The journey begins from where you are now . . .
You are where you are now as a direct result of the actions you have taken and the
decisions you have made along the way. Where you will get to in the future will be
a result of the choices you make, starting now. Imagine today as the first day of the
rest of your business life.
Why take stock first?
It is important to assess exactly where you are now before you embark on your
journey. Many people are so busy doing that they rarely take the time out to take
stock and reflect. It is vital, from time to time, to take that vital step back from the
cut and thrust of your daily workload. If you keep on doing what you have always
been doing, you will always get what you have now.
Your challenge
You will need to be honest with yourself and focus on the facts. This may involve
some detail that you haven’t paid attention to for a while. You will need to be
disciplined as you gather this information. Don’t rely on guess work or gut feel.
Get the specifics as it is these details that will form the bedrock from which you can
move forward. If you want to grow your business you will need to know exactly
where you are starting from.
YOUR BUSINESS NOW ^ SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST
Your business
" Describe your business right now.What words express exactly where you feel you
are? Brainstorm and just jot down what comesto mind.
" Make a list of the main services/productsthat you o¡er.
" What is selling well?
" What isn’t selling well?
Turnover and pro¢t margins
" What isyour turnover?
" What isyourcurrent end of year pro¢t?
10HOW TO GET STARTED ^ EVALUATING WHERE YOU ARE NOW
Customers
" How many customers do you have?
" Where do they come from?
" What kind of pro¢le do they have?
" Who are your best customers?
" Who are your worst customers?
Business strengths
" What are the key strengthsyour business has?
" What are the key skills contained within this business?
Your attitude towards your business
" How do you feel about your business?
" What do you ¢nd di⁄cult?
" What isit that you like and enjoy?
How to use this information
Having answered these questions you will have some specific facts, thoughts and
feelings to work with. You now have a starting point. This is where you are now. It
is a good idea to mark the date in your diary or on your calendar when you did this
exercise. This information gives you a basis from which to start to think about your
future and where you want to go.
6 Evaluating how well your current
marketing is working
What is marketing?
Marketing is everything that you do to communicate your business to both your
existing and potential customers. There are many different ways that you can
market your business. Most people use a combination that works best for their
particular business.
What works and what doesn’t?
If you are spending money on marketing your business it is vital that you know
what works and what doesn’t. There is no point in investing money when what you
are doing is not bringing you a good return. So how do you know whether it is
working or not?
Your challenge
Your main challenge is continually to test and measure your marketing efforts.
Relying on gut feel is not enough. You will need some tangible feedback. Try the
following checklist indicating what you have tried and whether it was successful or
not. Note down any tangible evidence that you have to support your definition of
success. Have a look at this marketing evaluation checklist and evaluate how
successful you consider your marketing efforts have been to date.
CURRENT MARKETING EVALUATION CHECKLIST
Which of the following have you tried and how successful has it been?
Rate each area: 1 = no success, 5 = very successful
Brand identity 1 2 3 4 5
Newspaper advertising 1 2 3 4 5
Yellow Pages 1 23 4 5
Radio advertising 1 2 3 4 5
TV advertising 1 2 3 4 5
PR/articles 1 2 3 4 5
Direct mail 1 2 3 4 5
Salesletter 1 2 3 4 5
HOW TO GET STARTED ^ EVALUATING WHERE YOU ARE NOW
Networking 1 2 3 4 5
Telemarketing 1 2 3 4 5
Events/talks 1 2 3 4 5
Newsletter 1 23 4 5
Internet marketing 1 2 3 4 5
Referrals/recommendation 1 2 3 4 5
Sales person 1 23 4 5
Window displays 1 2 3 4 5
Alliance relationships 1 2 3 4 5
Special o¡ers 1 2 3 4 5
Emailmarketing 1 2 3 4 5
How successfully to test and measure your marketing
You can do this in a number of ways.
& Ask the people who enquire where they heard about your business.
