In the last post we talked about how to learn about your big fish and prepare for the first contact you’ll make with them. This first contact is essential to your success. You need to instill confidence in them. They need to know you can fulfill exactly what you are offering on time, at a good price and at the quality you promise.

Today we’ll actually go through the big approach and how to make that perfect first impression. Before you put together your approach plan, you need to choose which big fish you’re going after. Take a look at your notes and the research you’ve done about prospective fish. Then decide which one will be the easiest approach to start out with.

There are a series of things to go through in choosing which fish to start with.

They are:

• Position Your Business
• Compile Your Hit List
• Select the Best Target

Position Your Business

You need to position your business to make the first move by listing your revenue streams, your operational procedures, where your fish is initially positioned, your big-customer research, and putting it all together.

Compile Your Hit List

Start with a list of all the companies you’ve been considering. Then narrow it down to the ones who know could use your products or services. Don’t overlook obvious choices, whether they are big or small. Even small companies could be big fish in the future.

Select the Best Target

Once you’ve got your list narrowed down, you need to decide which one is the best fish to start with.

You need to consider a couple of things:

• Which have the most purchasing resources to spend?
• Does their company vision compliment yours?
• What are their employee incentive programs as they relate to your products/services?
• What’s the company’s real need for you?
• Will the partnership lead you off-course?

Now you should have a target in mind to start with. It’s time to plan your approach and execute that plan.

Here’s the step-by-step plan to help you make a good first impression:

1. Build and analyze your database. Divide your leads into three different categories: hot leads, great fits, and secondary leads.
2. Send out introductory mailings to your target to introduce yourself, your company, services, products, and vision. They need to be short, clean, and concise.
3. Follow up with your first phone call 2-3 days after they would have received the mailings. During the phone call find out whom you need to be speaking with in the future and try to set up a meet with the right person.
4. Follow up your phone call with another mailing that thanks them for taking the time to speak with you and offer more details about your products/services. Use this letter and opportunity to set up a meeting to do a presentation.
5. Follow up the letter with another phone call a couple of days after they would have received the letter. This phone call is to help you further develop your relationship with the prospective client. You should also be able to set up a presentation meeting with them.
6. Call again a week later if they haven’t agreed to a meeting or presentation. Ask if they received your creative letter (the second one) and if they have a minute when you can stop by and introduce yourself in person.

Now, don’t be upset if you don’t seal the deal right away. Some people simply take a little longer to woo. This can all be a little intimidating at first, but when you know you are offering a quality product/service, you can’t go wrong.

Once you’ve gone through this process and make first contact (and hopefully a good first impression) it’s time to put your best face forward, which means sending the right salesperson to seal the deal.

If you need help putting together your approach and make a good first impression, try our FREE test drive to work with a coach and have access to a wealth of great resources and tools.

In the last post we started our series on catching big clients, or “fish”, that will sustain your business over the long run. Today we’re going to take that a step further by talking about how to understand and think like a big fish company and how that can help you plan your approach and find success.

Before you can start the process of landing big clients, you have to make sure your entire team is onboard with your approach and vision.

There are six keys to finding big client success. They are:

First Impression:

You must remember you have one shot to land a big client. If you make a mistake, they aren’t going to consider you again. Never give them a reason to doubt your abilities.

First Priority:

Your fish must always feel like they are your first priority. Returns calls and emails immediately and find solutions to their problems or questions as quickly as possible.

Flexible:

You need to be flexible in your negotiations. If they need a special service or for you to customize a product, say yes for the benefit of the long term. A little hassle now will be a big pay off later.

Long-term:

This goes along with the last one a bit. As you are approaching and negotiating with big fish you need to think about the long term benefits for your business. If you go for a ones-time big score you will lose their interest.

Have Fun:

Work should be fun, even when trying to land big clients. In fact, this should be the most fun. You are sharing your vision with new people and including them in your future success and likewise. People simply work better in a fun, happy environment. Your passion will also be contagious and pull the fish into your vision even more.

Help Them:

If you take just a little bit of time and offer your clients ways to save money or time by introducing them to potential business partners, this will show you really are invested and interested in their business. Strive to find balance between your business needs and your client’s needs.

