Charlotte Business Pains - What is Hurting Your Business?

Every business has varying levels of "pain" or "sore points" within their business. Our pain has always been how to best stand apart from 2,500+ competitors in Charlotte.

The clients that we work with have different areas that cause them "pain" within the cycle of growing their business:

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  Declining sales - the new economy has made customers think differently. Increased competition hurts sales. The Internet hurts sales.
  


• Outdated website - your customers are fickle. They want the "latest, greatest" experience on the web. If your website is over 1 year old, it is probably outdated to the needs of your new customer base.




• Out-of-touch messaging - Are you saying the wrong thing to your customers? Are you saying things that are too complicated? Do you not know how to talk with your customers?
  
• Stagnant Business Growth - has nothing moved in your business for several years? Have there been no new services or products initiated? Are customers slowly drifting away?
  
• Need New Energy & Focus - are you feeling frustrated? Have you "lost your edge"? Are you struggling with nobody to help? Do you feel alone?
  
• Current Agency is Non-responsive - are they more worried about their business than yours? They haven't given you any new ideas this year. They "nickel and dime" you with ridiculous expenses.

Any one of these "sore points" with your business, left alone, can slowly destroy your dreams. This is a good time for you to consider making some changes and addressing these business pains.

We can help. We have new ideas. We have solutions that can address these business pains and get your business back on a track that will take you where you want to go. Call Jay Joyce at The Idea People in Charlotte today at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com for a free consultation to identify your business pains and create a plan of action to stop them!

Charlotte Business Tip - You Should Be Helping Your Customers Buy!

Why is it that sales people and business owners want to always "sell" to their customers?  We have always believed, at The Idea People, that your customers would rather BUY something from you than be sold something.

 

Think about your own situation.  How obvious is it to you when a sales person starts down their list of trial closes?  If you're like most business people, you can smell it coming from a mile away!  Now think about this:  when was the last time you helped a customer buy your product or service?  What is the difference between selling and helping a customer buy?

 

Traditional Selling

 

Traditional selling is an organized manner where YOU control the customer, pull them down your sales road, answer their objections, and attempt closes on them until they either "close" or "go away unsold".  Traditional selling can feel cold, plastic, rehearsed, routine, unwanted, pushy, uncalled for, too much to bear, and downright uncomfortable...mostly by the individual doing the "selling"!

 

Now let's look at how you can help customers buy services or products from you.

 

Helping Customers Buy

 

This method has a more personal, engaging and involving approach but with a dramatic difference...the customer is the STAR of the show...not your sales techniques and sales jargon.  The customer takes center stage.  Your role is still to offer features and benefits but in a more conversational and non-offensive approach.

 

Your attention shifts from rehearsed and packaged responses to focusing on the customer's unique situation and their "buying" habits.  How do they like to buy?  What do they like to see in a product or services that you sell?  What is their challenge or problem (pain point) that can be resolved by using your product or service? 

 

Helping customers buy is more about forming a relationship and bond and less about "churning through numbers until the percentages swing in your favor."  There is an art to helping your customers buy. 

 

How to Help Your Customers Buy

 

1.  Create a conversational and personal atmosphere when talking with prospects.  Take time to get to know their situation.  People skills!

2.  Make everything about them, the customer.  All attention of your product or service features and benefits are turned toward them.  What challenge or problem can be solved for them using your product or service?

3.  Eliminate your hard trial closes about "what will it take to get you to buy now?" with "Do these features make sense for your unique situation?"

4.  Introduce long-term personal, relationship opportunities - training or workshops, service or performance warranties, discounts for referrals, special user groups or customer events, longer-term support and care.  Remember, you are creating a new relationship!

5.  Beyond solving the customer's problems or pain points, how else can you assist them?  This could open up additional service or product ideas. 

 

We think that the new model in B2B and Consumer selling is to "wrap your arms around your customers" and don't let go!  Relationships last longer than sales numbers on a wall.  Maybe our thinking should evolve in 2011 with a more personal approach to selling.  We think so.

Charlotte Website Clients - Is Your Website Built to Display Correctly on the iPhone and iPad?

Mobile marketing is the next big "swish" to scrape by your business.  It seems like Internet technology just keeps moving faster and faster...and it does!

 

Your customers are already accessing, or trying to access, your company website as we speak.  And the mobile customers are using the iPhone as their primary choice to search the Internet.  Blackberry and Android are a very distant 2nd and 3rd place.  It's all about the Mac products...iPhone and iPad.

 

Your existing HTML website must have some new programming and correctly-sized graphics to display correctly on the iPhone and iPad devices.  Remember, you're going to see your website displayed on a much smaller screen so graphics, files, text and forms must be sized and coded correctly to display to this mobile and active audience.

 

We have built quite a few client websites to display correctly inside the iPhone and iPad environment.  Take a look at this client's iPhone and iPad website design comp.  The design still carries through their creative mission from the main HTML website, but it is designed and coded to correctly function on the much smaller iPhone environment.

 

Call us today at 704-398-4437 to get your company website iPhone compatible before your customers pass you by!