Your Competitors as a Source for New Customers

One of the better sources of new accounts among existing users of a product or service is your direct or indirect competitor.

Examination of the sales literature, catalogs, and trade releases of a competitor often reveals a pattern of distribution, a listing of good reference accounts, and often the details of best applications. Review of competitive advertising likewise points up many useful areas of concentration, selling methods, and coverage of what competitors regards to be their major markets.

Placing yourself in the role of a buyer of your own product or service is useful in identifying a competitor's influence points, likely user references, other applications that might not have occurred to you. Your own representatives can be helpful. In other words, shop around for your own product and see who else touches and end users in the distribution process. Each is a potential source of useful information. A frank discussion with some of your good customers will produce names of their competitors who might become your customers as well. Even on a limited local basis such efforts are most rewarding.

Your purchasing agent can be a most useful source of qualifying information because the agent talks to salesreps who talk to your competitors. In the field of selling, detailed attention to your competitors' activities can be as equally rewarding as attention to your own customers from the standpoint of identifying new customer opportunities, advantages, deficiencies, and needs. The cost is reasonable - an open eye or ear.

When the list is reasonable - identified, broadly qualified and manageable the personal contact or specific qualification phase begins. This takes time, but the effort will be spent on a modest group of targets that have been screened against your broad specification, qualified roughly at minimum cost and have a high probability of productivity.

Good mailing lists tied to selected group targets can help identify new accounts. By a proper offering (i.e., to conduct a free survey, to provide a sample, to solve a specific problem, to offer a study result, to provide a modest prize for best new application, etc.,) a user response can be obtained. From these responses you can qualify the potential of prospective new accounts.

Learning more about your end users can also uncover buyer habits and identifying characteristics indicative of a larger group. For instance, return warranty or registration cards could give you this information from comments or answers to a few basic questions about the product by users. This information can be matched to a larger group, expanding your viewpoint.

Look also for customers among users of alternative products or services to yours. For example, users of plastics are currently converting to die casting for various reasons. Gray iron castings can often be converted to stamped parts or forgings. Automobile buyers are acquiring motor bikes and supermarket shoppers are buying less at the store and eating out more at fast food restaurants. Such habits may bring back some lost customers or make you volnerable to pressures from the indirect competition.

Convincing a potential user to try your product or service is the next step after you have found and qualified your prospects. This step is the pay off for all your efforts and investment to attract qualified customers. Convincing the potential user to try your product or service is often similar to qualifying customers according to your specifications.

You search in a specific market area for customers that are stable companies with solid needs for your products or services. They will do repeat business and pay their bills. And you are able to come to terms and do business with them.

Keeping customers involves giving service, getting paid, measuring account profitability, expanding customer buying, and then repeating all the steps to get and to keep good customer accounts.

Remember, treat old customers the way you service new ones and you may not need so many new ones.

The Profit Evaluation

How did you do against the measure you set for yourself? Is the trend better? Are your customers delivering the quality of volume that you want? Tracking your progress is very important. Let's say you were shooting for no increase in fixed costs and $70,000 more profit contribution on the bottom line from new accounts.

Chart your actual results:

There is more to getting new accounts than just chasing the volume they produce. Obviously the quality of the volume is more important. Measure your required standard, not just for the amount, but for the profit yield of the volume and the trend for the future.

The new customer development method proposed here emphasized the who, what, why, when and where of volume rather than merely the how much. This takes thoughtful planning, detailed research and screening and some expense but you do get profitable results.

This Report offers managing your business tips and Handle business advice. But you aren't ready to begin your own company till you
have given some thought to handling it. A business is a continuous activity that doesn't run itself. As the supervisor you'll need
to set goals, determine how to achieve those goals and make all the required decisions. You'll have to buy or make your product,
cost it, promote it and sell it.

You will have to keep documents, and determine costs. You will have to Control stock, make the right buying decisions and keep
prices down. You'll have to employ, train and motivate employees today or as you develop.

Setting Business Management Goals. Good small business management Is the key to success and good management starts with
establishing goals. Set goals for yourself for the accomplishment of many tasks required in establishing and managing your
business successfully. Be specific. Write down the goals in measurable terms and conditions of functionality. Break big targets
down to sub-goals, demonstrating what you expect to achieve in the next two to three weeks, the next six months, the next calendar
year, and the next five decades. Beside each target and sub-goal place a particular date showing when it is to be achieved.

