3 Profit Pillars For 2010
The kind of business that will see positive growth in 2010 will have three critical elements which I will call the Three Profit Pillars:
1. Be person-based
People are going to increasingly buy from those they know, like, and trust. That’s not new. But you have to make sure you’re standing out by connecting with the problems they’re facing and delivering the solutions to those problems in an easy-to-digest way.
Quit thinking of your potential prospects as dollar bills and quit thinking of the bottom line. You need to be working with real people whose lives and businesses will be positively affected by what you can do for them. Think about how your product or service will help them in 2010.
2. Be solution-focused
Nobody will look for a different company with which to do business or a new product or service to try if what they have is working. They only look for other options if they have a problem. Learn what problems your service or product can solve.
Then market your service or product based on how it is a solution. In selling this is referred to using benefits and values to sell its features. Ask yourself why anyone would want it and how they would use it. The answers to these questions should be the focus of your marketing.
3. Help your present customers become better customers
Instead of focusing only on finding new customers for the same product or service you offer, your focus in 2010 needs to be on helping your existing customers in additional ways. How else can they use your product? What other services can you offer them? How can they become more satisfied? What would excite them so much they would highly recommend your company to everyone they meet?
Regardless of how you do it, you’ll find the Pareto Principle in effect: 80% or more of your revenue will come from 20% or less of your customers. And they’ll be excited about being in that elite group!
Put these 3 elements into your business in 2010, and you will love the way your balance sheet looks at the end of next December!
