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It Takes A Village

Guest post by: Jeremy Edsall

Article Overview: Social Networking as you probably know has become the number one on-line activity. Savvy business owners are connecting with customers on social networking sites in a variety of ways and forming core customer groups that can be marketed to. These customer groups are also a source for unsolicited feedback and testimonials so developing, nurturing and effectively utilizing them can yield steady business.

It Takes A Village

In 1996 then First Lady, now Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton released her book "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us". The book's premise being that we all share some responsibility for how a child is raised in today's society. Well I was thinking about that in terms of business, especially a new business, but it goes for any business I guess as well, that it takes a community to make it successful.

Let's start with a new business. First someone gets the idea to start a business, or maybe is encouraged to start one on the urging of friends or relatives. Maybe an economic situation is a factor. Many businesses are started by persons who have lost their job or, want to get back to work from retirement or domestic duties. That initial urge or spark is what gets the business on its way. From there more help and encouragement is needed. The new business owner will need to consult with bankers, accountants, lawyers, contractors, landlords, inspectors, and city government. With help and encouragement they formulate a business plan and forge ahead hoping their new venture will be a success. You see I say hoping, because as someone once said in business nothing is certain. I think someone also said that there isn't much room for hope and luck in business. So with hoping not much of an option then we have to rely on something more stable, relationships and community.

I say relationships because continuing support and positive feedback is necessary as the business grows. You need reliable employees who are committed to the goals of the business and who have its best interests in mind. Many times the business partner in a new business is a spouse, and as you may know one of the most common arguments in any marriage is around the issue of money. A cash strapped new business may have to rely on household income or creative budgeting to make ends meet. Leaving finances aside, that's another topic altogether, let's just focus on our developing business. You need a team committed to making the business a success, even if it's just you as its sole cheerleader, salesperson, and business manager. The team has to be willing to work the required hours to get it up and running so it can make money.

As I said before there isn't room for hope and luck in business, well there isn't much room for magic either. All too often we are conditioned to believe there is luck and magic in business. We see and hear about amazing success stories and believe that we too can be a part of a similar amazing business success. Late night infomercials are full of opportunities to buy into "money making systems" where in a few simple steps you will be on your way to millions. Gary Player, one of the great pro-golfers is attributed to saying "The harder I work, the luckier I get", which is usually the truth in any endeavor.

Great successes in the field of sales are usually attributed to the salespersons hard work and not some natural gift of selling. Joe Girard, who has been verified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest salesman in the world spent his early years selling cars, and did so without taking additional time away from other the other salesmen. He used what were innovative approaches to gaining customers at the time, like building personal customer lists, setting future appointments, and giving personal service to everyone he met. He then kept the relationship open for the future, sending out birthday cards and periodically calling them back to see how they were doing. His personal service gained him the recommendations of many customers who were happy to send friends and relatives to purchase from him.

Today's business has to nurture every customer for the future. Pareto's Principle, better known as the 80/20 rule, the principle that 20 percent of something always is responsible for 80 percent of the results, has been studied by economists, mathematicians and the like since the early 1900's. In business this equates to the principal that 20 percent of your customers are going to account for 80 percent of your business. This group will be your "small village" of supporters who continue to use your services, buy your products and consume your food. Businesses who can best identify and market to the core 20 percent can increase their market share as these loyal customers refer others, who following the same principal, 20 percent will become loyal customers as well.

The good and bad of it is today there are groups forming around businesses all the time. If you've had a bad experience with a major business then more than likely someone else has as well and has formed an on-line group either informally by making an on-line comment, or in some cases building an entire web site around their bad experience. What businesses want is the opposite, groups forming to say how much they like your business and posting wonderful unsolicited comments about all the good things you offer and how you treat your customers. As a business owner you have the opportunity to start your own on-line group and invite your customers to actively participate, this way you can also market to these customers as well.

Today's business owners have to be savvy in the methods of Internet marketing and social networking as these can be effective ways to market, promote and retain customers. The problem is that most business owners have too many other responsibilities to be able to actively utilize these tools to their advantage. We suggest that you at least find someone who can set up a simple business social networking site and post relevant business information when needed. Your business web site should also have a link to join this social network, or at least leave feedback on your business and the experience they have had with your business. Leaving out this growing area of marketing will leave your "loyal villagers" to go elsewhere.

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Article Tags: customer groups, social networking sites, testimonials, unsolicited feedback



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