4 Key Ingredients To Getting New Customers

The inspiration for this blog post "4 Key Ingredients To Getting New Customers" comes from an article from Marketing Profs. I liked the article so much I thought I would rewrite it, adding my own content and perspective for my readers. Below are the four ingredients.....

1. Attention

In the article it lists the first thing you must do to acquire customers is be noticed. I fully agree. This can be done by any advertising means (online ads, radio spot, direct mail, email marketing) or by contacting the prospect (giving them a call, emailing them directly or introducing yourself at an event). This is where your creativity comes in. In the article there is a great example of Living Social who gave away $20 Amazon gift cards for $10, which got them a lot of attention. This offer got attention because it is much more exciting and attention getting then something like a 5% offer that so many businesses do from time to time. Another way to grab peoples attention......give them something for free they would never expect to get for free. How you get their attention does not matter but you must get their attention. And when you get their attention you  want to do something that will make them remember you over your competition. You want the interaction to add value for the next time you get their attention. That way if you don't close the sale this time, you will be that much closer the next time around with that customer. Getting their attention is not enough though usually to close a sale. It is usually only enough to start a conversation. That is where the other 3 ingredients come into play....

2. Imagination

If you can engage a potential buyers mind and make them think and dream this will dramatically increase your success. Paint a picture for your prospect as to what it will be like when they buy from you to help them see this vision. Show them how much money they will make, how much time they will save, how good they will look, or whatever it is that your product/service is going to do for them. Use a compelling illustration that will stick in their minds. I personally found that my results selling my services dramatically increased when I started doing this. In my sales meetings when I am selling my services I now always quantify what working with me could look like in additional revenue and profits. This in turn gets the prospect thinking about how their business can grow and gets the prospect excited about working with me.

3. Emotions

Triggering emotions in people is a powerful way to get people to take action. This is no different in the buying process. A great way to convey and create emotions is to tell a story. In your sales presentation tell a story about your product and how someone benefited from it. If you have a story of how your product positively changed someone's life that is the best kind of story to tell. Any story told well though, will create and convey emotions. If you use the power of emotions in your sales and marketing I think you will find acquiring customers will become much easier. A perfect example is Coke. I think they have got to be one of the best at doing this. Watch this video for what I am talking about. I could not find the commercial I was thinking of but the one linked to above demonstrates the same idea of using emotion to attempt to get new business.

4. Self Benefit

And finally probably the most important concept in sales and marketing. The self benefit or "What Is In It For Me" concept. When communicating with a prospect either directly or through your marketing materials the potential customer has to be able to clearly identify what is in it for them or they will have no motivation to learn more or take action (buy from you). If you want to generate new business you need to be able to clearly and easily communicate what is in it for your prospects. Once you display what is in it for them, it is then your job to convince them that they either want or need the benefit which you are purposing. To do this rely on ingredient #2 and #3. Capture their imagination and create emotions by proposing questions, giving examples and telling stories.

If you can achieve all four above elements I think you will find that getting new customers will become much more easy. The challenge is always finding a way to achieve these four ingredients, for your business, when you are selling or marketing your products or services. Finding what works will take testing, evaluating and more testing. It will not be a fast process but if you approach generating new customers with this mindset I am confident you will see an improvement in your results when trying to find new customers.

If you are interested in reading more about specific tactics to get new customers check out this article titled 9 Tried and True Tips For Getting New Customers. Another interesting article might be my blog article on Sales Cycles, which will let you know how long it usually takes to get a new customer.

Profitworks helps various B2B small businesses in Waterloo, Ontario generate new customers. If you are interested in generating new customers for your B2B small business enter your email in the box provided below and click the Send Me Free Updates button. You will then receive free updates from this blog to your email.

Thanks for reading this article 4 Key Ingredients To Getting New Customers. If you would like to read the original article from Marketing Profs read the article titled 4 Ways to Capture Me & Make Me a Buyer Forever.