action.  Not necessarily big action, but constant action.  When I found myself in this situation, I decided to dedicate just 4 little hours a week specifically to dealing marketing my company.  I now often do more than 4 hours of marketing a week but I always do at least 4.  I do it on Mondays…”Marketing Mondays” as I call them.  I chose Monday simply because I like the sound of “Marketing Mondays”.  Now, obviously, from time to time I can not have my Marketing Mondays so I do it on Tuesday.  Radical…yes.  Important….yes.  Regardless of when you do it, make sure you spend time telling people about your business.  If you can create a constant flow of sales leads your business will grow.  It has to.  But to do that you must have a constant marketing letter.

This past Marketing Monday I did these three things….

1.  I sent out a broad cast email to every user who has an account in my database.  I updated them on a few changes in goverment policy that were relevant to them and reminded them of the other services I provide.  The email went out to 600 people and I now have 4 new leads to follow up with.

2.  I secured a list of agencies Canada wide that receive government funding that are of the same type of agencies that currently subscribe to my tracking system.  I put together a flyer and, as we speak, I have a stack of flyrs on my left, and a stack of envelopes on my right.  300 to be specific.  I have been stuffing a few here and there as I have had time this week.

3.  I found out that I can advertise on an associations website that has a whole bunch of members who look exactly like the users in my database.  I have had a banner ad produced and it will start running in the next few days.

Like I said.  The marketing things don’t have to be hugh.  But they do have to be something.  So dedicate some time to it.  And just in case you like the bigger picture, I also dedicate certain mornings and afternoons for other things as well.  I just find it easier if the time is set aside specifically for an activity rather than hoping it happens sometime during the week.

I will not for get the meeting I had 3 years ago with my now best client.  This particular client uses my tracking system (www.simplects.com) to track clients in 4 different programs.  When I met them the first time it was specifically for 1 of those programs.  But sitting in the back of the meeting was a diminutive litte lady who sat quietly while I did my presentation.  After I was done, she started.  Questions and lots of them.   They kept coming and coming and I barely knew who this woman was.   In the back of my mind are started wondering if I wanted them as a client quickly do the math in my head about how much time I would need to spend with them and how finicky they might be.  None the less, the bought the system and now are my biggest client in terms of dollars and usage.

But that is not what makes them my best client.  They are my best client because they incessantly talk about the lengths I went to and go to to make sure they get what they need.  She tells everyone.   I mean every one.  I have got clients in other provinces because of her.  I recently got back from Saskatchewan setting up two more clients out there and will probably be returning to set up my third and largest client in Saskatchewan.  As an added bonus, as an indirect result of her talking about me, I have a lead that my literally triple my business in Saskatchewan.   All from one person.  My best client.  So do you think I take good care of her…..you bet.  It is the least I can do.

It is easy to forgot that your clients are some of your best sales people.  Treat them as such.  All of them.  Some will lead to more things than other.  But you never know which ones will be your star performers.   But when you do, when you figure out who is sending you all those potential leads, say thank you in a meaningful way.

Lessons

1.  Never forget you clients are your best sales people.  It is one thing for you to tell people how wonderful you are, it is another thing to have other people do it.

2.  Always ask where someone heard about you from and keep track.  It will become very obvious very quickly which customers are really helping you out.  You could even look at this in reverse and see which ones send you nothing and then ask why…..are you not doing enough for them?  Are they getting what they need from you?  Have you bent over backwards for them or just done the bare minimum.

3.  If your customers need you that’s great.  If they love what you do for them not only does it significantly reduce the chance of them leaving you for someone else,  but they will tell others.  and as the old hair shampoo ad goes, and she told two friends, and they told two friends, and they told two friends…..

What I like the most about it from a business perspective (from a personal perspective nothing beats seeing your kids just having fun trying and doing something new) was the reminder about different kinds of customers….

1. The people that drove by, stopped at the driveway next door, put thier cars in reverse and came back to buy a cup. These are great customers to have….few and far between but they are sold the minute the see your business.

2. Those that wallk by and are kind enough to come over and ask a few questions and may or may not buy some lemonade. This is where a lot of customers are. If you market correctly, you will attact enough and have a needed product, you will get enough opportunity to sell to these people.

3. Those that cross the road to avoid any possiblity of coming into contact with the high pressure sales tactics of a 4 and 6 year old. We had a few of those.

It was a good reminder to me that it is not worth trying to sell to everyone just because they happen on by. Use your time on those potenital customers that are at least in category 1 or 2. Those in number 3 will consume more resources than they provide.

My kids made $4.25 at thier first lemonade stand and the biggest debate was how to equitable split the last quarter. I decided that perhaps the lesson on cost of goods was best saved for another day and wrote the cost of the lemons off to being a parent.

