“In Business” by Roland Millward

Businesses spend huge amounts of money and time in getting new customers. Quite often a large majority of people that respond to the advertising do not always buy on their initial response. However it does not mean that those people will not buy but may not yet be ready or convinced to deal with you. It is estimated that it can take up to 7 contacts with a person before they become your customer.

It is essential therefore that you have a way of recording enquiries and keeping in touch with customers. For Internet enquiries you can use an automatic system such as Aweber to not only to respond to the enquiry but to send a series of broadcast messages.

In addition keep in touch with people by telephone, letter, email and newsletters. Do not fall into the trap of trying to sell to them each time. Build a relationship by giving them information freely. If you sell electronic gadgets for example you could send out a newsletter about new products about to be launched. However rather than trying to sell a product, simply give information and do not even give your price for it.

Occassionally send them a special offer or an invitation to a special event. These people are a potential goldmine if you look after them and once they have become customers are likely to have a long term relationship with your business.

Building lists of potential clients as well as listing existing ones is vital if you are going to be successful and in today’s economic climate your very survival could depend on it.

In today’s electronic and virtual world it is important to have a good website. It may that you do not use it to sell goods but that it is simply a showcase for what you do.
Make sure that it looks professional and reflects quality of service. A good website does not have to contain many pages but it should enable the viewer to see what your company offers and is easy to use.
Seek professional help on design and search engine optimization and that you use good copywriters for the material you place on the site. It is a good idea that people can contact you easily, so make sure that there are telephone numbers and a contact form that are easily found. Check out the websites of your competition to make sure that your website does not look poor against theirs and if it does improve it immediately.
Once you have a website make sure that you keep it up to date and occasionally refresh it to keep it looking interesting to visitors. You are advised also to develop links with other websites as that will enable you to rank better on search engines and drive traffic between the linked websites.
There are plenty of good web-designers so search out a few and see what they can do for you.