There are also a few tactics you can use to bring in a big-company vision to the people on your team. You can:

• Post these six keys for all to see.
• Put together a performance based incentive program.
• Conduct frequent team meetings.
• Use a “right now” policy that dictates big fish calls be answered immediately.
• Offer awards/recognition for big-company ideas and executions.
• Put together a training and certification program based on the six keys above.

These 6 keys and tips will help you instill a big-company mindset through your company which will help you be more prepared and more likely to land your big fish. Once your team is thinking this way, you’ll be unstoppable.

If you need help putting together an incentive program or other way to push your team toward the big-company mindset, try our FREE test drive to work with one of our coaches or check out our resources and tools.

The Rule of 1% is simply defined as improving your customer service by one percent at a time. Before you can do this, you must have your consistency perfected, or it will never work. Though one percent may seem small, if you approach the vision for your company with incremental steps, you will notice a significant improvement over a substantial period. Remember, it’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

Avoid trying to do too much at once, as it can set you up for failure. Consider the confidence you and your employees will gain when you make a one percent improvement each week. By the end of a year, you will have achieved more than a 50% improvement!

While rules and standards are necessary for growth, it’s essential to remain flexible with your best customers. Many retailers limit the number of items customers can take into a dressing room to reduce the risk of shoplifting, but this policy often inconveniences a large percentage of people who are not stealing from you. Flexibility is the key to delivering what your customers need, while consistency is crucial for how you deliver it.

The bottom line is that customers depend on you to deliver what you promise. If you invest too heavily in extravagant advertising that makes commitments beyond what you can fulfill, even with the best intentions, your efforts will unravel swiftly, leading to failure.

Focus on your vision and take small steps to transform your satisfied customers into raving fans.

I hope you have learned a lot about the importance of good customer service for your overall success. If you need assistance with any of the steps we’ve covered in the last four lessons, consider trying our FREE test drive, which grants you access to some of the best resources, tools, and coaches available.

In upcoming posts, we will explore strategies for acquiring and retaining major clients.

In the last post, we discussed the first secret to creating a robust customer service plan and how to determine your vision.

Today, we’ll discuss the second secret to transforming satisfied customers into Raving Fans: understanding your customers’ needs. To effectively serve your customers, you must know who they are, and demographics play a crucial role here. For example, an upper-class woman in her 30s will have vastly different expectations compared to a blue-collar worker in his 50s.

There are four main areas you need to consider and plan when figuring out what your customers want:

• Listen to Your Customers
• Ask Your Customers Sincerely
• Offer More than Just a Product/Service
• Know When to Ignore Them

All of these factors are essential when determining what your customers want from their shopping experience.

Listen to Your Customers

You need to listen to both what customers explicitly say and what they may imply. Sometimes, customers might request one thing but actually prioritize something else. For instance, if customers are asking for lower prices, you might discover that their primary concern is fast delivery.

Additionally, pay attention to your ‘silent’ customers. These are the ones who don’t complain because the service has been so poor that they’ve simply given up, feeling that their voices don’t matter. They sense being unappreciated, and if a competitor emerges, they’re likely to switch.

Finally, it’s important to pay attention to customers who respond with a simple “fine”. These customers resemble the ‘silent’ customers in that they’ve grown accustomed to poor customer service, leading them to provide a monotonous response.

Ask Your Customers Sincerely

If you lack sincerity when seeking their opinions, they’ll easily see through you. You might wonder about the customers who remain silent. In that case, you should pose sincere questions that prompt them to reflect on their experiences. Make them feel genuinely valued, which you should be!

Offer More than Just a Product/Service

Your customers seek more than just a product or service; they desire an experience that leaves them feeling satisfied. They evaluate every step of the process. When you acknowledge this and treat them as individuals, they will sense a genuine sense of belonging.

Know When to Ignore Them

You might believe that this goes beyond delivering excellent customer service, but in truth, you can’t cater to every need, and you won’t always be able to please everyone. It’s essential to establish limits and adhere to them. If your vision and company aren’t aligned with a customer’s needs, they may be better off seeking a solution elsewhere.

These are the steps and tricks for determining what your customers want and how you can utilize them to develop your customer service vision and plan.

