How Can I Get More Customers?

That’s the question I am asked most.

Before I have time to open my mouth the follow up question hits me, “Should I use TV, radio, newspaper or flyers?”. And then, “What about yellow pages, do yellow pages still work?” The really quick manage to get in, “What about web sites… my brother in-law knows a guy who can do me a cheap website, will that work?”

The first flaw in the above line of questioning assumes that the choice of media is the answer to more customers. “What media should I use?,” is a debate that diverts attention away from any possible solution to the opening question. Media selection is not the answer to getting more customers. The message you send out via the media is what attracts or repels customers.

So back to the question… “How can I get more customers?”

In the Monday Morning Memo “Breakthrough Answer 13. Turn It Upside Down. Do It Backwards,” my business partner Roy H. Williams offers this advice.

USUAL ANSWER
Classic marketing revolves around the question, “Who is your customer?” Marketers study surveys, evaluate data and observe customer characteristics in the hope of more narrowly defining your “core customer” and thereby increasing your ability to more efficiently target these people. The assumption is that if you can clearly identify who is buying from you, you can find efficient ways of reaching out to other people just like them.

BACKWARDS ANSWER
Instead of looking at who you’re getting and why, take a look at who you’re not getting and why you’re not getting them.

1. Who isn’t coming to you?
2. Why are these people not coming to you?
3. Are you prepared to broaden your message to appeal to people who haven’t been attracted to you in the past?

Gosh. That little window of insight reveals a whole new horizon of possibilities, doesn’t it?

The marketplace pie is shrinking for most business categories.

If, in fact, fewer customers spend fewer dollars in your category in 2009 than they did in 2008, doesn’t it make sense that you enact a plan to increase the size of your slice?

One more question.

“Why aren’t you converting one-time customers into repeat customers?

Progress can only happen if you start asking different questions. But to start asking different questions you need to learn how to view your challenges from a different perspective?

The above approach of “Doing it backwards,” comes from the book, DaVinci and the 40 Answers, a Maverick, Cold Shower Kick to Your Creativity by Mark Fox. If you need new solutions to grow your market share you need to buy Mark’s book.

Mark also co-teaches the Wizard Academy course DaVinci and the 40 Answers with Wizard of Ads Roy H. Williams.