Suppliers contact potential customers year around and customers’ fiscal years can begin in any month.  As a former senior contract manager, a lot of suppliers ask for my help.  Today’s question is…

How can you convince customers to ignore you? 

Tip 1. Give Connie Customer generic information.  Think about consulting firms as an example.  How many consulting firms are there?  How do you know which one to use for a particular project?  Yes, I suppose you could do an Internet search and contact all of the potential firms.  Thirty years from now, you would have an answer.  It adds a new meaning to long term planning alright…  As Murray Wolfson’s book title said, “in the long run we are all dead.” 

Define your niche carefully so that you can identify firms in that niche and present your information in a way that connects with them.

Tip 2.  Send e-mails to strangers telling them how great your firm is.  This may make people think that they are looking for customers.  It often works better if you tell the customers a story that they can relate to, then explain how you help the customers solve the problem.  Suppose that your business helps people build business relationships. In that situation, you might use the following scenario:

Sam Supplier kept contacting customers, and the customers were remaining silent. 

We determined that Sam was contacting customers after their budgets for the following year were completed.  This meant that Sam had to wait two years before having any opportunities to help customers. 

With our help, Sam was able to factor the budget cycle into his sales efforts and remain in contact with potential customers.  

Tip 3.  Address the letter to sir, madam, executive, president, chairman, senior officer, recruiter, training organization, buyer, or “to whom it may concern.”  The supplier sends the message without visiting the customer’s website and contacting the customer, yet the customer is supposed to take the time to read the information and respond?  Well, if the customer needs what the supplier offers at that instant in time and there is something about the information that gets the customer’s attention, it might happen.  That leads a reply rate of well less than 3%, at least that was my experience in procurement.  Is that good enough for you?  Can you afford to have 97% of your efforts to miss the mark?

A better approach is to read the company’s website, contact the company and ask questions.  Use warm referrals to move from the entry point to people who actually need your services.

Tip 4.  Brag about who “Connie Customer” is.  Firmswant to know how you can help them.  If the customers you have worked with in the past are similar firms or faced similar issues to those your customers faces, say that. 

The example in Tip 2 may be specific enough to allow your customers to see themselves.  Tailor the story based on what the customers do and the size of the market.  For example, you might decide to focus on IT firms who are located in New York City and deal with a specific application.  That would be much more specific. 

Do the research so that you have a reasonable-sized market that actually needs what you offer.

Tip 5.  Talk about the difficulties you are facing.   If your difficulty is going to help the customer, it may be helpful to discuss the issue.  

Think about how your difficulties might help the customers.

Are you expanding into a new market and, as a result, offering significant discounts?  Did your team complete a project on time and are you trying to keep the team employed? 

There is a firm which provides low cost installations of air conditioners in January.  Hail sales at care dealerships provide a second example where this approach is used. 

Tip 6.  Buy a mailing list and send 500 page catalogs to everyone on the mailing list.  First, this is an expensive undertaking.  Second, how many of those catalogs are actually used?

Think about all the firms which used to send massive catalogs, and now rely on smaller catalogs, or none at all.  Industry-specific mailing lists or affinity lists have really grown in popularity as a means of controlling costs and improving results.

Tip 7.  Ignore Connie Customer.  Why would a customer contact you if you provide bad service, ignore correspondence, and miss the mark in your discussions?  Remember though, if you try too hard, you may come across as desperate and that chases customers away too.

Tip 8.  Make an offer that sounds too good to be true.  At the end of the day, customers want results.  If the results are too much better than what the customers have realized on their efforts, it raises questions from a credibility perspective.

Set realistic expectations and provide enough information that people can evaluate the information that you provide.

Tip 9.  Expect someone else to sell your products and services.  You are the one who knows about your offering and the pain it addresses.  Talk about what you do from that perspective.

Solve a problem you have experienced leads to greater conviction and sustainability in your efforts. 

Tip 10.  Try to change the customer or blame the customer for not buying what you are offering. 

Focus on things that you can change.

What other tips would you add to this list? 

Filed by Coleen Davis at 5:57 am under Achieving Goals, Business Tips, Customers, Marketing, Planning Tips, Solving Problems