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Posts Tagged ‘small business sales’
What Kind of Business Traveler Are You?
August 15th, 2011 :: Rieva LesonskyBy Rieva Lesonsky
Where do you fit into the five types of business travelers uncovered in a recent Global Business Travel Association survey? The survey of about 800 businesspeople who travel at least 4 times annually on business found that business travelers fall into five categories:
1. The Veteran – These experienced travelers take an average of 12 trips per year with an average of four nights away from home per trip; 88 percent are age 35 or older. Their key goal when traveling is ensuring they aren’t hindered by a lack of equipment of connectivity; as a result, they’re always looking for new technology to make them more productive on the road. This group enjoys traveling, and a whopping 94 percent bring laptops on the road.
2. Road Weary – This group takes an average of 15 trips taken per year with an average of three nights away from home per trip; 74 percent are age 35 or older. Their most important goals on the road are feeling safe when on a trip (42 percent) and staying in touch with family (41 percent). Perhaps due to safety concerns, the Road Weary travelers are the most likely of all traveler groups to bring a portable GPS device.
3. Wide-eyed and Anxious – These novice travelers tend to be younger (89 percent are under 55). They take an average of 11 trips taken per year with an average of four nights away from home per trip. They have less experience on the road than other groups, so while they enjoy travel, they get nervous navigating new destinations and following policies.
4. Passionate High-Tech – These enthusiastic travelers take an average of 13 trips per year with an average of four nights away from home per trip; 91 percent are under age 54. Passionate High-Tech travelers love to travel for work and look to technology to make them more productive help them keep in touch with friends and family. They tend to spend more per trip than other groups and are more likely to fly. This group embraces new technologies such as tablet devices (25 percent) while on the road.
5. New Recruits –These less experienced travelers take an average of 14 trips year with an average of six nights away from home per trip. They are the youngest group with (98 percent) under age 54. This group is eager to explore new destinations while on business and eager to travel more and share experiences. They tend to work in high-tech industries and travel internationally on business, and they often use social media to meet up with friends and colleagues on the road.
Whatever group you belong to, despite the fact that nearly half (46 percent) of those surveyed say they are dealing with tight travel budgets, 78 percent agreed that there is no substitute for being there in person.
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Small Biz Resource Tip: LeadZumba
August 8th, 2011 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichThe hunt for new customers is a constant for small businesses. Every entrepreneur knows the challenge of finding qualified leads that can turn into real customers–and profits. LeadZumba promises high-quality leads with a maximum response rate through a variety of opt-in resources such as email, landing pages, websites, TV, radio and more. Each lead is qualified and verified and is packaged in the format of your choice, be it cvc, doc, txt and more. You can narrow your search by hundreds of verticals depending on your needs. There are no setup fees or long-term contracts; an initial consultation is free.
Google+How Background Music Can Help Your Store or Restaurant’s Sales
August 5th, 2011 :: Rieva LesonskyBy Rieva Lesonsky
You hear music every day when you’re out shopping or at restaurants. Most of the time, it’s just “background.” But did you ever stop to think about how that background music could be affecting what you do and buy? If you’re a retailer or restaurant owner, you should be.
Consider how teen/young adult clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch sets the mood for its stores with loud, throbbing music that effectively lures its target audience inside (while driving away anyone not in the right demographic). How can you employ some of the same tactics? BusinessInsider recently reported on seven ways background music can help or hurt a business, summarizing findings from a variety of academic sources.
- Loud music makes shoppers go through a store faster, but doesn’t reduce how much they buy.
- Slow-tempo music causes shoppers to go through a store more slowly and buy more. It also makes restaurant customers spend more time over their meal, but spend more.
- Classical music prompted customers to spend more—and buy more expensive items—than Top 40 music did. (This test was conducted at a wine store.)
- Classical music at a restaurant makes customers spend more than either Top 40 music or no music at all.
- When does classical music backfire? It can make customers think your store or restaurant is “too expensive” for them or more expensive than it really is.
- When music is played on-hold, customers are willing to wait longer before they hang up.
- When people hear music they like, they perceive wait times as shorter than they really are.
Of course, not every test is going to work out the same way in the real world as it did in these experiments. (If it did, every store would be playing loud, slow, classical music.) However, it’s worth experimenting to see what different types of music have on your customers.
