151 Quick Ideas to Get New Customers

by Jerry R. Wilson

Overview

For most businesses, attracting new customers is a never-ending effort anchored in uncertainty, frustration and knee-jerk reactions. Jerry Wilson's 151 Quick Ideas to Get New Customers takes the mystery out of creating an ongoing plan with proven tactics to keep the phone ringing and the door swinging. The basic concept: Attract an endless flood of new customers at little or no cost!

151 Quick Ideas to Get New Customers demonstrates that you don't have to use expensive and never-ending sales events, coupled with expensive advertising and energy-zapping promotions, to turn on a constant, never-ending flow of new prospects. And you don't have to invent any new approaches, concepts, or buzzwords to do it! Just follow some of Jerry Wilson's 151 proven ideas and discover amazing results—fast!

Jerry Wilson has spent more than 25 years researching what his clients—small and medium-sized businesses just like yours—need to do to be successful in today's marketplace. These powerful ideas work! Each is presented in a bite-sized package that encourages instant execution. No long chapters with endless justifications, pontifications, philosophy, and personal stories. Just 151 great, practical ideas any business manager and owner can use to make an immediate difference in his or her business success.

How much could just one good idea be worth to you? It could be worth a fortune! How much has McDonald's made by selling millions of Happy Meals? And what was it worth for Kinko's to offer 24/7 copy center hours? Don't overlook the one good idea that could make your business a success!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781564148308
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	10/15/2005
Series:	151 Quick Ideas Series
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jerry Wilson is a successful business person, entrepreneur, professional business and marketing consultant, and accomplished public speaker. He is also the author of Word of Mouth Marketing. Initially published in 1991, it was the first book that focused on what is now called buzz marketing and viral marketing. It has also been published in four languages—Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian. Wilson has been published in Entrepreneur magazine, Success Magazine, Master Salesmanship and Personal Selling Power, among others. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

One Thing Worse Than a Rude Employee

Not every person is cut out to help you prospect for new customers. You've been told before and you'll hear it again, hire for attitude and train for aptitude. The people in your business who meet and greet customers have to do it with a smile. Prospecting for customers requires people with a pleasing, positive, and agreeable attitude. Anyone without that mindset needs to leave your business!

When an Illinois farm implement dealership confronted the fact that their parts manager was a walking encyclopedia for tractors, combines, and implement equipment, they also had to admit he was the most cantankerous guy east of the Rocky Mountains. He constantly aggravated fellow employees and drove away customers. They had to debate between the value of his knowledge and his continual conflicts with customers. They finally reached a decision and had to invite him to pursue other employment. Immediately after this problem employee left, many prospects returned to the company and became customers. It seems that he had alienated a great number of people over the years, and they had begun to avoid this dealership. Once he was gone however, things changed, and business soon picked up.

Assignment

A good prospector evaluates the people who are helping him or her to achieve his or her goals. If you have people who are not willing to work to bring in new customers, you need to evaluate whether they should stay in your business.

Epilogue

The only thing worse than allowing a rogue employee to destroy your attempts to get new customers is paying him or her to do it!

CHAPTER 2

Bribe the Significant Other

There's nothing better than selling a prospect, but it doesn't hurt to include their spouse or significant other in your sales effort. In fact, that significant other may become the key motivator to get your prospect to become your customer. After all, it never hurts to have more influence with your prospect.

When a major distributor was planning his sales conference at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., he decided to invite the significant others of his prospects. His company had worked hard to build a database with all their prospect's names, and a special message was sent to their homes. The offer was to come to the conference for an all-expense-paid weekend experience with hors d'oeuvres, good food, a touch of business, and some classy entertainment. Throw in a really deluxe room, a bottle of wine, a gift card to pay for incidentals, and some free time to enjoy Opryland, and the entire event became a huge success. It's conceivable that some of the spouses and significant others may have been more sold on the company than the original prospects! Regardless, the event paid off in a big way, and the major distributor earned some major new customers.

Assignment

Start now gaining and building a database of your prospects' and customers' partners, family names, and home addresses. In the days and years to come, this list will be as valuable as any you will ever have.