& Keep a note of this information over a defined period of time and analyse it.
& Run specific offers in selected marketing options and keep a record of responses.
& Test headlines on adverts or flyers in smaller batches until you find out which gets
the best result.
& You can do the same with sales letters sent by post and email.
& When you run an event, or speak at a networking group, keep a record of how
many contacts you make and whether any business results from them.
& Do the same for networking events you attend as a participant.
& When you write an article for a business publication offer a free report that
requires the reader to make contact with you. This way you will not only get the
details of some potentially good prospects but you can test how many people read
and responded to your article.
& Before and after sales data is useful when you are running a brand awareness
campaign.
MARKETING EVALUATION ^ SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST
" Decide how you are going to evaluate your activitiesin advance.
" Keep a record of the evaluation datayou collect.
" Work out which has been the most successfulmarketing activity.
" Plan to repeat all successful activities.
" Ask yourself why certain activities have not been successful.
" Check that the marketing activitiesyou have chosen are right for the audience you
wish to target.
" Stop any expensive marketing activity that is costing more than the return it gives
you.
How to use this information
Over a period of time, monitoring and measuring the success of your marketing
will enable you to build a very clear picture of how to spend your valuable
marketing budget. There will be no more last minute decisions or trial and error,
as you will have the evidence you need at your fingertips, and you will be able to use
the information to make informed decisions.
Think, test and measure
7 Assessing the value of your current
customer base
Growing your current customer base
There are three main ways to grow any business:
& get new customers
& increase the amount your existing customers spend with you
& increase the frequency with which they do business with you.
It is easier and less expensive to build on the existing base you already have than it
is to develop new customer relationships.
What is the value of your current customer base?
Do you know?
To work out the average value of your current customer base all you need to do is
find the following figures.
& How many customers do you have?
& What is the average amount these customers spend with you?
& How many times a year do these customers spend this amount?
& What is the average length of time your customers stay doing business with you?
Number x value x frequency = value of current customer
base x length of time as a customer
1006£1,00063 = £300,00062 years = £600,000
Based on these figures each new customer you get is potentially worth £6,000.
Why is this important?
It is important to know what your current customer base is potentially worth to
you, as it gives you a starting point, a base from which to decide how you want to
grow your business.
If you use the marketing techniques detailed in this book to
& attract new customers
& get existing customers to spend more
& get existing customers to spend more often
you could potentially increase your profits by whatever figure you decide you want.
There is a vast amount of untapped potential in your business right now. All you
need to do is decide what you want and then get really good at marketing to make
it happen.
Your existing customer base probably holds the most potential for you. These are
people who are already happily doing business with you. They already spend
money regularly and probably would spend more if they had a good reason to.
You need to give them that reason.
Your challenge
Your challenge is to both maintain and develop the value of your existing customer
base. No business can afford to stand still.
What makes a customer base valuable?
If you can answer yes to the following questions, your existing customer base has
value.
& Do your existing customers spend money with you?
& Are they happy with the service you provide?
& Have you built up a relationship of trust and rapport?
& Do they come to you for the solutions to their problems?
& If asked, would they recommend or refer you to other people?
& Are they likely to have needs in the future and problems they want solving?
& Would they spend more with you if you could help them?
CUSTOMER VALUE ^ SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST
Get speci¢c with your customer sales information.
" Create a list of your main customers.
HOW TO GET STARTED ^ EVALUATING WHERE YOU ARE NOW
" How many customers do you have?
" Where do they come from?
" How much does each customer spend with you every year?
" How often does each customers use you?
" What are their particular spending patterns?
" What interests does each customer have in your business?
" What potential does each customer have to spend more with you?
How to use this information
Once you know the value of your existing client base you have a starting place.
Once you have specific customer information you can work out which business
building strategy will be most likely to appeal to particular customer groups or
individuals. If you think of each new customer having a life time value potential it
makes it even more important to value them right from the start, no matter how
little they start off spending with you.
