The summer was a good one for bears.
In fact, there were seven bears that particular week. They were hanging around my sister Marie's house where we were renting the basement while building our own home. Neither Marie nor Margaret could go out to the cars without first yelling and checking for the bears.
In all honesty, the bears were more interested in the huge crop of blueberries than they were in mothers or children, but they were a danger.
The conservation officers were called and they brought out two bear traps. The bears took no notice of the traps until someone had the good idea to lure them in with some well-placed tuna.
Within hours, two bears were trapped and on their way to new blueberry fields. The others were chased off by the conservation officers.
Often as business owners, we spend our time hunting for customers. We are looking in the bushes for new customers and we are trying to find the ones that got away.
The truth is that it takes five to 10 times more effort and money to get a new customer than it does to keep one that we have already. But how about getting customers to come to us? What if we could find a way that our customers would search us out and be lined up to get our advice, to buy our products? Wouldn't that be great?
The truth of the matter is that you can be a magnet and have your prospective customers drawn to you. You won't even have to use the canned tuna that bears like.
The first thing you need to do to become a customer magnet is know who your customers are and where you can find them. Assuming that you know already what they need, you are set to begin drawing them in. To do this you need a bait, usually this is something that you are going to give away for free. In many cases, this is your expertise or you are going to facilitate bringing that knowledge to your customers.
In the case of Ave Maria, we started by offering educational seminars, we then started putting on health shows in the community.
About 12 years ago, we started our radio show on a local radio station. We trained our staff as herbalists and advertised that so customers would feel comfortable asking questions.
When we don't have the answers we go find it. When we don't know about a product we go find out. We create value for our customers and develop relationships so that hopefully they don't want to go other places.
Attracting customers can be much easier if they see you as the expert.
Think about ways that you can become the expert in areas where your prospects engage. By doing this you will have prospects as well as your steady customers coming to you on a regular basis to seek your advice and buy your products.
This is how businesses are built, one customer at a time, with consistent service, quality and expertise.
Try it for yourself!
Dave Fuller, MBA is a certified professional business coach, author of Profit Yourself Healthy, and the owner of Ave Maria and Mother Marias Market in Prince George. Dave can be reached at [email protected]
