On Wednesday night I attended the Profitable Connections seminar, I Want More Sales! , presented by Craig Leaney .

I wanted to share a few notes I took from the seminar that I found particularly relevant to my business.

Cycle of Buying Life

This topic was all about understanding who your customers buy from before they buy from you.  Once you know who your customers already have existing relationships with, you should then look to work with those suppliers to help get the word out on what your value proposition is.  You should work hard to earn the trust of those suppliers (see "being an A Class supplier" below) so that they feel comfortable with referring you into their networks.  You should then look for ways to "do business" with these suppliers to bring the relationship to a new level.  This could take many forms, but you might look to provide a speciall offer to your partner which they can then pass onto their customers that brings attention to you.  Alternatively, you might offer a financial reward for customers that buy as a result of your partner referring you onto their customer.  This should of course be fully disclosed.

As ROARZ sells to businesses, we thought about the types of businesses that might already have a relationship with our ideal customers.  Here are some of the suggestions that came up:

- Marketing agencies

- Banks or finance providers

- Phone system providers

- Accountants

- Book keepers

- Printers

- Signage providers

- Advertising agencies

This of course applies to you as well.  Who could you help further down the buying cycle, by introducing your customers.

Working with A Class Customers, and Being an A Class Supplier

A ranking system for your customers: 

A - Achievers

B - Better

C - Can't deal with

D - Dead

E - Exit

Craig asked us to define what an A class customer was.  I took a shot at that for ROARZ:

- Existing business with solid revenues and a customer base  OR

- New business who is investing for growth

- Already advertises

- Invests to impove

- Commits to a program of continuous improvement 

- Clear product, price, market, promotion (i.e. clear out their marketing strategy)

- No dedicated marketing or IT in house (i.e. a quality outsourced service partner is of value)

The group came up with a lot of valid suggestions as well, including:

- Partners with you to improve both businesses

- Pays up front

- Looks to invest more over time

- Refers you to quality partners

- Understands that things sometime go wrong, but you'll work on fixing them

- and many more...

IMPORTANTLY, after spending time identifying the "ideal A class customer", Craig then asked the question:

"If that customer what standing in front of you, would they want to buy from you?"

The point being of course, that if you want your ideal customers to look a certain way, you must meet them half way and deliver exactly the same results to them.

Being an A Class supplier is a critical behaviour!

Once you are sure that you are an A Class supplier, then you can go about educating your partners on what your ideal A Class customer looks like...

Comments (1)

	1. 02-12-2007 18:53
	The information here sounds fantastic.    Lots of food for thought!    I have heard excellent reports about Craig Leaney.    Had not received invite to this - however I ended up being in Sydney - in a Leadership program with Stephen Pierce and then assisting over the weekend as an Alpha Leader at the Stephen Pierce Internet Marketing workshop.    Would have loved to have caught up with you - we will this week.    I now need to go over Craig\'s information and use it in my business.    Cheers Registered Report

jrundle

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