Marketing For Small Business - 10 Ways To Love Your Customers And Have Them Love You In Return

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises - He is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work: he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business: he is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him He is doing us a favour by allowing us to do so." Mahatma Gandhi

In this hi-tech and fast paced world your customers have more choice than they have ever had when Gandhi spoke those words in 1890. And, what's more, statistics show that these days buyers invest significant time researching products and services before they part with their cash.

If you want them to choose to spend their money with your small business, here are 10 ways to stand out from the rest. 1. Listen hard to what your customers are telling you to find out what they really want, not what you think they want. The art of listening is a skill you that you need to practice to perfection when you run a small business. When you truly listen to your customers then you are half way to putting them first. The other half is acting on what you hear!

2. Go beyond taking selling and order taking by networking with them to build robust and lasting relationships. Keep them up to speed with the latest in your industry and business community.

3. Make 'reliability' your mantra. It's a fact of life that the first time you let them down may well be the last. More often than not you won't get another chance.

4. Guarantee that your products and services turn up on time every time by implementing systems and quality procedures. Train your staff so that they can do it in their sleep.

5. Go the extra mile in everything you do and become known for it. Strive to give more than your customers expect.

6. Show your appreciation for their business. They have multiple choices and they chose to do business with you. A simple, heartfelt and sincere "Thank you for your business" goes a long way, especially if you take the time to send a handwritten note.

7. Employ people with passion! Make sure your team understand and buy in to your customer service philosophy. They need to live and breathe it, just as you do. Quality puts you in the game, but service gives you the edge.

8. Be their guru. Let your customers benefit from your expert knowledge what ever you sell. Whether you're advising on software systems, the best wine with dinner or how to recruit top talent, be known as a recognize authority in your field.

9. Represent value for money. You can offer too cheap or too expensive, but you can never offer too much value. Value endures long after price is forgotten.

10. Sell the benefits not the features. Nobody buys a drill because they want a drill: what they actually want is a hole. This one's a bit of an old chestnut, but it's amazing how much marketing you see out there showing that sellers simply don't get it. So here it is again, customers buy the benefits not the features, so sell the sizzle not the sausage. (There, we've managed to put chestnuts and sausages in the same small business article!)

Put these 10 tips to work in your small business and you're guaranteed to have customers beating a path to your door.


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Mike Newman is a noted business turnaround expert, entrepreneur and business coach. His wife, Trish is an award winning, international business leader. Together they offer no nonsense, practical advice to small business owners. Their website offers business coaching services, marketing tips, resources and success strategies for small business.