If you find yourself stuck, consider taking advantage of our FREE test drive, and let us assist you through the process.

In the previous post, we discussed the first three of the 7 specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process.

Here are all seven again:

• Primary Aim
• Strategic Objectives
• Organizational Strategy
• Management Strategy
• People Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Systems Strategy

These 7 areas will fine tune your plan for the ultimate level of success.

Today we are going to cover the last four.

Think of building your business model as planting a tree. Initially, it’s small and fragile, and you might wonder if it will survive the night. However, by consistently watering, fertilizing, and nurturing it, your ideas will strengthen the trunk, and each of these strategies will grow into the branches of your now robust tree. Discovering the right support staff, employees, vendors/suppliers, and other relationships will enable your tree to flourish with leaves and flowers.

Management Strategy

The way you structure your management team is crucial not only to your growth but also to the happiness of your employees and, ultimately, your customers or clients. This strategy is results-oriented and relies on the system in place rather than solely on individuals.

In short, a management strategy consists of standards that encompass goals, rules, a mission statement, and other tangible elements that instruct your employees on how to act, guide your management in growing your business, and inform your customers or clients about what to expect.

All of these elements should be in perfect alignment with your business goals.

Employee Appreciation

You should create a people strategy that conveys your appreciation for your employees’ job performance and dedication to your business. It’s also important for them to understand the ‘why’ behind their specific tasks. This helps them establish a personal connection to their work, resulting in improved productivity and a more content workplace.

There are a number of strategies you can use to keep it interested at “the office”:

• Performance Incentive Programs
• Contests that reward high performance
• Employee of the Month
• Performance/Holiday Bonuses

These are just a few ideas you can implement. One of the most effective ways to show appreciation to your employees is by holding a meeting and asking them how they would like to be rewarded. Take some time to consider their input and implement the best strategy. To keep things fresh, periodically change the approach you use, so your employees are pleasantly surprised. Once they become accustomed to one incentive, it’s time for an entirely new approach.

You should foster a sense of community within your company, characterized by support, appreciation, and respect. The more an employee feels “at home”, the better they will perform and the higher their level of loyalty.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing is, of course, essential for the success of any business, but it must also work cohesively with the other strategies you’re employing. There are two major pillars of a successful marketing strategy: the demographic and psychographic profiles of your customers.

The psychographic information reveals what your customers are most likely to buy, while the demographic information tells you who they are. This can help you understand why they purchase specific items. Without this information, the quality of your business prototype becomes irrelevant.

Systems Strategy

There are three types of systems in every business:

• Hard Systems
• Soft Systems
• Information Systems

Hard systems refer to inanimate systems or systems that lack ‘life.’ Soft systems, on the other hand, can involve living elements. Information systems encompass everything else, including customer data, product information, finances, and anything involving data and numbers.

Among all three systems, the most crucial is the soft system, as it encompasses the sales systems your business employs. Within your sales system, the two keys to success are structure and substance. Structure refers to what you sell, while substance pertains to how you sell it.

All three systems are vital to the success of your business, and though they have distinct roles, they must all collaborate to accomplish the task. This principle also applies to your entire business development program.

I’d like to take a moment to recap the ideas we covered in the business development lessons.

An entrepreneurial myth, or e-myth, is an assumption that anyone can succeed at business with:

• Desire
• Some capital
• Projected a targeted profit

There are essentially three key roles that need to be filled to set your business up for success:

• The Technician
• The Manager
• The Entrepreneur

The four different stages of a business life cycle are:

• Infancy
• Adolescence
• Growing Pains
• Maturity

There are a few things we are going to talk about:

• Business Format Franchise
• The Franchise Prototype
• Franchise Prototype Standards

There are three main areas of business development:

• Innovation
• Quantification
• Orchestration

7 specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process.

Here are all seven again:

• Primary Aim
• Strategic Objectives
• Organizational Strategy
• Management Strategy
• People Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Systems Strategy

We can assist you in addressing all of these areas and provide your business with a jumpstart that places you ahead of your competition right from the beginning. Utilize our FREE test drive, collaborate with one of our coaches, and gain access to a wealth of tools and resources.