Prospects Are Everywhere!
by Elizabeth H. Cottrell, IAHBE editor and staff writer
[This report has important information for all international entrepreneurs.]

Acquire a Promotion Mindset

The home-based business owner is certainly qualified to put an important credential after his name: OEO. We all know that CEO is Chief Executive Officer, and CFO is Chief Financial Officer. OEO is ONLY Executive Officer, and unless you have employees or have involved your family in running your business, you are wearing all the hats yourself: executive management, human resources, procurement, shipping, marketing, accounting, and technology. To maximize your time and energy, you must learn to do many of these tasks simultaneously. This is especially true when it comes to marketing and finding prospects or potential customers.

Everywhere you go, you are representing your company (See our IAHBE report in this month’s MoneyPak: “Image IS Important”). Depending on your product and service, you should consider every daily contact a potential prospect. This is perhaps most crucial for network marketers, but most other businesses will benefit from this mindset as well.

The analogy most critical to your thinking about this is that of someone planting seeds. You are the Master Gardener of your own business garden. Since you know that some seeds will not bear fruit, you must keep planting, keep nurturing, and keep weeding. In this way, you will see your business garden bear fruit in all seasons.

What do we mean by seeds? Your imagination is the only limit to what things might bear fruit in the future. Read on for some ideas.

Your Personal Sphere of Influence

Almost every day, as you go to the store, the bank, the post office, your church, your children’s school, your dry cleaners, your garage--and even as you travel--you meet and have the potential for interacting with others. Use these opportunities to subtly increase your business’s visibility. There’s never a need to be overbearing. The kinds of seeds you can plant through personal interaction include:

• a handshake and a smile
  
• sharing a business card
  
• giving directions
  
• recommending a good restaurant or book
  
• leaving a business brochure
  
• welcoming new people to your community
  
• keeping your word
  
• being on time
  
• dressing neatly and appropriately
  
• giving generously of your time, talent, and money
  
• listening attentively when people speak to you

Your Professional Sphere of Influence

When you are officially representing your business—when you work with your customers, attend Chamber of Commerce functions, civic organization meetings, or other professional events, you are always planting seeds (good and bad) through your appearance, your actions, and your words. When your business becomes known for its quality or value or customer service, you are more likely to get not only repeat business but also referrals from both customers and business associates. Whenever you participate in a business event, always try to get a contact list of other participants. This will allow you to follow up with a letter that might say something like, “I enjoyed meeting you when we both attended the Business Expo last week. Your display was very attractive. I have added your business card to my files and hope I can send you some business in the future. I’ve enclosed my company’s brochure that more clearly explains what my company does. I hope you’ll keep me in mind for your future needs.” The next time that person needs something that your company can provide, she will be more likely to think of you.

Always think of ways to capture contact information. If you have a table or booth at an event and offer a door prize, ask visitors to fill out a form or leave a business card. Be sure you save this information for later follow-up. Pass out give-away items with your company’s name and number.

A surprisingly effective way to get referrals from business associates is to refer people to other businesses yourself. If you feel that another business can help someone more than you can, be gracious and give that person the other company’s name and phone number. Then call that business to alert them to the possibility that they’ll be getting a call. You will have planted TWO seeds at the same time—one with the customer who now sees you as an unselfish problem solver and one with the business associate who might want to return the favor.

When someone calls your business on the telephone, don’t do anything except LISTEN. Don’t keep working on your computer. Don’t keep writing your grocery list. Don’t play solitaire. Don’t make artwork with your paper clips. Listen. This attentiveness will be reflected in the warmth and helpfulness of your response. Repeat what the person says so they’ll know you’re listening and to make sure you understand what they are needing.

Be courteous to salespeople. As tempting as it is to be curt when you’re very busy, remember that these people are just doing their job. If you are friendly and treat them courteously and professionally, they will remember you when they need something that your business offers. One of the products of my business is resumés, and I have had many customers over the years who originally called on me to sell me something and later called to have me help them with a resumé. An important thing to remember about salespeople—they probably speak with more people in a day’s time than you do in a week or two. Make sure that what they say about you and your business is positive.

Here are a few more “seeds” that can be planted in the course of your professional work:

• participating in a co-op ad with other merchants in your area
  
• buying an ad in a high school yearbook or charity program
  
• reserving a booth at a local trade show or career fair
  
• sponsoring a charity event
  
• solving a customer’s problems
  
• offering to collaborate with a business whose product or service complements yours (e.g., a
• caterer and a vineyard might collaborate for a Valentine’s dinner)
  
• giving a seminar to your chamber of commerce members
  
• being a mentor to a start-up business owner

An Unlikely Source for Potential Customers

If you are in a sales business—and especially if you are a network marketer—an extremely valuable source of potential customers is from those people who DON’T want your product or your opportunity. You have done your best, but they’re not buying, but most people don’t like to say no or feel like they’re rejecting you. Give them a graceful way to exit by asking that critical question: “Do you know anyone else who might be interested in [your product, service, business]?” Be ready to write down their answer and then FOLLOW UP!

