Whose Fault is it When People Don't Buy From You?
Today's topic is, "Who's fault is it when people don't buy from your business?" I can give you a hint. Chances are, it's probably not the customer's fault, or the client's fault. What we have to do is probably point the fingers at us.
Now, I want to put a caveat on that. That doesn't mean that you should sell your product to everybody. For example, my consulting service for small businesses is not for every small business. Some small businesses are not able to pay my consulting fee, and so they are not yet ready to do business with them.
I'm not saying that you want to sell to everybody, all the time, because only one way to do that, for the most part, is to have a price low enough so that people of all income levels, etc., will buy it. I don't think many of us small business owners are set up that way. The chances are that it is you when they don't buy.
What I'd say and recommend is, take a look at a couple of things, and ask yourself some questions. Have you looked at what the competition is doing? For whatever you're selling, or whatever service you're doing, what is the competition offering right now?
You need to not only look online, look up your competitors, and see if their websites have any particular offers. If you still read a newspaper, pick up a newspaper. It wouldn't be bad to do that every once in a while, to pick it up and see, are there any offers out there for what you're doing.
Look at Groupon, look at LivingSocial, and other sites that are showing companies out there trying to get business, and willing to give up a lot of revenue for that. By doing that, you'll know how far out of whack you are with the general consensus of what something is.
I almost forgot, don't forget to look at something like Amazon if you're in a product or something business. The reality is, people will buy when it's quick, easy, and the price is reasonable. Amazon delivers fairly quickly now, so you have to factor that into everything you do.
That brings me up to the second item. If it's more expensive, if what you're selling is more expensive, or your service is more expensive, what are you offering for that higher price? What is the consumer, or customer, or client going to get from you, that's going to be worth paying the additional price?
All of us, at times, for certain things, are willing to spend more if we know we're going to get a little bit better service. I'm not saying every category, sometimes it doesn't matter. Sometimes it's just strictly price, but each one of us has certain things that we don't mind spending a little bit of money for.
For example, if you go to a concert, etc., or you like going to see a Broadway show or something like that, you might want to pay more to get a good seat. You're not going to enjoy it as much if you can't get that good seat, so you'll pay more.
Then there's somebody else who goes, "I don't care. I just want to be somewhere and hear the music, etc." If you think you're more expensive, and you know you're more expensive, then you have to find a way to communicate why you're delivering more value for that higher expense.
It's got to be done fairly quickly, so that people understand that and don't just buy online. That brings me up to the third point. Do you make it easier for people to buy from you, or consult you, etc.? I know many small business owners, myself included, I'm doing this podcast on a Sunday, work on the weekend, and can take care of some things they couldn't during the week.
Consumers do the same thing. Maybe they can't take care of it during the week, and now they go around looking for stuff to get done. Are you able to connect to the next level with a potential client, so that they do want to do business with you?
Is it easy? If they want to make an appointment for something, can they call you on a Sunday? Can they call somebody on a Sunday? Can they fill out a form online? Will you answer the form quickly saying, "Hey, we got your question. We'll get back to you Monday morning, etc."?
The more you can do that, the more you can make it easy for people to do business with you that are profitable clients, the better off you are. If you do those things, and ask yourself those questions, I think you'll be in a much stronger position. Just remember, most of the time, when people aren't buying from you, us, the small business owner, is probably the one who's at fault for that.
Thanks, have a nice day. You can reach me at 321-613-8476, or at brad@justsmallbiz.com.