Think customer = pot of gold
8 Finding out what existing customers
value about your business
What is customer feedback?
Customer feedback is the information that you get from your customers about the
work that you do for them, positive and negative. How do you get yours? There are
several different ways in which feedback can be gathered.
& Best and worst selling products/services.
& Repeat business.
& Behaviour and body language observation.
& Questions asked.
& Complaints.
& Verbal comments.
& Conversations with customers.
& Testimonials and letters.
& Recommendations.
& Survey information.
Why is this important?
It is important to be aware of the feedback you are getting from your customers.
This is how you learn about what is and isn’t important to the people you wish to
influence. If you are selling something that people want and you are delivering
value, you need to know about it!
This is information that you can use to attract more customers. It is also a
confidence boost for you if you know how much people value what you offer. You
can allow yourself to feel good and very proud of what you are doing. If your
business is missing what customers value most, you need to know about that as
well. This information can teach you how to make your business more attractive to
the people that you value most: your customers.
Your challenge
Your challenge is to set up a system both to gather and evaluate this information
on a regular basis. You need to be open and able to listen to customers’ views. You
will need to be prepared to ask and develop questions that are targeted to extract
HOW TO GET STARTED ^ EVALUATING WHERE YOU ARE NOW
the right information. When asking for customer feedback you will need to be
careful about guiding the customer’s mind in the right direction. If you ask ‘What
didn’t you like about the service today?’ the response can only be negative.
Whereas if you say ‘What did you think about the service today?’ and give a choice
of responses, there is a greater chance of a positive result.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ^ SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST
" What are people buying?
" What do people want to buy?
" What are their service expectations?
" What is really important in terms of product/service delivery?
" What irritates and frustrates people?
Great questions to ask
" When choosing a [your service] what do you look for?
" When buying [your service] what is most important?
" What prompted the decision to usex services?
" What have you found of most value?
" What (if anything) could we do to improve thex service we o¡er you?
" What do you like about x ?
" Which aspect of x do you ¢nd of most value?
Depending on whether you are using awritten or telephone survey, or holding a one-
to-one conversation the way you organise your questions will vary.You may use
multichoice, with a range from most important to least important, or leave them open
for comments.The important thing is that you make it easy for people to answer the
questions when you ask them. Any surveys you do ideally should comprise no more
than 10 questions.If you are conducting a telephone survey and you get some really
positive statements always ask if you can quote them.This is a very easy and quick
wayof getting testimonials.
How to use this information
A list of what your customers most value about your business can be used to help
you create all your marketing messages, your brand, your unique selling
proposition, your customer commitment statement, your list of attractive
benefits, your website or brochure copy and even your elevator speech. Knowing
what customers value is invaluable to you.
Think feedback and learn more
9 Seeing your business through the
customers’ eyes
What does this mean?
If you want to influence your customers you have to understand and relate to them.
When you see through your customers’ eyes you experience the world from a
different perspective. Imagine you have taken your customers’ glasses and you are
looking at your business through those lenses. What do you see? Do you suddenly
see it all differently? You should. Many business owners find this exercise
extremely difficult to do. Be careful that you don’t get so close to your own
business by running it day-to-day that you stop being able to see things from your
customers’ point of view.
Why this is important
It is important to switch perspectives from time to time. Making decisions about
shop layout, website design, customer communication processes and more becomes
a lot easier when you are able to imagine yourself as the customer. You will avoid
the classic pitfalls that many people make when they make elements of their service
over complicated and confusing. Most people these days want things simply,
quickly and easily. If it is complicated, slow or difficult your potential customers
will go somewhere else. This is especially true of the internet age which has
brought with it choice and speed. Very few have the patience to wait.
Your challenge
Your challenge will be to spend the time taking a look at your business through
your customers’ eyes and maintain this perspective for long enough to gain some
valuable insights.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO? ^ SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST
" Take some time out and close your eyes.
" Think about one of your typical customers.
" Describe that person to yourself.
