Imagine yourself as the customer desiring to purchase a wedding cake. Your first step may be to visit a local bakery who you know bakes cakes and other goodies. The bakery employee listens to your request for a wedding cake. He or she may show you pictures or actual cakes they produce and give you a price for each. You choose a cake, and arrange for delivery or pick-up. You leave the bakery shop. The visit was professional and courteous. You will probably receive a satisfactory wedding cake. You might return to this bakery again the next time you need a wedding cake or any other kind of baked goodie??or you might not. There was no particular connection in this meeting and transaction.
Now choose a bakery that specializes in wedding cakes. Perhaps when you walk through the doors you immediately feel as though you are at a wedding reception. The shop is decorated with several different themes of weddings. There is nothing but wedding cake samples everywhere. You can take a sample home with you if you like. This shop is perhaps a family-owned business for more than 100 years. Most of this family is unmatched in their knowledge about baking and wedding cakes specifically. The owners have authored or co-authored cake cookbooks and maybe even own some patents related to utensils used for baking cakes.
If you express interest in their wedding cakes, whoever waits on you will most likely ask you about the specific wedding plan. They will inquire as to your preferences for taste and texture. They will show you a variety of wedding cake themes. When you make your choice they will also offer a selection of other items or services associated with weddings, wedding cakes, wedding receptions. They may have copies of books they authored or co-authored or they recommend about weddings in general and the wedding cake. When you leave their bakery, they will hand you a business card with their contact details and website address in case you have more questions when you get home.
Visiting this bakery was a wonderful and gratifying experience and you will have the same sort of feeling when you visit them online. Their web site will be filled with helpful information and beautiful photographs of wedding cakes they produce.
This type of wedding cake bakery is a prime example of a business that embodies the single most important principle that has fueled the success of many business owners. The principles can be applied to any type of business. The central message is ?connect with your customer.? Love, cherish and listen to your customers. Teach your customers everything you know so you can learn from your customers how to serve them better. You can be satisfied that you are offering quality services or products that customers truly need, enjoy, but above all ?want.?
If you are truly interested in building a successful business, there should be no one more important to you in your business life than your customers. Connect with your customers via the internet, via publications and articles, via television, magazines and newspapers. Remind yourself that serving valued and essential customers is your number-one priority and is the key to a successful business.
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? 2007 Connie Limon All Rights Reserved
And this is one of the most common ways that small businesses stay really, really small, and sometimes peeter out altogether. They don't ask for the business, or they don't ask for it often enough to create a successful and sustainable business.
Here are 5 easy ways that you can ask for the business that if you implement on a consistent basis will guarantee that your business - and your bottom line - will grow.
1. Ask what they want...
The #1 way to grow a profitable business is to offer what your targt market wants. And the best way to find that out is to ASK them.
At least once a year, survey your target market, asking them specifically what their biggest challenges are and what products and services they are most interested in. Periodically ask your current clients and customers the same question.
Use their responses to develop your offerings and you'll practically guarantee yourself a source of steady in^come.
2. Ask for the sale...
Once you've create the product or service that your target market has told you it wants, you have to put it out there and ASK for the sale.
Don't just stick it on your website and hope people will see it. Put together a promotion plan for each product or service you put out, including email promotions, using your online networks, utilizing your affiliates, and even consider pay-per-click advertising.
Then periodically ASK for the sale again. Plan a year's worth of regular promotions for each of your offerings and you'll increase your in^come.
3. Ask for the order...
A simple but oft-missed tip: Make sure that on your sales page for your product or service, you ASK for the order.
Just flat-out ASKing for the order can increase your sales dramatically.
Aside: Have you ever been on a website ready to buy something but you couldn't find the order link and ended up clicking away in frustration to go find what you wanted somewhere else? Don't do that to your customer. Make your order link or buy button very obvious!
4. Ask for the referral...
Another way to build your business is to routinely ASK your current clients and customers to refer others to you. You can do this via a simple email that you send out periodically. You could also offer an affiliate program to entice people to refer your products and services to others for a small commission.
5. Ask for the recommendation...
Make a request of a colleague whose offerings complement yours to recommend you and your offerings to their list. Because the people on your colleague's list already know, like and trust him/her, they are much more likely to follow his/her recommendation.
Now you have 5 simple ways to grow your business that you can put into practice today.
Copyright (c) 2006 Alicia M Forest and Client Abundance
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Both Connie Limon & Alicia Forest are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Connie Limon has sinced written about articles on various topics from Careers and Job Hunting, Dogs and Colon Cleanse. Connie Limon. Visit us at for an extensive list of articles. Connie Limon's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.
Alicia Forest has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Marketing and Internet Marketing. Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach? and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System?, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-makin. Alicia Forest's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.