A Bird In The Hand: Leverage Your Current Customers

No group is so consistently overlooked for the gold mine that they represent than your current customers. In marketing surveys, close to 50% of businesses say that they chose their lawyer, their accountant, their advertising agency, and their consultants from word-of-mouth recommendations. Consultant Harold L. Shenson claims that a business person “should be able to derive 80% of his or her new business from referrals, follow-up, or add-on business from existing clients. Once you are able to do this, you have a self-sustaining business.” (Edwards, et. al.).

This is an area where you, as a small or home-based business owner, can far excel over a larger corporation because you are more flexible and can respond to referrals more easily, quickly, and personally.

How do you get referrals from your current customers? Here are a few ideas:

• Make sure customers stay happy by giving them the most positive experience and the greatest value you can. Exceed your customers’ expectations.
  
• Solve your customers’ problems quickly and efficiently.
  
• Let your customers know that you want referrals, and give them ideas on how to help you.
  
• Reward referring customers with gift certificates, discounts, or prizes.
  
• Make your customers ambassadors for your business by giving them coupons to give to their friends and families or providing give-away items they can share with others.
  
• Offer gift certificates so that customers who like your product or service can easily buy it for someone else as a gift.
  
• Send referral request letters to your customers.
  
• Ask everyone new who comes in or calls how they heard about you. If you can, send a thank-you note to whomever referred them.

Make it easy for your customers to help you, and they usually will if they feel that what you offer is valuable.

Cultivate An Abundance Mentality

Instead of thinking that prospective customers are scarce, start cultivating an abundance mentality. When you assume that everyone you come in contact with could become a potential customer, you will no longer be wasting time thinking about where you can find your next customer, but you’ll concentrate on HOW to create a customer out of every contact. An abundance mentality in this area of your business is contagious and works like a magnet to attract not only business, but friends and relationships that will prove valuable far into the future.

SOURCES

Edwards, Paul and Sarah, and Laura Clampitt Douglas. Getting Business To Come To You. G.P. Putham’s Sons. New York, 1991.

Frey, David. “How To Make It Rain Referrals.” Marketing Best Practices, Inc. Website, 2001: http://www.marketingbestpractices.com/Articles/referrals.htm.

Reyna, Steve M. “The Power of Referrals in Cold Canvassing.” PowerHomeBiz.com: http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol53/referrals.htm.

Ward, Susan. “It Pays to PAK Your Business Image - Part 1: You Are The Best Promotion For Your Small Business.” Small Business: Canada Website: sbinfocanada.about.com/library/weekly/aa080900a.htm

Zahorsky, Darrell. “7 Surefire Ways to Build Your Referral Business” About Website, Small Business Information Section: sbinformation.about.com/library/weekly/aa020203a.htm

RESOURCES

Business and Management Advice and Information At Your Fingertips, www.onlinebusadv.com/. At this site you will find a wealth of free business advice. Here you will find training and information on managing people, sales management, profit enhancement, marketing, strategic planning, customer service, and a host of other business and management related topics.

Identify the Ideal Prospects, www.thesalescounsel.com/prospecting.htm. Too often companies and sales professional waste valuable time and resources chasing dead-end prospects because they have not taken enough time to create the ideal customer profile.

Identify Your Target Market, www.homebusinesscenter.com/nov1998.html. Article by Sue Barrett. Who are your customers? The whole world isn’t your market, you know. You need to get SPECIFIC. Knowing your Target Audience will minimize the risks of doing business. It will uncover and identify potential problems. It will help you recognize opportunities in the marketplace that otherwise would be missed. It can save you time and money by focusing your energy on the potential BUYERS.

Usenet Discussion Groups, groups.google.com/. Google Groups contains the entire archive of Usenet discussion groups dating back to 1981. These discussions cover the full range of human discourse and provide a fascinating look at evolving viewpoints, debate and advice on every subject from politics to technology. This is a good place for those wishing to discuss those issues regarding potential business prospects.

© 2003 Elizabeth H. Cottrell. All rights reserved worldwide.

Article by Elizabeth H. Cottrell, IAHBE editor and staff writer. Elizabeth is a home-based entrepreneur, freelance technical writer, and owner of Riverwood Technologies, a desktop publishing company in Maurertown, Virginia.