Customer Creation Basics

By Sean Woodruff

It’s often been said that “The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” Sounds great, but how do you do it? Here are some simple actions you can take today to crank up your “customer creation machine.”

Action #1
Gather copies of all your brochures, ads, letters, business cards and every other piece of information that is seen by potential prospects. Pile them all on your desk and examine them one by one.

• Run them through a “So what?” filter. In other words, when a prospect looks at the information, does it answer the question, “So what’s in it for me?”
• Do your materials have a headline that grabs the attention of your prospect and invites him to see what is in it for him?
• Does the copy speak to what the benefits are instead of the past “18 years of quality service?” Customers don’t care about the last 18 years; they care about the service they can get now!
• Is there a call-to-action that specifically tells the prospect what to do and offers something for doing it? “Call today for a copy of my ’Free’ Report,” or “How to Double Your Income by Eliminating Clutter in Your Garage!” are better than “American Garage Sale Consultants.”

If everything doesn’t pass through the “So what?” filter, it is time to start rewriting with customer creation in mind.

Action #2
Compile a list of all of your customers for the past year.

• Look at the money they have each put in your pocket and rank the list highest to lowest.
• Take the top 20% of the names and phone every one of them, using the following script. (I know, I know, you hate scripts. The problem is, you use them whether you think you do or not, so you might as well write one out and make it work. The key is to practice it enough so that, like an Oscar-winning performance, it becomes internalized and doesn’t sound like a script.)

“Hello Bob, this is Sean calling from Hensley Manufacturing. I was just doing an audit of my records and realized I haven’t called to thank you for being one of my absolute best customers. So, thank you!”

“Would you mind answering a couple of questions for me? Why do you do business with me? What could I do better for you?”

I guarantee you will get the most valuable customer creation information ever. Your customer will give you the actual reasons they are putting money in your pocket.

Action #3
Integrate your notes from Action #2 into Action #1.

Do you touch on all the points your best customers have told you put money in your pocket? If not, imagine the impact your information would have if you did.

Take these three actions and you will likely double or even triple the amount of business you are doing. Print them out, follow them and you will be on your way to building a Constant Customer Creation Machine that will provide the life you deserve for years to come.

NOTE: This article originally appeared on the e-zine, “Winning Without Intimidation,” subscribe-wwi@talkbiz.com, published by Bob Burg, bob@burg.com

For additional information on this subject, consider these AMA Seminars:

• Customer Service Excellence: How to Win and Keep Customers
  
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
  

Click here for a complete listing of AMA seminars.

Author Bio: Sean Woodruff is a Michigan entrepreneur who specializes in Customer Creation. He can be contacted at stwoodruff22@comcast.net or 800-410-6580 Ext.100