Meet the customer of today, and tomorrow.
“I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your company’s product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your company’s customers.
I don’t know your company’s record.
I don’t know your company’s reputation.
Now – what was it you wanted to sell me?” – from an advertisement by McGRAW-HILL MAGAZINES ( ironically, a very old advertisement).
Whatever you believe about the downturn, whether it’s real or a media beat up, there’s enough talk about it out there for it to be affecting the way people are going to behave.
There’s any number of opinion’s and research on what form the change in behaviour will take. A few things that ring true include:
- Customers are tougher. They’re more demanding and expect you to go the extra mile or they’ll take their business elsewhere.
- Trust will be more important in the decision making process.
- Customers are cutting back their spending.
We could come up with a hundred others, and they wouldn’t be true for everybody. The important question for business owners is this…
* Are you still doing the same things you were doing at this time last year?
If that’s working for you, great. If you find you’re having to work harder to make the same money you were making last year; if you’re feeling squeezed, then chances are what you were doing last year isn’t working anymore.
Some tips for changing your behaviour to meet new market conditions:
1. Networking. Turning up and going through the motions isn’t good enough anymore. Know your objectives and start teaching people in your network ‘what to look for and what to listen for’ so they can be more effective in picking up referrals for you.
2. Customer behaviour. Survey your customers and the people in your network. Find out what they’ve changed in their behaviour and then figure out how (if everybody was behaving that way) it will impact your business. For example, perhaps they’re spending more on maintenance and less on new stuff…
3. Your business. Look at this time last year. What were you busy with? Is it the same this year? Are you doing more of, less of? How does that impact your earning potential? Depending on what your customer’s are doing, what do you need to do differently?
4. Learn. Start surfing the web, taking books out of the library and attending courses and seminars on marketing, business planning, strategy, customer service, change management . Adding to your knowledge will give you fresh ideas, renewed energy and a better sense of security because, finally, you’ll be taking control of your own future rather than allowing yourself to be tossed this way and that by environmental factors beyond your control.