Epilogue

You can never have too much influence with a prospect or customer, so use whatever means are available to convince them to join your business. You can often use spouses or partners to give that last extra effort to push your prospect over the edge and become your customer.

CHAPTER 3

Involve the Family

If you truly want to build long-term name recognition and convince prospects that you are the best choice, then mailing to their homes can have a huge payoff. Obviously, you need to be careful what you send and make sure it's appropriate to tell and sell your story, but your creativity is endless, so use cartoons, fun newsletters, or contests to involve the family.

When a Virginia-based tire company wanted to better involve both their employees and their prospects in understanding what the company was doing to grow, be successful, and serve its customers, they began mailing a high-quality newsletter to the homes of all prospects and customers in their database. Contained in that newsletter was a code number. Each month they would randomly call two homes, and if the person who answered the phone had read the newsletter and could recite the number, the company would immediately send over two crisp, clean $100 bills. That meant for $400 each month, this company convinced about 1,000 prospects and customers to know about their newsletter, look forward to its arrival, and be involved in the information it provided.

Assignment

Think about what you can do to involve your prospects' and customers' families. It's a great way, at little or no expense, to tell and sell your story and convert those hard-headed prospects into big buying customers. Let their family help you convince them to join you.

Epilogue

You can't have too much help when it comes to convincing prospects to be your customers. Don't be shy about reaching out to families, because it's a win-win situation for everyone involved.

CHAPTER 4

Prospect With a Task Force

Prospecting should be a team effort in your company. The acronym of T-E-A-M stands for Together Everyone Accomplishes More. There's something about the energy, synergy, excitement, enthusiasm, and creativity of getting a group of people working together to win customers that can't be achieved any other way. For this quick idea, our recommendation is that you form a team and call it your prospecting task force.

Each Tuesday morning at 7 a.m., a group of people from different departments gathers at a restaurant to do their prospect planning for the week. The coordinator, their national sales manager, starts the meeting by reviewing their Top 10 prospects from the previous week and the results from their action plan they put together the previous Tuesday. Following that, they create a new Top 10 agenda. After that list of 10 is in place, they brainstorm a few action items for the week to come, and assignments are made to various task force members to follow-through. Their real secret is the energy and synergy that flows out of the group. An excellent example of this comes from Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's, who said "No one of us is as smart as all of us."

Assignment

Form a prospecting task force today and follow these ideas and watch what happens. Make sure you pick a diverse group of people from your company for your task force and don't be afraid to move people in and out as you discover how the team works together.

Epilogue

Don't wait for something to happen. If you get your task force together today, you can make it happen!

CHAPTER 5

Use Your People

Why do you need to get new customers? Is it because your business is poorly run and you keep losing the ones you have? Are you ready to fill the capacity of your plant, establish a new location, get more volume for economies of scale, or replace the natural attrition that all businesses experience? Hopefully it's because you want your business to grow.

If growth is your objective, you might appreciate a reminder of the huge opportunity that educating prospects and customers can produce for you. One of my favorite quotes is, "Your business must grow for people to grow, and people must grow for your business to grow." Think about how the explosion of technology can help you make education a cornerstone of your prospecting efforts. Think about another quote from William Arthur Ward: "The mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, and the great teacher inspires." Remember those words when developing your own educational program. Smart associates make smart decisions, which can help you develop a better business.

Assignment

Examine your sales and workforce. Evaluate their skills and explore educational or training opportunities to increase their skills. Also examine current technologies that can be harnessed to help you sell and create relationships with customers.

Epilogue

Examine the finances of any major university, and you will find that their alumni are the driving force behind their success. They have harnessed the power of their former students and their educations. Never overlook the power of education for your employees if you want to enhance your business.

CHAPTER 6

Call Them Associates

One of the awkward things many business owners must decide is what to call their coworkers. Should they be labeled employees, staff, crew, the workforce, or some other descriptive term? My choice, after careful research, is to call them associates. If you practice servant-leadership, then you believe that your goal is to create relationships with potential customers. You and your workers are associating together to serve and to help, which makes for a beneficial relationship.

