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Your potential gold mine

Written by: Linda Mattacks

Article Overview: If your business is already established rather than just starting up and you have a broad customer base, you’re sitting on a potential gold mine of information that you won't need to dig too deep to access!

Your potential gold mine

Are you sitting on a wealth of untapped information?

If your business is already established rather than just starting up and you have a broad customer base, you’re sitting on a potential gold mine of information that you won't need to dig too deep to access!

Look to your best customers first:

Start profiling your existing customers: If you’ve already done this go through the 10-step plan outlined below anyway and just check that you haven’t missed anything important to factor into your equations. You can do this whether your company is in business-to-business or business-to-consumer.

1. List your best customers - typically they will be 20% of your total customer base
2. Write down what it is about them that makes them ‘best customers’
3. Next you can look for the more obviously identifiable similarities amongst these customers:
4. Then look at where they came from
5. Then you should review who influences the buying decision
6. Establish the Decision Critical Factors in becoming and staying a customer
7. Note the typical buying cycle
8. Assess what share of each customer’s potential business you own
9. Would they recommend your product(s) or service(s)?

10. Note the answer for each and why they would or wouldn’t recommend you

Realistically you may not know the answers to all of the above points but, as these are your best customers, they should be happy to provide you with the information

But don't forget the rest:
Now that you’ve analysed your best customers, how are you going to use the information you’ve uncovered?

Look at the remaining 80% of your current customers plus your lapsed customers and go through the same exercise with them. Then see whether any of the companies match the identifiable similarities of your best customers. It could be that those with a close match have need of more of your product or service, but either you or they haven’t identified that need yet, or it’s being fulfilled elsewhere - Now is your chance to find out and do something about it!

Take the criteria of ‘identifiable similarities’ and see if there is a specialist list available that matches the majority of them and that you could rent/buy for prospecting purposes.

Finally, if you come across any really awful customers during this whole exercise, you might like to take a view on your future dealings with them…

Remember: It is a fact that pursuing unqualified business is one of the most common reasons companies fail to reach their revenue targets.

I hope you find lots of valuable nuggets in your potential gold mine!

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Article Tags: business to consumer, customer base, similarities



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Re: Greetings From Destiny's Door - Thanks to you all for your warm welcome! I'm glad you like my company name, Shri. That means a lot coming from another woman who loves to write. I hear what you are saying and I think your original business name makes perfect sense, Martin. Us coaches have a great opportunity to help others recognize their own enormous potential. It's great news for those who are ready to hear it. I love watching my clients discover their many talents to really develop their businesses. Each of us really is a gold mine, but the challenge is getting people to believe they have all this stored ability which can be used in really practical ways. Some get scared away because it all sounds too good to be true. This isn't "fluffy stuff". Recognizing your potential gives you confidence to get the job done. It's real and it works!
Re: The greatest gold mine in the world - [quote="ideasuniversity":2gpyfxbp]The greatest gold mine in the world is not in South Africa, nor in Ghanna. It is not in the cementry either as someone said. The greatest gold mine in the world is between your two ears: your brain. Every ideas stem from our thinking. this is the reason we need to think more than before. Every block buster movie come from the brain. Every invetion and software ideas comes from the brain. Think for 1 hour on your project everyday for five days in a week and do it for a month and you will see how many ideas that will come out of it to make it better and better.[/quote:2gpyfxbp] The mind is a great tool to accomplish many things. I've always believed that the amount of creativity that we use also makes a large difference. I work with people who are creative and others who aren't - and there results differ from one another. Speaking of creativity, I've been amazed to find how many authors (who can be very creative in their books), but many show little to no creativity when they promote. Shri
Re: Quote of the Day - "The only people witho - Myles Munro also said "the greatest gold mine in the world is the cemetery; where ideas that were not developed were buried"
Re: Ladies Who Launch Profiles - This is an interesting story, sometimes in life what you need to succeed in life may come from your hobby. Many people had become millionaires by marketing their hobbies. We might be sitting on a gold mine without knowing it


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