Building relationships before selling

It is a well known proverb “Customer is God in business”. No business can survive for a longer time if it does not build and maintain good relationships with customers. Broadly speaking, the relationships with customers are of two types namely ‘relationships before selling’ and ‘relationships after selling’. 

Before sales relationships primarily deal with the following issues:

·         Product promotion

·         Educating the customers about the benefits they derive by purchasing the product

·         Educating the customers how  our product is superior to the products of our competitors

·         Clarification of misconceptions about the product or offer

·         Motivating the customers to buy the product

Here, the prime focus should be on ‘Selling’ but not merely on ‘Telling’.

Methods to build relationships with ‘customers before selling’

Following are some of the methods that help you to build your relationships with your customers before selling:

·         To build relationships with customers before selling, a good database of potential customers should be collected. However, mere collection of data and maintenance of database will not definitely serve the purpose. You have to contact the customers on timely basis.

·         Assure that the data that you collect is quality data. Make a prior enquiry whether the customers whose data you collect are potential customers or not. 

·         If any contacted person shows any interest to buy the product, collect their address, phone number, and mail ids.

·         Prefer sending e-mail over making telephone calls because it will not disturb the customers and they can go through your mail according to their convenience. Moreover, it costs you nothing.

·         If you want to meet any customer personally, you ensure that you have received prior appointment.

·         Motivate him/her to buy the product using different kinds of motivational methodologies

·         You inform them about your latest products and offers.

·         You inform them about the benefits they derive by purchasing the product

·         You explain them how your product is superior to the products of your competitors.

·         You clarify their misconceptions about your product and motivate them to buy your product.

·         Try to make use of social media communities to the maximum possible extent. Never think that social media is only for personal use and remember that it is a good tool to develop your business.

·         To promote your product, select the medium of promotion which assures you more ROI. To assess ROI of different mediums of promotion, take the help of industry experts.

·         Be quick to respond whenever you receive any kind of enquiries or leads.

·         Introduce methods such as LinkedIn Answers, a feature that allows people to ask questions and receive answers.

·         With your customers, try to be always open and do not be conservative until there is a chance of your trade secrets and security policies getting violated.

·         When you communicate with your customers, make your communication customer centric.

·         When you build your website or give a commercial advertisement, clearly mention about all the required contact details.

Written by: S. Chandrashekara Reddy

Mail Id: chandrashekara_reddy@yahoo.co.in

Social Media: Impact on your business in 2010

Social media marketing is a boon for small and medium scale organizations. The organizations that have jumped on the social media bandwagon have received various benefits which are discussed below. Though some of the late comers have missed some of the ‘first mover advantages’, they have realized that late is better than never.

Following are some of the advantages that the firms, which have entered social media groups, received with the introduction of social media:

Increase in sales volume: Social Media helps to get more leads, which indirectly results in the hike in the volume of sales, which ultimately results in profitability. However, some of products and offers may receive quick response while others may take more time than expected to receive leads from audience. 

Building relationships: Social Media helps us reach our customers and improve rapports with them. It helps us know about the requirements thoroughly in a more effective way.

Educating Customers: Social Media is proved as a mutual beneficial to both firms and clients as it helps us educate our customers about our offers and products. Some organizations encourage some of their loyal customers to start their own social media groups in order to express their opinions and share their experiences with products and offers of the organization. They started using the LinkedIn Answers, a feature that allows people to ask questions and receive answers.

Branding: Social Media has helps us improve credibility in industry and to build reputation. It makes products and offers more popular among customers.

Improvement on ROI: Social Media enhances our ROI (Returns on Investment). You need not invest a big amount to enter social media marketing to achieve greater success rate due to an enormous improvement in our sales volume. To keep it in nutshell, what you put into it is less and what we have got out of it is more. 

Reasons for our success: Following are some of factors for the success of a firm in social media promotions:

·         Make social groups customer friendly and customer centric.

·         Make an extensive use of micro blogging.

·         Emphasize more on core areas of the value chain, including the marketing and communications and customer service departments.

·         Though the IT department is not involved in social media promotions as a primary decision maker, integrate the department with existing business processes to derive maximum benefits.

Conclusion: One can improve one’s business by entering social media; however, one has to realize that the success of social media promotions depends on the structured and organized manner in which it is implemented. It is advisable to for them to focus more on carrying social media promotions in more structured, organized and effective manner.

Written by: S.Chandrashekara Reddy

Mail ID: chandrashekarareddys@gmail.com

Memory load: Factors and methods to reduce it

Memory load is the brain processing that a person undergoes to memorize a particular thing or things.

Under following circumstances, a person feels more memory load:

·         When the instruction material consists of information which is out of his imagination or with which he does not deal with practically

·         When the person cannot understand the material

·         When the language of instruction is not known or less known to the person

·         When the material consists of different words

·         When the material consists of complex concepts

·         When the material consists of long sentences

·         When a list of items are not logically related

·          Easiness of memorizing the material varies from medium to medium as mentioned below:   

Experience>Video>Animation>Picture>Audio>Text

To reduce the memory load i.e., to make a person to memorize something carefully:

·         Make him to deal with the topic practically. Give him examples which are closely related to his practical life or practical work.

·         Make the person to understand the material thoroughly

·         Present the material in native language of the person or use a language which is well known to the person

·         Do not use difficult words and present the material in simple language using simple words

·         Do not use long sentences to maximum possible extent. Present the material in short and simple sentences

·         Present various issues in a logically related order

Written by: S. Chandrashekara Reddy

Mail Id: chandrashekara_reddy@yahoo.co.in