Sam Walton's wife convinced him to use associates when the Wal-Mart empire was in its early days and they were starting to be successful, both in growth and market share. She believed that by sharing the bounty, their people would perform and embrace the complete Wal-Mart idea. Did it work? If you've ever been in a Wal-Mart store early in the morning when they have their store meeting and do the Wal-Mart cheer, you know that their associates truly believe in the values and benefits that their company promotes. Many of those associates have since become stock holders, and gone on to become quite wealthy.

Assignment

This idea could backfire if your employees don't see themselves as associates. You need to address and treat them like associates, with respect and dignity. If you do this, they'll soon see themselves as, and start acting like, true associates.

Epilogue

Tell me, and I'll forget; show me, and I may remember; but involve me, and I will understand. That is a perfect example of a relationship between associates.

CHAPTER 7

If You Want Loyalty

When Cindy's boss saw a pile of new correspondence on his desk, he knew Cindy had been hard at work. On top of the pile was a note that said "If you want loyalty, get a dog. I work for money." In addition to smiling, it got her boss wondering if she was sending him a message. When he asked Cindy about it, she laughed and said "No, I wasn't asking for a raise, although I do work for money. I simply thought you would see it as fun, and might enjoy it." While he enjoyed it, it also made an impression on him. He realized that sometimes it's important to do more than just say thank you. Employees always appreciate tangible rewards, and loyalty can be rewarded in many different ways.

Assignment

Your people are looking for more than just a pat on the back and a thank you. Thank them in a tangible way for the help they've given you, and they'll be quick to help you again tomorrow.

If you work with one, two, 10, or 100 other people who can help you get new customers, then there are times when it's important to show them your appreciation in a tangible way. It might be as simple as bringing in some doughnuts for everyone, or as important as holding an annual dinner to show your coworkers and associates how much you appreciate their help. In any event, think about giving tangible rewards. You might even consider sharing some of that reward money!

Epilogue

What gets rewarded, gets repeated.

CHAPTER 8

Make Me Feel Important

Think back to the last time you had that really warm glow inside when somebody made you feel special because they saw a sign hanging around your neck that said M-M-F-I, or Make Me Feel Important. One of the basic principles of winning customers away from your competition is to make them feel wanted, needed, and appreciated. Every time you see a prospect or customer, mentally hang that sign around their neck and do something to make them feel important.

Assignment

Brainstorm what you can do to make people feel important. Develop a system to do it every day, and with every customer.

Gayle is a regional vice president for a major insurance company. She has grasped the M-M-F-I principle and turned it into one of her tools to gain and retain customers. When she's attempting to get a prospect to represent her insurance company in a particular area, or when she wants to get an existing customer to do something special to benefit her other customers, one of her techniques is to put them on a pedestal by reminding them that they are the best of the best. When she asks them to do something, she makes it clear that she selects the most outstanding people. Rarely does anyone say no, and those who do work with her often develop into loyal customers. Gayle has been able to convert many skeptical prospects into delighted customers by understanding their needs and making them feel important.

Epilogue

Make yourself a note, sign, or poster. Put it on your mirror at home, on your dashboard in the car, or near your phone in the office. Write out M-M-F-I, and remember it every time you contact a customer!

CHAPTER 9

Strategic Partnerships

Most companies talk about wanting a relationship with their prospects as they turn them into customers. Unfortunately, many companies often exploit that relationship, taking as much as they can get, even making sales that the customer doesn't need. Try to be different and see your prospect as a true partner. You should work together to be more profitable and productive.

Mike, a silver-haired and highly successful business owner, left prospecting to his sales force. They had the job to wine and dine prospects until they believed a personal visit from the owner and boss might convince the prospect to come aboard as a customer. Then, when Mike would arrive at the prospect's place of business, he would place a non-descript brown box on the table in the conference room where the meeting would take place. Prospects would always ask what was in the box. He would then remove the lid and show them he had brought a cake, forks, knives, and plates, and that his intention was that they form a partnership that day and celebrate it by cutting the cake, kind of like a quasi-marriage. It was a huge success, and in almost every case the cake, and Mike's presence, would push those prospects over the edge. Mike created and maintained a true partnership with all of his customers.

