Now anyone that knows me knows that I spend a lot of time in coffee shops. I like them and I do love a large mocha (or three). I tend to spend a lot of money with a good coffee shop that I like.

Now I don’t know if you know this or not but I also co-host an Internet TV show with a friend of mine (you can check it out at www.WhatIsTheFusion.com). We had been hosting the show at this small independent coffee shop both because we liked the place but also because we wanted to help get them some extra exposure.

Recently the place was sold to another owner. We go in and set up for our show (not knowing it had been sold) and meet the new owner. It was obvious right way that she wasn’t kicking us out for that taping but she really didn’t want us there.

It seems that she expected to get a flood of people (more than the usual 10 that we usually see while we are taping the show) and that she wasn’t pleased with us taking up space in her new place.

Now, let me set the stage for you. We promote the location at least twice on every show. We blast it out to all our Social Media sites (about 5 people involved with this all doing this), we post their link on our website, we tell all our friends and other people we meet about the place and tell them to come down and watch the taping live.

On top of this, I know that between us every time we go in just to tape a show we end up spending over $30 during that one hour.

You would think that alone would encourage the support from the new owner.

But she was not seeing the big picture. She saw us as “taking up space” instead of seeing all the publicity we gave her just for letting us use the chairs in the corner once every two weeks.

There’s more to the story that fed into us finally not only moving the show to a new location but also to telling others about the experience and that we were not welcome in this place any more.

Long story short, her lack of seeing the big picture had lead to what I would estimate as easily over $200 per week in coffee sales. For a small independent coffee shop, that’s a decent amount of income. Especially since we were helping grow the business by our word of mouth.

The point of the story is that you need to look at the big picture in your business. Are there great raving fans that you are driving away because of policy or small picture thinking like “are they taking up space for other customers?”

Remember that we all need to keep a pulse on our customers and take care of them. Make them feel cared for. Make them feel wanted. And don’t let small thinking cloud your vision of how things should look.

So what is it that makes us different?

Well, let’s look at the movie industry and one movie specifically that might put it in to perspective for you.

The latest Twilight movie just came out. People were going nuts over the whole thing. And…

It was a huge hit… again!

People stood in line for over 5 hours to watch the movie and it was sold out AGAIN! In case you don’t know, this is the third movie in the series. Each one gets more popular.

I was lucky enough to get out of it this time. (*happy me*)

I’m personally not a fan but I have to give them amazing credit where it is due.

So, let’s examine why, in a “down economy”, a movie franchise like that can create such raving fans.

1. They know their target market
Teen girls are the primary target market for the series. They read the books, buy the t-shirts and watch the movies. It’s a great market. They have expendable income. Once they love something, they keep coming back for more and more, and have boyfriends, parents and little brothers that get sucked in as casualties of war.

All leading back to more sales and repeat business from their happy and excited target market.

2. They keep delivering the goods
I did mention this is the third movie right? I don’t even know how many books they are up to yet, but I know there’s more. It’s a great recurring revenue model. If you liked the movie but never read the book, what do you do?

Go buy the book! That’s called an upsell. Buy one book, then you end up buying them all. Then what about the next movie? Yup! Gotta go to that too! And don’t forget about the awesome new t-shirt with Edward’s dreamy picture. Gotta have one of those too.

It’s all based around the upsell and continuity. It’s always easier to sell a happy customer the second time. Why not give them a whole catalog of items to pick from?

3. Most importantly, they have created Raving Fans
Anyone that follows the whole thing becomes a raving fan. They talk about it with their friends, they get giddy about what’s going to happen in the next movie.

I know of someone that had a party for the movie premiere at her business. Do you think she got more business just by piggy backing on their buzz? You bet!

They created a cult following. It’s huge! Wouldn’t it be great to do that with your customers? You can if you are willing to get these things in place. Get them excited. Build a following. Get them talking about you and your business.

That’s how you can grow your business in a “down economy” and really get your business to explode with your own arm of raving fans.

But without all the little details none of those big pictures would amount to anything.

Think about it. Relatively speaking from our vantage point the stars are small. But without all of those small points of light up in the night sky it wouldn’t be nearly as beautiful.

During a wedding, which can take months to plan and make happen, little things like the rings and the happy tears of the bride are actually what makes it a wonderful event.

This is true in both life and in business.

