Entrepreneurs Sometimes It Pays To Be Flexible – Sometimes It Does Not
Entrepreneurs Sometimes It Pays To Be Flexible – Sometimes It Does Not
When it pays NOT to be flexible.
Prices: Keep your standard prices at the same levels for several months. This makes your offers much more believable.
Customer Contact: Always personalize contact with your customers. Obviously when you have many customers much of your documentation is standard. But you must always add personal items such as their name, what they last bought from you and when. This makes your customer feel wanted and individually looked after.
Marketing Material: You should ensure that your products are instantly recognizable by using the same naming convention, logos, colors, fonts etc.
Advertising: Your advertising must always be targeted to your market and potential customers. Make sure that you have a marketing plan and locate places and publications that you target audience will congregate around. Don’t waste advertising dollars with a scatter gun effect – it does not work!
When it pays to BE flexible.
Offers: Keep your offers flexible- offer several levels of service as well as several payment plans.
Product Line: If you work in several similar markets, ensure that your products and marketing is tailored to meet these differing needs.
Languages: If you sell in several different countries or in a multi cultural area then consider putting your sales material into different languages and promoting staff that speak these languages.
Being Different: Sometimes being different makes you stand out. If you sell cooking items to a target audience of working mums, then offer free toys with them. This slightly off key advertising helps you look different to your competitors.
Be Logical – However Strange It May Be: Lastly always be logical in what you do so that your target customers feel comfortable buying from you. Recently a leading UK supermarket discovered that people who bought disposable nappies also bought beer! Not really logical until they worked out that harried new mothers often sent their partners out to buy nappies and they used the opportunity to buy beer as well. Putting crates of beer next to the baby section vastly increased their sales rate!
Good luck with your business!
Entrepreneurs Sometimes It Pays To Be Flexible Sometimes It Does Not - To learn more about this author, visit Lee Lister's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Entrepreneurs are often told to be flexible in their approach to business, but often it is imperative that you are NOT flexible. Here’s a few examples.
When it pays NOT to be flexible.
Prices: Keep your standard prices at the same levels for several months. This makes your offers much more believable.
Customer Contact: Always personalize contact with your customers. Obviously when you have many customers much of your documentation is standard. But you must always add personal items such as their name, what they last bought from you and when. This makes your customer feel wanted and individually looked after.
Marketing Material: You should ensure that your products are instantly recognizable by using the same naming convention, logos, colors, fonts etc.
Advertising: Your advertising must always be targeted to your market and potential customers. Make sure that you have a marketing plan and locate places and publications that you target audience will congregate around. Don’t waste advertising dollars with a scatter gun effect – it does not work!
When it pays to BE flexible.
Offers: Keep your offers flexible- offer several levels of service as well as several payment plans.
Product Line: If you work in several similar markets, ensure that your products and marketing is tailored to meet these differing needs.
Languages: If you sell in several different countries or in a multi cultural area then consider putting your sales material into different languages and promoting staff that speak these languages.
Being Different: Sometimes being different makes you stand out. If you sell cooking items to a target audience of working mums, then offer free toys with them. This slightly off key advertising helps you look different to your competitors.
Be Logical – However Strange It May Be: Lastly always be logical in what you do so that your target customers feel comfortable buying from you. Recently a leading UK supermarket discovered that people who bought disposable nappies also bought beer! Not really logical until they worked out that harried new mothers often sent their partners out to buy nappies and they used the opportunity to buy beer as well. Putting crates of beer next to the baby section vastly increased their sales rate!
Good luck with your business!
Entrepreneurs Sometimes It Pays To Be Flexible Sometimes It Does Not - To learn more about this author, visit Lee Lister's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Lee's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 One Size Success Sample Credit Application 10 Areas of Differentiation Article Marketing Memorandum Template 1 |
|
 | ||
 |
Fortune Hunters
CBC Entrepreneur TV | |
 |
Top 50 Franchising Blogs
Top 50 Franchising Blogs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||