Cliched it may sound, but the story of a big tree starts from a small seed. Many big businesses we see today started their journey from a single-room office, or something smaller than that.
To make your business big, you need to focus on certain small things. They are simple, but very crucial when it comes to tasting success.
As you must be knowing, marketing your business is important, very important. Hence, be careful, cheerful and tactful. The American Marketing Association most recently defined marketing as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large".
DON'T BE A SALESPERSON, BE A CONSULTANT
A salesperson is someone whose only goal is to sell his/her product. But a consultant is someone who really cares for the customer and suggests and sells what the latter requires.
It is always better to be a consultant than a salesperson. Hardly any one likes salesperson, but everyone likes consultant who has genuine care and smart approach towards things. So, talk with your prospect about ways to help them build their business, suggest them innovative ways, do what they expect, delight them with what they don't expect and try to grow with them.
DON'T SHY AWAY FROM ASKING QUESTION
The prospective client before you is like you, a human being. So don't get frightened. Be polite, and at the same time, be firm. Ask questions no one else is asking, try to bring out answers. They might help grow the business of both you and him/her. Customer orientation is perhaps the most common orientation used in contemporary marketing.
BE CONTEMPORARY
Recent approaches in marketing include relationship marketing which focuses on the consumer, business marketing or industrial marketing which focuses on an organisation or institution and social marketing with focus on benefits to society. Newer forms of marketing also use the internet and are therefore called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, online marketing, 'digital marketing', search engine marketing, or 'desktop advertising'. It attempts to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing. So, give a try to as many techniques as possible and keep yourself updated about all news things in the marketing domain.
IN 'SIVA' WE TRUST
We are not talking about the Almighty here. A tested approach to customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA (Solution, Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus. The SIVA Model provides a demand/customer-centric alternative to the well-known 4Ps supply side model (product, price, placement, promotion) of marketing management.
If any of the 4Ps were problematic or were not in the marketing factor of the business, the business could be in trouble, and so other companies may appear in the surroundings of the company, so the consumer demand on its products will decrease. However, in recent years service marketing has widened the domains to be considered, contributing to the 7P's of marketing in total. The other 3P's of service marketing are: process, physical environment, and people.
Some consider there to be a fifth P: positioning.
KEEP THEM INFORME
Finally, read what Devin Mason has said in his article for Business Finance Planet. "Send information to your prospects and clients that help them build their businesses. If you sell copiers, send them info that will help them enhance their company image. If you sell accounting services, send them info that points out deductions that they can use but may be a little harder for them to see on their own. If you sell Visa/MasterCard processing services, show them additional ways to create future business by adding a gift card program and a loyalty card program."
So, what are you waiting for? Start your own business and share your success story with us.