Assignment

List your customers and prospects. Then identify why you have a good relationship with them, or why you don't. Work to strengthen this relationship until you've created a true marriage of equals.

Epilogue

Prospects don't care about you until they know how much you care about them. Make sure your relationships are positive for everyone. It is important for your prospects to understand that you are not trying to take advantage of them or your relationship.

CHAPTER 10

Sell in Bunches

Let's face it, prospecting is hard work, time consuming, and expensive. But it's a necessary evil. Regardless of your feelings about cold calling, prospecting, and constantly looking for new customers, it is a necessary function. You don't have to like it, but you have to do it.

This fall, a local ministry director will invite about 90 church pastors to join him for a free lunch. It will be a no pressure, no selling, no embarrassment agenda on how his ministry can help them grow their church. It will be promoted by a series of three mailings, an e-mail, and a telephone campaign. How many people can pass-up a free lunch?

After the luncheon, this savvy director will encourage the entire audience to self-select by offering a questionnaire about how they might use his services. For those who indicate one or more of the optional services he can provide, he will immediately call on them and work to build a relationship. For those who don't opt for his services, he will at least have met them in person. Now he can start working to build a personal relationship that can eventually turn that prospect into a mission supporter.

Assignment

Always follow the acronym S-A-F-E to make sure people know that it's okay to come to your event. S-A-F-E- stands for Secure, Accepted, Free of Fear, and Enthusiastic. Feeling safe is an incredibly important part of any relationship.

Epilogue

The best way to reduce your cost of prospecting and get results is to host a breakfast or lunch during business hours. Pair up a sizzling agenda and a free meal, and you'll be surprised at how Quickly your prospects become loyal customers.

CHAPTER 11

People-to-People Prospecting

One quick idea to encourage prospects is to assign an inside person as their direct contact. This can allow you to train those insiders to know a lot about the prospect and be ready if that prospect calls. It gives the prospect a name and a face to connect with, and can be tremendously encouraging to get them to make that first call to your company.

One large car dealership, upon learning about this idea, made a dramatic change in how they approached their prospects and customers. They began using business cards with each person's picture printed on them. They realized they were trying to sell people, not cars. On the back of each card was a small story about that person, their history with the company, and their commitment to customers. They also printed an 8 1/2" × 11" page with pictures of all their inside customer service people with their names and titles and extension numbers. Now, when you want to call that dealership group, you know more about the person with whom you're dealing. It has been very successful for them, and it will be the same for you.