If you own a fast-food restaurant or other business where you want customers to move on quickly, try playing faster-paced music or turning up the volume. If you want them to linger, try something slow. Also match the music to your customers—if your target market is seniors, playing rap music while they wait in line to pay for their purchases or hang on-hold isn’t going to endear you to them.
One conclusion all these tips seem to point to: Music is better than no music at all—so make sure you’re taking advantage of the power of music to not only soothe the savage breast, but encourage sales.
Image by Flickr user Kevin Dooley (Creative Commons)
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How NOT to Generate Referrals for Your Small Business
August 4th, 2011 :: Karen AxeltonBy Karen Axelton
Are you paying or otherwise compensating your clients when they give you referrals to new prospects? If so, you may be shooting yourself in the foot, new research from the Enterprise Council on Small Business (ECSB) shows.
While it might seem like common sense that getting an incentive would make business owners more likely to refer new customers your way, the ECSB research found that contrary to conventional wisdom, rewards for referrals are not effective. What’s worse, the practice of paying for referrals may actually damage your business’s reputation among the very customers you’re hoping to attract.
Just 12 percent of small business owners in the ECSB study agreed with the statement, “If I made a supplier recommendation I would expect compensation.” Thirty-one percent neither agreed nor disagreed, while the majority (57 percent) did not expect to be paid for referrals.
On the receiving end, ECSB found, when business decision-makers know that their contacts were paid to refer them to your business, they are far less likely to do business with your company–4.3 times less likely, to be exact, when compared to a “genuine” recommendation made without expectation of payment.
What’s the main takeaway from these results? Whether your clients recommend you or not is less about you and more about them. What makes people recommend you (or not recommend you) is whether or not they are confident your product or service will help the other business owners they know. If it’s not going to help, or if they’re not completely confident you’ll provide great service, they don’t want to take the risk of making a recommendation that their colleagues will be disappointed with (and blame them for later on).
What does it come down to, then? The best way to generate referrals is not to pay for them, but to give great service and provide the right product. Of course, you should always let your customers know you appreciate referrals; make it easy for them to give referrals by creating print or online forms or a button on your website. Let clients show it when they’re “feeling the love” for your firm. But don’t turn referrals into a cash exchange. Bottom line, it just doesn’t work.
Image by Flickr user Corrie Barklimore (Creative Commons)
Google+Economy Improves, But Americans Still Aren’t Spending
April 7th, 2011 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichBy Maria Valdez Haubrich
A new Harris Poll on Americans’ attitudes toward spending showed some surprising results. Despite signs of economic recovery, consumers surveyed in the poll were no more likely to be opening their wallets than they were in the prior Harris poll in October 2009.
The survey asked about common methods of saving money. Almost the same percentage of respondents report buying more generic brands (61 percent now, 62 percent in October), brown-bagging their lunches (45 percent vs. 45 percent), going to a hairdresser less often (38 percent vs. 37 percent) and using refillable instead of disposable water bottles (35 percent vs. 37 percent).
While the recession is technically over, its impact is lingering on. So how can your business convince consumers to spend when they’re still holding tightly to their wallets? Here are some strategies.
Find pockets of spenders. For instance, the Harris poll showed consumers age 65 and up were less likely than other age groups to be cutting back. Within your own customer base, are there niche groups that are more ready to spend? If so, focus on those groups and (if necessary) develop new products and services to target them.
Emphasize value. Value is different than low price. It means your products or services are worth their price because they’re good quality and last. Throughout the recession, consumers have been more focused on value and on buying fewer, but better, items. Promote your products and services as fitting this need.
Focus on savings. Of course, saving money still matters. But since most small companies can’t offer rock-bottom prices, focus instead on how your product or service helps buyers save money over time. Maybe it needs to be replaced less often, saves time or saves energy.
Cater to current customers. Repeat business is more important than ever in this type of economy. Target your current customers with special rewards or loyalty offers. Send them postcards or email newslsetters alerting them to news about your business and special offers. Hold special events just for them. Follow up after the sale. If customers are happy with their purchase, it’s a great time to sell more related products or services. If they’re not happy, do everything you can to fix the problem.
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