Be my customer, pretty please!

Customer is the king. Customer is the god. Customers are my bank balance and the fu*king crown on my head. But the problem is where the fu*k do you get customers? There are a lot of techniques and training programs to help you get more customers but the problem is customers does not grow on trees. This is still the most relevant question after Covid-19.

1. Hang up or hang out- This is a very important question. What kind of client would you want to do business with? Would you want to hang out with them or hang up the call on their face? Most people think when you appeal to a larger audience, you will get more customers. But they ignore the ability to charge a premium when they specialize. You have to understand that every client is not for you.

2. Break up with your clients- If a client does not fit in your offering and service, do not offer it to them. You are doing a disservice to yourself and the society by serving client who do not fit into your business. Start-ups can go narrow to improve the persistent of their offering.

3. Give them reasons to buy your product- Customer do not like to be sold. When you are trying to sell something to a customer, you are like a tiger trying to eat a deer. Identify the target market and their needs. You don’t look for customers. They look for you when they need you. Do not sell. Make them buy.

4. To hell with the elevator pitch- No one cares about your elevator pitch. Nobody will remember your ten seconds elevator pitch. Learn to have a conversation. People have heard too many pitches. They are fed up of it. Learn to know how you will add value.

5. Learn to understand the self-cycle and learn to respond quickly- I called an AC repair shop. They called me after three months to ask what I need. Till then I bought a new ac. If you do not respond customer quickly they will find another solution or service provider.

6. Trust is equal to conversion- Before a person buys from you, that person will have to learn to trust your brand. A lot of customers tend to get emotionally attached with your brand and emotion is always greater than logic. There is a separate fan base for Marvel Universe, there is another separate fan base for Ramayana on Doordarshan. You just need to know how to connect emotions with products or services. If the brand messages are relevant and consistent, customers will be able to identify with your brand.

7. Get a wonderful website- Your website is the window to your business, especially after Covid 19. If you build a cheap website they will have a cheap impression about your business. When designing a website, make it for different personas. Focus on the content. I personally not a fan of subscription based emails, because I might find one content valuable and another content as garbage.

8. Offer low price courses or free courses- The best way to establish yourself and an authority is to offer courses in that particular domain. Look at Neil Patel, he is internationally an established figure in the field of digital marketing. You can have various courses for various stages of your sells cycle.

9. CSR’s work or do they? A lot of companies are into CSR programs to get more customers. But if your customer base is not able to relate to that particular social cause, your program will not be beneficial. For ex- If KFC starts doing a campaign on saving chickens that will not work because most of their customer base eat chicken.

10. USP’s are ineffective- Everybody has a USP. Now tell me what is so unique about them? Nothing. If everybody has a USP, then nobody is unique. The best way to overcome this is to become the only solution or the market leader for a subset of a larger audience. For ex- Curves offer gym solution to working mothers.

11. Learn to play around your designing and packaging- You can think about packaging milk in glass bottles to differentiate yourself from your competitor or you can think about making a square water bottle. You can play around with the colours of the design or with the shape of the product itself to come up with anything interesting. As long as there is innovation, customer will be drawn towards your product or service.

12. Learn the art of newsjacking- if you can include your product or your service in a trend that is already been talked about, you will be able to get a press coverage and credibility, which might ultimately translate into more customers.

Here's a campaign from Cadbury against cyber bullying

13. Learn to ace the game of proposals- If you are in the service industry, you have to learn to give virtual proposals, especially after the Covid 19 situation. Most of the time after you send a proposal the client does not reply. This is a major issue especially in case of start-ups. Before sending a proposal learn to ask the client a few questions, which will help to clarify the doubts. This allows you to gaze the requirement of the client and formulate the proposal accordingly.

No doubt the Covid 19 scenario has changed the face of business forever, but getting clients still follows certain parameters and rules. What methods do you use to get more people to buy more products or services?