(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "151 Quick Ideas to Get New Customers"
by .
Copyright © 2005 Jerry R. Wilson.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Foreword,
How to Use This Book,
1. One Thing Worse Than a Rude Employee,
2. Bribe the Significant Other,
3. Involve the Family,
4. Prospect With a Task Force,
5. Use Your People,
6. Call Them Associates,
7. If You Want Loyalty,
8. Make Me Feel Important,
9. Strategic Partnerships,
10. Sell in Bunches,
11. People-to-People Prospecting,
12. Birds of a Feather,
13. Get Them on Your Own Turf,
14. Become a Joiner,
15. Intentional Relationships,
16. Are You New or Recycled?,
17. Love That Loyalty,
18. Develop a Clear Vision of Success,
19. Heroic Tales,
20. Do You See What I See?,
21. Zero Defections,
22. Turning Off Your Prospects,
23. Pushy Prospectors,
24. Don't Let the Fish Flop Away,
25. Your Way or My Way,
26. Help, Don't Sell,
27. The Power of Compliments,
28. Become a Yes Person,
29. Sell Your People First,
30. Fix the Problem,
31. People Are Funny,
32. Inspiring a New Hire,
33. Respect Their Time,
34. Targeting Your Prospect's Interest,
35. All Buyers Are Liars,
36. Brag, Brag, and Brag Some More,
37. Pay Attention to Their Individual Needs,
38. My Name's Not Bud,
39. Beware of Agitators,
40. Label What Differentiates You,
41. Do Something Different,
42. Be Creative,
43. Go In Naked,
44. Believe It or Not,
45. Try Something Different,
46. Customize, Customize, Customize,
47. Little Things with Big Payoffs,
48. Being Different,
49. Do What Others Don't,
50. Learn From Chameleons,
51. Beware of First Appearances,
52. Prospecting Requires Being a Super-Sleuth,
53. Inspired Employees Lead to Dedicated Customers,
54. The C-Y-A Factor,
55. The Best Prospect Ever,
56. Connect Like Velcro,
57. Whatever It Takes,
58. Love Those Freebies,
59. Do You Qualify?,
60. Before You Open Up,
61. Tell and Sell,
62. Make Sure Prospects Can Find You,
63. Leave Your Prospects a Trail to Follow,
64. Learn from the F.B.I.,
65. Keeping Top-of-Mind-Awareness,
66. The Proof of the Pudding,
67. What About Tomorrow?,
68. Your Elevator Speech,
69. Point Out the Problem,
70. Go After Lost Customers,
71. Free Still Works,
72. Out of Sight Means Out of Mind,
73. E-mail: Friend or Foe?,
74. Keep the Lights On,
75. One Magic Word,
76. Quality Speaks Volumes,
77. Keeping up With Technology,
78. Is Your Image Working for You?,
79. Don't Take It For Granted,
80. Beware of a Prescription Without a Diagnosis,
81. Make It Easy to Buy,
82. Make Them Feel Safe,
83. Loose Lips Sink Prospects,
84. Building Trust,
85. Falling Out of the Dumb Tree,
86. Consider Name-Dropping,
87. Freebies Are Hard to Turn Down,
88. Creative Advertising Can Work,
89. Claim Those Free Dollars,
90. One Magic Question,
91. Prospects Must Be a M-A-N,
92. Yes, No, and Maybe,
93. Bigger Is Better,
94. Networking,
95. One Size Fits All,
96. All's Fair in Love and War,
97. Do You Know What They Know?,
98. What Gets Repeated,
99. Traditions Should Be Sacred,
100. The Puppy Dog Lick,
101. Don't Give Them a Reason,
102. What Is It You Sell?,
103. Everything Matters,
104. When Do You Need It?,
105. Lost Sales Mean Opportunities,
106. Let Them Decide,
107. Forget Satisfied,
108. Perceptions of Value,
109. Prospecting with Hulk and Bulk,
110. It's All About Value,
111. How Much Does It Cost?,
112. Stack Up the Benefits,
113. What You Can Do,
114. How Much Is Your Price?,
115. The $10 Stupidity,
116. Losing Their Luster,
117. Tell Them What You Can Do,
118. Are You Listening?,
119. The Early Bird Gets the New Customer,
120. The Problem with Communication,
121. No Is Not the Answer,
122. Selective Hearing,
123. If Only We Had Time,
124. Anticipate Obstacles,
125. Decide Not to Sell,
126. Selling to the Senses,
127. Never Assume it Took Place,
128. Attention to Detail,
129. Use Your Design,
130. Make Smiles Zero Tolerance,
131. It's Okay to Know You Don't Know,
132. Don't Be a Bungling Bob,
133. Create Your Personal Gold Mine,
134. The Insanity Principle,
135. Beware of Fatal Ruts,
136. Ask for Help,
137. Criticize, Condemn, and Complain,
138. Harness the Internet,
139. Tell the Truth,
140. How Are You Really Doing?,
141. Meet Uncle F-E-S-S,
142. Don't Be a Drop-in Visitor,
143. Don't Love Them and Leave Them,
144. Organize Your Prospect Efforts,
145. The Agony of Defeat,
146. It Is Not What Happens To You,
147. So You Can't Afford To,
148. Become an Information Junkie,
149. Obsessed With Reputation,
150. Invest In Yourself,
151. The Value of Persistence,
Index,
About the Author,