My
12 year old son came up to me this morning and said,
"Dad, for my New Year's resolution, I resolve to be
awesome this year!" I couldn't help but laugh at
his joke and upon further reflection, realized that
perhaps we all should set as our first and foremost New
Year's resolution to be awesome this
year, particularly when it comes to understanding and
serving our most valuable customers.
The front page of the Wall Street Journal
on January 9th showed abysmal December same-store sales
results: Neiman Marcus down 28%, Abercrombie &
Fitch down 28%, Macy's down 4%, and Wal-Mart up
1.7%. Wal-Mart is up 16% for the year, and Family
Dollar Stores, a 6000-strong discount chain is up 33%
and is the top performer of the S&P 500 for
2008. A CEO of a B2B company I was speaking with
last week told me that his biggest concern was that he
would lose his customers to the low-price competitors
that had been nipping at his heels for years. As I
mentioned in last month's newsletter, customers are
trading downwards.
As heretical as this may
sound, now may be the time to focus less on
acquiring new customers and more on keeping your most
valuable customers at (almost) any cost.
Your customer's world has most
likely been tipped upside down and dumped out.
They've lost customers, slashed budgets, postponed
projects, and laid off staff. Any customer
intelligence you may have had is probably
obsolete. If you thought you knew what drove them
to purchase or what features they prized highly, odds
are high that they've all changed. Customers are
re-evaluating their ROI-do you know how you fare?
You need to draw your best customers
closer to you. Spend time with the
highest-priority customers personally. Ensure your
staff reconnects with your best customers. Find
out how their value equation is changing. What are
they going through? What are their priorities now
and for the coming year? Most importantly, what do
they need from you to be successful in achieving their
own goals?
Are there other needs
that you hadn't considered before that may present
further product/service/revenue opportunities? If
customers are going to be trading downwards, is there a
way that you can introduce a "lite" product or service
at a lower price so that even if they trade down they
are still in your franchise, enabling you to potentially
upsell them after the rebound?
For many
customers, having a true partner willing to help them
through these hard times may just be the deciding factor
between trading down to a lower-priced competitor and
becoming a life-long, loyal, and profitable
customer.
How are YOU going to be "awesome"
this year when it comes to serving your best
customers? Let me know--I'd love to hear from you.
|
Webinar: Thriving in Spite of the
Recession
|
Last night I presented to a packed house at the
New England Women Business Owners Association (NEWBO) on
the topic, "3 Keys to THRIVING During the
Recession." It was a great event, and the feedback
was overwhelmingly positive. One attendee told me,
"You gave us SO MUCH INFORMATION, and it was all so
practical-I can't wait to get back to the office so I
can get started!"
I'm giving the
same presentation on January 21 to the graduates of the
InnerCity Entrepreneurs MBA program.
If you're interested in learning how to
not merely survive but to thrive during the recession by
focusing more closely on your best customers and
prospects, you're welcome to join me next Tuesday,
January 20, at 1pm for a webinar sponsored by Business
Expert Webinars.
Three Keys
to Beat the Recession:
Smart Strategies to Thrive
Regardless of the Economy
Is your revenue drying up? Are
your customers delaying purchases? Are current
customers becoming more costly to serve? Given the
difficult economic times, how do you not only hold onto
what you have, but actually acquire more customers-at
greater profits?
Research has shown that
companies that kept their wits about them during major
recessions actually grew during the recession and even
more rapidly for at least three years afterwards. During
this highly interactive workshop, you'll learn the three
most critical steps you can take now to protect your
current customer base and capture more profitable
customers that will stay with you long after the
rebound. You'll defy the gloom and doom
predictions of everyone around you and actually grow
your business through a recession.
During
this seminar, you will:
-
Understand why not all customers are created
equal, and how to separate the most profitable from
the least
-
Discover ways to protect your most profitable
customers as they start making value trade-offs
-
Uncover new opportunities within your customer
base to grow revenue and profits
-
Learn how to identify and acquire new, highly
profitable prospects who are "trading down" from your
upper-tier competitors
This program will provide practical,
take-action-tomorrow learnings based on real-life
experiences and hands-on examples drawn from Curtis'
experience in consulting to large companies such as
Microsoft and Intuit as well as numerous small
businesses.
Register
here.
|
Book Curtis for Your Next Event
|
Do you have an upcoming corporate or
association event? If you're looking for ideas on how to
energize your marketing and sales using customer
strategy so you can:
- Not just survive but THRIVE despite
the recession
- Dramatically improve customer
acquisition
- Sharply increase customer
retention
- Increase customer
profitability
Then speak
with Curtis about keynotes and workshops for your next
event.
For more information, call Laura Carroll
at 978-877-0241 or send email to lcarroll@predictiveconsulting.com.
|
| What Do You Think? |
I'd love to hear your comments.
Send me a note or share your comments on my blog!
| |
|
Sincerely,
Curtis N. Bingham
Predictive Consulting
Group
| | |
| CustomerStrategy |
|
CustomerStrategy is a free newsletter
describing how business leaders can dramatically
increase customer acquisition, retention, and
profitability. It describes how to turn customer insight
into competitive advantage, greater market share, &
increased profits. Previous
issues are available on our website (http://www.predictiveconsulting.com)
in the newsletter
archive. |
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