When we are marketing our business there is usually a lot of talk about what we want the result to be. Why are we running this campaign? Why are we doing that particular mailing? What is the reason for the sale and what do we want to happen?

But without all of the little details nothing gets done.

And remembering the little details can make all the difference to help you make your big picture come together.

For example I know of a local coffee shop that specializes in the little details. Their big picture is they are a local business trying to get new customers in the door each day and and keep the ones that do come in coming back.

They do that with the little details. Things like only using bananas in their smoothies that are just ripe enough. To the point that once they are not “just right” they do not use them.

Things like putting a little drink umbrella in each smoothie.

Things like saying Aloha (hello in Hawaiian) to EVERY person that walks through the door and Mahalo (thank you in Hawaiian) to EVERY person as they leave. Whether they are a regular or someone who has never been through their doors before. Everyone is welcomed and greeted, everytime.

It feels like you are coming in to see friends, like you are welcome and invited in. This keeps people coming back time after time.

If you are holding a live event again you need to make sure you greet EVERYONE that comes in the door. It it is a large event, bring in extra friends or family to help if need be.

I attend a lot of workshops and seminars throughout the year. And there is a distinct difference between some of them. There is one person who makes it a point to look to the details. You always feel like you are “home” when you go. People welcome you. Hugs are normal. Candies on the tables and ice water is readily available.

There was another one that I attended just recently, which really brought home the difference.

It was quite a bit smaller that the other ones. It was held by someone in my local community. And by the end of the day all was good. But I was a bit concerned when we got started. When we first arrived people were already sitting down and when we walked in no one said anything (including the persentor, who was there). I noticed a clip board with a bunch of hand written information on it, that I determined was a sign in form. But there was nothing that told me that.

So we signed in and quietly went and found a seat. It was quiet as a library and no one was talking.

The next person who came in happened to notice that there was bags of “stuff” in a box by the clip board. They peaked in the bags and the presenter noticed and told them to go ahead and take one. That everyone should have one.

No one told us that…

So we got up and went over and got a bag of goodies. It turned out that it included the book for the days training.

Now once everything got started the training was very good. They provided lunch and everyone eventually relaxed enough to start talking and networking. But the initial entrance was very uncomfortable.

Something little like an assistant to greet people as they came in and help them get settled and maybe even introduce them to one or two of the other people already in the room would have made a world of difference in the feeling of the event. And therefore a difference in the feeling of success.

So while it is good to see “the big picture” don’t over look the little details. It’s the little details that make or break an event. And it is the little details in both life and business that make things great.

You have great food and fair prices. So what should you do next?

Mailers. Coupons. Co-op advertising with the movie theater next door? Online advertising? There are 1000s of thing you can do to market your small business. But you don’t have the budget to do a lot of advertising so your choices become more limited.

How would you like to know of one of the easiest and most effective ways to market your small business? What if I told you that this idea is drop dead simple AND free to do? Would you start foaming at the mouth to know what it is?

Well, I’m going to give it to you. It’s about as easy as it comes.

It’s called being friendly!

I know that this one should be a given but from what I see in today’s world, it really needs to be mentioned again.

Here is a true story.

Not too long ago, friends and I went to a Pizza place to get together and talk shop. Six of us in all came in to this pizza place to hang out and have a good time.

From the moment we walked in the door, we were greeted with a great friendly person. He took our order with no problem even though a couple of us had a hard time deciding what we wanted. Someone even changed their mind and he had to change things on the register. From what he told us, the programming on the register was very old and it wasn’t an easy thing to do.

It didn’t phase him one bit though. He stayed friendly and made sure that everything was right.

Throughout the rest of the night, he came over a couple of times and made sure that everything was good. We ended up ordering a bunch more stuff than we had actually planned and went back up to the register 3 times total.

By the end of the night, we really felt we got to know this guy and knew he had gone out of his way to make our dinner great.

This seems all normal right? That’s the way it should be, right?

You would think!

But too many businesses don’t make the effort to give their customers that type of experience. They aren’t friendly. They don’t ask you if everything is going good. Many times, I feel like they just want to run me through the register and kick me out the door so they don’t have to actually work for my money at all.

This guy at the pizza place had the right idea.

If you want more business, be friendly. Ask your customers if there is anything else you can do for them. You never know, they may spend more money with you because of it.