Plan the action you must take to attain the goals. While the attempt Required to reach each sub-goal should be great enough to
challenge one, it should not be so good or unreasonable as to discourage you. Don't plan to achieve too many goals all at one
time. Establish priorities.

Plan in advance how to quantify results so you can know exactly the way Well you are doing. This is what's meant by"measurable"
goals. If you can not keep score as you move along you are likely to eliminate motivation. Re-work your plan of action to permit
for obstacles which may stand in your way. Try to foresee obstacles and plan ways to avert or minimize them.

Buying. Skillful buying is an important essential of Managing a business. This is true whether you are a wholesaler or retailer of
product, a producer or a service company proprietor. Some retailers say it is the most important single factor. Merchandise that's
carefully purchased is easy to sell.

Determining what to purchase means finding out the type, kind, quality, Brand, size, colour, style -whatever applies to your
specific inventory - which will sell the very best. This requires close attention to salespeople, trade journals, catalogs, and
especially the preferences of your regular customers. Analyze your earnings documents. Even the manufacturer should view the issue
through the eyes of clients before deciding what materials, components, and materials to buy.

Know your regular clients, and also make a Fantastic evaluation of the People you hope will become your customers. In what
socioeconomic category are they? Are they homeowners or renters? Are you currently looking for price, quality or style? What is
the predominant age group?

The age of your customers can be a prime consideration in Establishing a buying pattern. Young men and women buy more often than
most elderly people. They need greater, have fewer duties, and spend more on themselves. They're more conscious of fashion trends
whether in wearing apparel, automobiles or electronic equipment. If you choose to appeal to the young trade because they appear
dominate in your town, your buying pattern will be completely different than if the more conservative middle-aged customers appear
to be in most.

Study trade journals, newspaper advertisements, catalogs, window Displays of companies like yours. Ask advice of salespeople
offering you product, but purchase sparingly from several providers rather than one, analyzing the water, so to speak, until you
know what your best lines would be.

Finding suitable merchandise sources is not simple. You may buy Directly from manufacturers or producers, from wholesalers,
distributors or jobbers. Pick the providers who sell exactly what you need and can deliver it if you need it. (Distributors and
jobbers are used by the majority of business people for fast fill-ins between factory shipments.)

You may spread purchases among many suppliers to gain more Favorable rates and promotional stuff. Or you might concentrate your
purchases among a few suppliers to simplify your credit issues. This may also allow you to become known as the seller of a certain
brand or line of merchandise, and to keep a fixed standard in your goods, if you are buying materials for manufacturing purposes.

When to purchase is important if your business will have seasonal Variations in sales volume. More stock will be needed prior to
the seasonal upturn in sales volume. As earnings decline, less merchandise is necessary. This means purchases of goods for resale
and materials for processing must vary accordingly.

At the outset, how much to buy is insecure. The best coverage is To be frugal until you have had enough experience to judge your
needs. On the other hand, you can't sell product in case you don't have it.

To help solve buying issues, you should begin to maintain stock Control records at once. This can allow you to keep the inventory
in equilibrium - neither too large nor too small - with a suitable proportion and decent range of products, sizes, colours, styles
and qualities.

Fundamentally, there are two Kinds of stock control - management in Bucks and control in physical units. Dollar controllers show
the sum of money invested in every product category. Unit controls indicate the amount of individual items when and from whom
bought by class. A fantastic inventory control system is able to help you determine what, from whom, when, and how much to
purchase.

Pricing. Much of your success in manage a business will depend on The best way to price your services. If your Rates are too low,
then you will not cover Expenses; too high and you'll lose sales volume. In both cases, you won't Make a profit.

machine-shop maid-service mailbox makeup-artist makeup-studio manpower-agency marketing-consultant mary-kay masonry massage meal-prep mechanic medical-billing medicine-wholesale men-clothing merchandise metal-fabrication microfinance microfinance microgreens milk-dairy million-dollar mineral-water mink-lash mobile-app mobile-car-wash mobile-mechanic momos money-transfer mortgage-broker moving mug-printing mushroom music-studio mystery-box nail-art office-space-rental oil-change oil-mill oil-refinery online-retail optical organic-farming outsourcing owner-operator-trucking paintball-field paper-bag-making parking-lot