Have we done something wrong?  Did I anger my customers?  Do I no longer provide the best tracking system around at a reasonable cost?  No, no and no.  The source of my problem is the government.  A change in government policy is about to take away probably 40 of my business.   In truth I knew  this day has been coming.  One  level of government that funds my clients have been saying for about  2 years that they would be providing a software package for them to use.  If the people that give you your money say “You shalt do this”, then you shall do that, so I do blame my customers.  I am a little ticked because I never saw this go to tender or and RFP and I do monitor those things so I will be asking a few questions but essentially that ship has sailed.  Truth be told even if I had seen a tender or RFP I could have bid on the work and still lost and still be losing 40% of my clients.  So the bigger question now is what to do?  Regardless of the source of loss of revenue, at some point in every companies history they face a situation where sales take a big hit for one reason or another.  Think of Maple Leaf Meats with the lysteriosis outbreak last summer.  Go back in history to when Tylenol had their packaging tampered with.  Think of when the government had to bail out Banks and Automotive Makers in the United States.  At some point, be it, poor business planning, sabotage, contaminated products, or something else, every company will have some sort of crisis.  Mine is the government.

So what to do.  Basically you have three choices.  The first is do nothing and die a slow death.  Second is wind up/ sell off what business you have left and move onto something else.  Third is to put on your entrepreneurs hat and deal with the situation at hand.  Lets look at each one.

1.  Die a slow death.  This does not sound good.  However, depending on the circumstance this may be a good option.  My business is a subscription based service that can run with minimal intervention from me.  So I do have the option of starting to do something new (ie another business or a regular job) and my business will carry on for a while until all my customers are gone which may take literally years.  During that time, if I got another job for example, I would be earning a salary while picking up a nice piece of easy money on the side.
2. Wind up/ Sell off what business I have left.  While my revenues are still going to take a large hit, I certainly still have a viable business which I or someone else can work at and.  So I could look for a potential buyer or even entertain the thought of selling my tracking system to the customers I have left.
3. Put on my entrepreneurs hat and deal with the situation at hand.  This would most certainly require looking at my product and see what other markets, be they geographical or different customers altogether,  that might be able to use my system.

All three are potential options and the choice will entirely depend upon your specific circumstances.

I can tell you right now that option 3 is the one I will be pursuing.  In fact, truth be told, when I found out that this was a the potential situation,  I began doing some planning.  That planning included seeking out similar clients with alternate funding sources.  Infact, the only reason I am *only* losing 40% of my clients is that 2 years ago, i shifted my focus to other potential clients.  Many many times when business go thorough a ‘crisis’ or even an individual goes though a job loss, the tell tale signs are on the wall long before the crisis occurs.  The trick is of course to be aware of those signs and find the balance between prudent planning and becoming chicken little.

Lessons.

1.  Never have so much of your sales tied up in one client or group of clients that if you lose them you sink.
2. If you find your self in situation number 1, then begin now…I mean now…of finding alternate customers.  A stable business is one that does not depend solely on one stream of revenue or one major client or client group.
3. Look for the signs.  They may come as inconspicuous emails from clients, changes in government policy, changes in downline sales from your clients….they may be hard to find but they are there.  The best place to start is understanding not your business but your clients business.

One of the most common problems people have when first starting out it actually starting to sell.  What tends to happen a lot is people get their business idea and start to do all the prep work.  They start to build a website perhaps, design business cards, work on or improve their product….all useful things.  But a lot of the time, they get so busy doing these things, into their consciousness creeps a thought that goes something like this….”I’ll be ‘ready’  to actually start selling something when I get this thing ready or get that thing done”.  Well once “this” thing or “that” thing is done, up pops something else that “must” be done before the selling can start.  And on and on it goes.

When I made my first sale, I had a proto type of my tracking system but no actual working system.   An unconscionable thought to some but the difference between selling something and actually have the thing your selling is a wide gap.  Some may worry about actually making a sale and being able to deliver the goods because they are not “ready”.  I can in almost every case guarantee that if you make a sale without have the ‘finished version’ of whatever it is you are selling, your head will spin with how fast you can all of a sudden be ready to deliver whatever it is you just sold.  Once you have a sale, it will become very clear to you the things that “need” to be done.  That list of things you thought you needed to do before you could sell something quickly evaporates and is replaced by the true must dos.

Lessons:

1. You are probably delusional about your must do list.  Most people are.  If you want to figure out what really must be done, sell something.  You do not really have a business until you do.
2. Be realistic about what you can deliver.  Do not promise the moon because you read this and thought if you sold a rocket ship all of a sudden you will be able to build one.  Have a realistic understanding of how far you are from being able to provide your product or service.  Your product does not have to be finished in order to sell it.  It has to be finished in order for people to start using it and there are in a lot of cases a time gap between those two points.