That one thing alone made me talk to several other people already about how great the food is and how great the experience was. I know he will get more business because of my talking about the place. He didn’t have to spend money on advertising. He didn’t have to send out postcards or use door hangers. All he did was be friendly and make my experience a good one.

See, that’s how easy it is. If you want to get more customers in the door. Recruit a group of raving fans to talk about your business for you. Referrals are always the best types of customers to get. They can easily grow your business without you having to spend any money on hit or miss advertising. Once you get them in the door, get them to stay and tell all their friends!

Big companies spend millions each year on market research to see what they should be selling in order to grow their businesses. Small businesses don’t need to spend this kind of money to find out the same information. Your existing customers are your best resource to find out what they want to buy. It’s pretty simple, just ask them.

By using surveys in your business you can get a ton of information from your customers and find out exactly what they want from you. You can actually get them to tell you what they would be willing to buy from you if you offered it. How cool is that? It’s not that hard and you can easily grow your business by just offering more to your existing customers instead of chasing new customers all the time.

So let’s talk a bit about how to get your surveys out there and make them the most effective.

So what questions should you ask? First off you should be finding out if your customers are happy with your current services. Let them rate you. Find out how you can improve your overall business and make them even happier.

Then, ask questions like “What other services would you like to see us offer?” or “If we were to offer ______ service, would you be interested in being part of our pilot program for it?”

Questions like that will get you some additional feedback to help your customers give you more information about what they would like to see you offer and if they would be interested in the products you are considering offering.

You could also ask questions like “If we were to offer a monthly program of _______, what price range would you be willing to pay for a service like this?”

These are great questions also because you an see if people would actually be willing to pay the prices you are wanting to charge before you spend the time to build out the new product or service. It doesn’t do any good to put in the work to create a new product if your customers won’t pay enough for the product that you can make a profit on it. This is a great way to make sure that you are focusing your efforts on the right products and services to grow your business.

By using surveys to find out what your customers actually want, you get not only the ability to get a great idea of what they would be willing to pay for but it’s also a great way to get the stage for a big launch of your next product or service and create anticipation for the new product way before you actually put it out there.

So, go out there and ask your customers what they want from you. Next step… Sell it to them. It really is that simple!

Do you use surveys in your business? Comment below and tell others your experiences with using surveys and how they helped your business grow….

If you want to increase sales in your business, you need to make your employees aware of your customers and encourage them to interact with your customers on a more personal basis. If you’ve ever been to a small town, you have most likely seen this as most small town businesses do this much better than they do in bigger cities. The process is really the same and should not be overlooked.

Let me explain what I am talking about.

Let’s say you sell electronics and a customer is walking around the store with a new MP3 player. You need to teach your employees to take notice of this. They could walk up to the customer and ask them if the player is for them or for someone else. Build a conversation by asking questions.

Once they establish this, they should be pointing out anything that the customer might have missed about the product. Depending on why they are buying the product, it might not be the right choice for them. Your employees should educate the customer on if that model is the right one for them based on their reasons for buying it. Also, are there accessories that they might need for the product?

The key is not to push a sale, but to make conversation and help the customer out. Make them feel like you care and want to help them make the right decision in their buying choice.

Think about what happens in this process.

While you are helping the customer make the best choice, you are also increasing the amount of the sale. People might forget that they need batteries or an extra charger. They might not realized that the player doesn’t include a case.

Remember that most customers don’t actually know a lot about their purchases and it’s your job, or the job of your employees, to help educate them along the way.

Be sure to point out additional benefits of the product that they might not have known about also. This helps them feel more comfortable about their purchase. It’s not just about selling them every extra toy you can. It’s about making sure that they buy the correct product and the extras that will make it better for them.

If you want to increase sales in your business, you need to make sure that your employees are interacting with your customers on a personal level and helping them as much as possible. By doing this, you not only increase sales with your additional products or services, but you also build a great relationship with your customers and they will remember you for that. This encourages repeat customers and a lot of word of mouth which is always the best form of marketing you can get for your business.

About The Author:
Ely Delaney is a dad, author, speaker, marketing consultant and Founder/CEO of My Business Marketing Mentor. His goal is to teach marketing in a simple easy to understand format that businesses can use to help gain marketing ideas & market their businesses to boost sales. Throughout the MBMM blog you can sign up for updates, news, free downloads and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.
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