Casual Articles - Business

Who Are You -- Can I Trust You?
Organized crime aside, beating a prospect over the head is not a reasonable sales tactic. Years ago I was taught that in order to make a withdrawal, I first had to make a deposit; maybe many deposits – depending on my immediate request.This theory should apply to our sales and marketing strategies. When we make a sales call we want something -- and we want it even before the person says ‘hello’. Script reading might have worked years ago but marketing today requires a deposit of trust-building strategies before you ask for t

rogram - where you offer your best customers some sort of reward or prize for introducing some of their friends. Normally like associate with like, so you have a good chance of gaining other high value customers through this highly effective, but low cost way of growing a quality customer base.

Loyalty card programs - correctly implemented - can assist in growing your base of highly profitable customers. This can only work, however, if the other components of your business - in-store experience, quality products, good service culture, analytical capability, and marketing campaign smarts - are in place. Make sure that the foundations are in place before your leap into a loyalty card scheme.

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Machiavelli: The Prince - Its Business Implication
IntroductionMachiavelli teachings and thoughts will never go out of fashion as power will always remain the center of both the political and corporate world. His writings are as relevant today as they were in the 16th century. In the last decade and half with increasing competitiveness and globalization number of managers have started using his principles in the corporate world. The book was first written kept in mind the political times of 16th century but number of its lessons are applicable in business today.In this p

Loyalty marketing has been around for as long as retailing – attractive stores, good service, and a quality product line all contribute to building up a loyal customer base.

With the growth of larger stores, a relatively new marketing component – the loyalty card - has been added by many retail outlets. This is in an attempt to offset the lack of personal contact in the larger stores, and with that, the lack of knowledge of individual customers.

Despite what any loyalty card vendor tells you – merely introducing a loyalty card scheme will not suddenly buy you customer loyalty – the overall customer experience is the key.

So if a loyalty card doesn’t buy you loyalty, why bother?

The primary purpose of a loyalty card scheme is quite simply to provide information on individual customer behaviour.

Retail stores do not capture customer details when recording a sale on a Point Of Sale device. A loyalty card – with its unique customer ID – provides the vital link between products sold, and customer demographics. It also provides – for the first time – an indication to the retailer who their regular customers are, and what the value of purchases are for each customer. Equally important – when a customer signs up for the loyalty card, they provide their contact details, and ideally, details of the members of their family.

Consider These Points Before Rushing Into A Loyalty Scheme

* A badly implemented loyalty scheme is merely a form of price discounting. If the scheme does nothing to improve your sales, and you issue a price rebate when a customer's sales reaches a certain level, then all you have succeeded in doing is give away margin.

* Once launched, loyalty schemes are difficult to shut down. You will be taking away something that some of your customers perceive as a benefit, and so this can cause some dissatisfaction amongst certain customer segments.

* The primary purpose of a loyalty scheme is to gather information. Gathering this information is pointless if you don't have a plan on how to use it. If you don't have access to some analytical skills, and no marketing campaign capability to use your new-found customer knowledge - don't go down this path.

What Do I Do With All This New Customer Information?

The key activities that this customer information enables are:

* You can identify your best customers, and will know what they buy, how often, and when you last saw them.

You can now focus on nurturing these customers - with special offers, or a short newsletter keeping them informed of new products that have just come in, or even pre-sale viewing so that top buyers get first crack at items going onto sale.

* You can look for the common characteristics of your best customers, identify what is the most effective way of marketing to that segment, and then advertise in magazines this segment is most likely to read - thereby attracting more higher value customers into your store.

* You can look for customers who do not buy as often, but who have similar demographic and lifestyle characteristics to your best customers. This segment offers the best opportunity - via various marketing campaigns - be 'grown' into joining the Best Customers group - through enticing these customers to allocate a greater share of their wallets to your business.

* You can introduce a referral program - where you offer your best customers some sort of reward or prize for introducing some of their friends. Normally like associate with like, so you have a good chance of gaining other high value customers through this highly effective, but low cost way of growing a quality customer base.

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Housing Starts - Why Business Won't Be Usual
Some will blame current economic pressure on a subprime market that was more enthusiastic than realistic. Housing starts are down with consumer confidence following suit. According to The Conference Board its “March [2007] consumer confidence index fell to 107.2, the lowest level since November and a decline that was larger than Wall Street expected.”The good news is the Dow has performed well in the midst of this news while labor statistics remain strong.Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before Congress

t capture customer details when recording a sale on a Point Of Sale device. A loyalty card – with its unique customer ID – provides the vital link between products sold, and customer demographics. It also provides – for the first time – an indication to the retailer who their regular customers are, and what the value of purchases are for each customer. Equally important – when a customer signs up for the loyalty card, they provide their contact details, and ideally, details of the members of their family.

Consider These Points Before Rushing Into A Loyalty Scheme

What Do I Do With All This New Customer Information?

The key activities that this customer information enables are:

* You can identify your best customers, and will know what they buy, how often, and when you last saw them.

This article may be reprinted, provided it is published in its entirety, includes the

Are You Training or Ticking the Box?
A higher proportion of money is wasted on training which is inappropriate or just downright poor than almost any other corporate expense. I have seen organisations make the same mistakes with training all over the world. Here are my top ten.#1 There is never any follow up! Training which imparts a skill or knowledge which is not reviewed or used within seven days is remembered by only thirty three percent of people. After sixty three days it is only 14%. Training which is reviewed or used directly in a job is remembered by 83%

e launched, loyalty schemes are difficult to shut down. You will be taking away something that some of your customers perceive as a benefit, and so this can cause some dissatisfaction amongst certain customer segments.

What Do I Do With All This New Customer Information?

The key activities that this customer information enables are:

* You can identify your best customers, and will know what they buy, how often, and when you last saw them.

This article may be reprinted, provided it is published in its entirety, includes the

Small Business Plans, Proformas and Service Companies
Making spread sheets for a service company in a business plan requires a little extra thought so before you go hog-wild on the MBA spread sheet; business plan proformas, I think it is wise to understand the market place differently and really understand some abstract issues concerning the number you place in little boxes to make every thing Look Right because there is more to business than; News, Weather and Sports!I have prepared some abstract thoughts on this subject below so please read this if you will; that is to say if yo

short newsletter keeping them informed of new products that have just come in, or even pre-sale viewing so that top buyers get first crack at items going onto sale.

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Advertising Online Websites Using Traditional Print Ads
Ever think about advertising online websites using print ads? No? Don’t fret. Most people haven’t thought about it. Most people don’t do this. But if you have a website that’s well written (contains great sales copy, that is) then maybe you should.Before we discuss the specifics of advertising online websites using print ads, let’s talk about why you’d want to do it. All websites like to see traffic. But simply advertising so you can attract more people to your site actually misses the point. You want to draw more poten

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Can't affrd to wait up to 60 days to get paid for your invoices? Learn how factoring your invoices can help you finance your growing business.

Which method of acoounting should you use, cash or accrual. Get some hints in this article.

Success means different things to different people. There are four specific factors which anyone will need to become successful. 1. Goals and plans. Successful people have clearly laid out goals which guide them along. 2. Optimism. Maintaining a positive attitude is very important because it will keep you motivated to work towards your goal. 3. Focus. In order to be successful. 4. Perseverance. This means persistence in any thing undertaken.

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