What are they like?
How old are they?
What typically do they do each day?
HOW TO GET STARTED ^ EVALUATING WHERE YOU ARE NOW
What isimportant to them?
What are they looking for when they consider buying x?
" Now imagine yourself asthis person coming along to your business or ¢nding you
on the internet.
What do you see?
What isyour ¢rst impression?
What do you feel?
" Check out every individual aspect of your business from this perspective.You can
enter your website as a customer, you can use your service as a customer, you can
pretend to have a complaint as a customer.You can look at your advertising ^ any
numberof things. Look at what goes on in your businessthrough yourcustomers’
eyes.
" Note down the thingsthat you see.
" Try seeing through the eyes of a numberof di¡erent types of customers.
" Notice what is di¡erent and what is similar.
How to use this information
You can use this information to make changes to your business operations and
your marketing. If you do, make sure that you monitor the results of those
changes. Notice the impact that they have on your customers. Take time out to
switch perspectives as often as you can. It is a skill that you can develop and one
that is very useful to your business. Many top business entrepreneurs are very
good at this. Think about Richard Branson for example. He regularly takes time
out to see his businesses through his customers’ eyes.
Think customers’ eyes and see more
10 Assessing your personal strengths,
skills and resources
What are your strengths, skills and resources?
There is no doubt that your own personal strengths, skills and resources are a
major reason for your achievements to date. They are sure to play a major part in
the success of your business. They may well be the main reason that your customers
choose to use your service or buy your products. Are you aware of exactly what
those strengths, skills and resources actually are? You can take them for granted
because they are with you every day. Being too close to yourself can make you blind
to your own brilliance.
Why is it important to know?
Your strengths and skills are unique to you and could be a major part of what
differentiates you from others in the marketplace. They are also a major reason for
the value placed on any advice and consultancy you may give your customers.
Your strengths and skills are part of your history, the history that created the
business you have today. You may have spent years developing these skills. You
may have years and years of experience behind you. Your customers may not
necessarily know anything about this. If they did, the question is, would they see
more value in what you offer?
An awareness of and the ability to communicate the strengths and skills you have
is a very important part of your business marketing. You are at the centre of what
you are selling and the more value you place on that, the more others are likely to
as well. It can help you to communicate what you do more effectively to the
prospects and new contacts you meet. This may form part of the process you go
through to help them to appreciate the true value you are able to offer.
Your challenge
Your challenge will be to become self aware and find a useful way of making your
customers aware too. Your challenge may also be to see the value in yourself and
what you have to offer. Many of us are conditioned not to blow our own trumpet
and to be modest about those things we are good at. That is fine, but you must not
ignore the things that your customers would value and have a right to know about.
HOW TO GET STARTED ^ EVALUATING WHERE YOU ARE NOW
Your customers and prospects want the best. They want someone whom they can
trust to provide top quality expertise and deliver with skill. If that person is you,
then you are duty bound to tell them.
SELFAWARENESS ^ SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST
" What do you think your main strengths are?
" How do these strengthsimpact on your business?
" What are your key skills?
" How have you developed these skills?
" What kinds of experiences have enabled you to gain this expertise?
" How essential are these skillsto the service you are able to o¡er yourcustomers?
" Which of your skillsis valued most by yourcustomers?
" What parts of your personal history have had an impact on the strengths and skills
you are now able to demonstrate?
" What kind of training and education have you had?
" What resources do you have accessto as a result of your experiences?
" What isyour special story?
How to use this information
Going through the special response questions may make you see the true value you
bring to the table. Once your eyes are opened to your own brilliance you may find
yourself feeling more confident and more self assured. It is empowering to feel that
as a result of all your hard work and effort developing skills, strengths and
resources that you are really worth something. The benefit you offer your business
can be integrated into your marketing messages and materials. There will be
plenty of opportunity to find exactly how to do this as you read later chapters of
this book.
Think personal strength and sell ‘you’
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