Build My Customer Base, Finding New Business.

I have seen many articles on sales and marketing which speak of the salespersons lack of desire to cold call and prospect for new business.

Yet whether your business is fast moving consumer goods or niche marketing to a small group of long term customers one thing is necessary You must always be looking for new customers, new products for your customers, new ways to grow your business and new places to extend your influence.

Right now the world is in the grip of a slow economy, businesses are closing, struggling to continue. Now is the most important time to be out in the market place looking for new business, looking to extend your influence. Adding to your customer base.

I have worked in sales and marketing on and off all my working life. My early years were spent in retail. I worked in boutiques, bookshops and a butchers shop. Now I work as a sales rep and business development manager.

One company I worked for was a 2pac paint company. My job was to visit cabinet makers and find business. One prospect I visited told me that changing painters was a bit like changing your dentist very difficult. The business I work in at the moment has similar customers. It is not easy for them to change. With these kinds of business it is more about building relationship and constantly representing your company as the one that has both the quality product and the best service.

I also worked as a telemarketer cold calling for optus both residential and business and worked for a real estate group that believed in door knocking. With these companies it was more about the numbers knock on enough doors and you will find someone who wants to sell. Make enough calls and someone will respond.

Different products and different businesses all call for their own methods of looking for new customers, but there are some basics that are common to prospecting for every business.

It is those basics I want to cover in this article.

It doesn't matter what else you do and how well you do it, if you don't keep careful records of who you speak to, it will all come to naught.

To start with you need a diary and a journal. Add a database and my new favorite for projects google docs. Whether your diary and journal are electronic or paper and pen is up to you. What ever you and your prospects are comfortable with.

The Journal - Your most important tool. This is your memory, even if you have a great memory you still need to be in the habit of writing everything down. For me personally my journal is an ordinary A5 notebook. It is discreet, and can be carried into meetings. Use your journel when...

• you are with a contact and you promise something.
• you are on the phone, get into the habit of writing down whatever your contact says as they say it. whatever actions you promise, write it down as you speak it.
• after the meeting write down all the information you have garnered.
• planning your visits and phone calls. Make a list who you are speaking to and what you are speaking about.
• The Date, HIGHLIGHT the date.
• idea's for future projects and contacts.
• ways of attacking a problem
• everything and anything as you go through your day

Your Diary

A diary can work electronically because the diary stays on your desk. When you come back to your desk, go through your journal and

• enter the actions you need to take on the days you need to take them
• confirm by email, sms or phone call any appointment you booked in.
• break down the steps needed for an action or an event. Write the steps in your diary on the days they need to be taken.
• every day check your diary for what is happening, and what you need to do.
• don't forget to put your personal things in, holidays, doctors appointments. Anything that will impact on your business life.

Database

If you don't have one begin one. If you are starting out or you are not in a business with thousands of customers you don't need to spend a lot of money. Open Office is free. Microsoft Access is part of many office packages. Very simply a database is a list of your contacts and their information that you can access quickly and easily

• Enter customer information as you get it. Phone numbers, email addresses. Important names. Other businesses your contact is associated with. Any information that will help you build relationship and promote your business with your contact.

Google docs

Google doc's are a new discovery for me, and I can see the more familiar I get with them the more I am going to use them. Right now I am using them to help with projects.

One project I am using google docs for right now is a drive to get our product on our customers website. The Spreadsheet has all our customers on it and their website plus columns for whether our product or links are on their website. Columns for whether we have sent them information or not. Everything we need to know to drive the project. It has one simple form to enter the information into the spreadsheet. Once the spreadsheet is complete we will use that to promote our product on our customers websites. We then have a record which is easy to update and the ability to promote our product to more end users because it is on our customers website. Google docs are so easy to use I am loving them.

In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to the judge with the plea "grant me justice against my adversary" For sometime he refused, But finally he said to himself "Even though I don't fear God or care about man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me I will see that she gets justice, so she won't eventually wear me out with her coming.

Whilst we don't want to wear our prospects and our customers out with our coming. It is persistence that will bring reward. Visiting, calling, touching base on a regular basis. Showing your company to be the one that gives the best service, has the best products.

Its an interesting thing about the human mind but we need to hear something several different times and ways before we know it. Your prospect needs to hear from you in different ways and at different times what you and your product can do for them.

So Be Persistent, don't give up. Gather information, look for opportunity, ask questions and take the opportunity when it arises.

Whether you have a couple of minutes on the phone or numerous visits, build relationship. People buy from those they trust. How do you build trust.

• honesty
• fairness
• competence
• keep promises
• Be yourself

Ask questions, the only way to bring your contact along the road to being your customer is to find out their needs, their wants, their opportunities.

Ask...

• What are you working on
• Is there anything that I can help you with
• Would our no. 5 widget be good for that

Ask what ever you can to get information that will enable you to serve your new customer to the best of your ability, building your business in the process.

You have kept your records, you have built relationship, the opportunity is there. Everyone knows your not there for your health. Ask for the sale. Don't be afraid to be direct. If you don't get the sale you'll uncover any objections.

Ask the Question - then keep your mouth closed. Stop talking, pause and wait no matter how long the silence, to use a colloquialism "1st person to speak pays the money"

How do you expand your customer base and find new business. Knock on that door, Make that phone call. Send that email. Post that article. Be diligent and systematic in your work. Doing the actions that find the customer. Keep on Knocking, keep on Ringing.

Do whatever is the thing to do to get your business in front of as many prospective customers as possible and then some.

And in the words of Churchill "Never Give up, Never Give up."