Page 345 - Duct Tape Marketing

329Chapter 21: Ten Ideas to Embrace and Ten to Avoid

People decide to tune in based on early snap judgments. If you don’t grab
them with a strong opening, they won’t be around to hear the details.

4. Sweat the little stuff.

Details tip the balance between good and great businesses. Answer your
phones with a real live voice on the second ring, and your business will
rise above the others. Promise same-day delivery and meet the promise
consistently, and you’ll create a league of your own. Come in under
budget. Anticipate customer needs. Respond to nonverbal customer
concerns.

Write prompt, personal thank-you notes. Follow up on suggestions.
Become the most reliable business your customer deals with — then
beat your own standard of excellence — and you’ll set your customer’s
expectations higher than competitors can reach.

5. Say what you mean.

Believe in your product. Believe in your price, your quality, your service,
and your value. Know everything there is to know about your product.
Know why your product and your customer are a perfect fit. Know why
your solution is better than any other option on the market. Know why
people should place faith in your offering.

Then reduce what you know — and what you believe — to a few major
points and powerful benefits that will make your prospect a believer, too.

6. Make new customers but cherish the old.

Develop new customers, of course, but develop profitability by concen-
trating efforts on your established customers. It costs five times more to
get a new customer than it does to keep a current one, and a totally satis-
fied customer is six times more apt to become a repeat buyer. Those
facts make existing customers your most lucrative marketing goldmine.

Capture the opportunity and leverage the power of your customer base
following the advice in Chapters 18 and 19.

7. Like your customers.

Everyday shopping experiences validate the fact that people buy from
people they like, and from people who seem to genuinely like them in
return.

Treat every customer as an individual. Eliminate one-size-fits-all sales
pitches. Listen to your customer’s needs and tailor your offerings in
response. Make eye contact. Build rapport. Send personally worded
follow-up messages. Deliver value and continually enhance the cus-
tomized service you train your customer to expect.

8. Increase value before lowering prices.

When customers see a price tag, they start a mental balancing act. In a
split second they perform some pretty elaborate mental calculations to