Engage Your Prospects and Convert Them Into Customers

August 4, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

Due to the recession, Customers have fundamentally changed. They are more scrutinizing, want more support, and desire customized solutions for their needs. So for a business to be successful and grow, a company, despite all the economic odds, must see the vital importance of engaging prospects very early on in the budding relationship to gain their trust and later earn their business. You also need to stay engaged with your new and existing customers; otherwise, they will go down the street to someone who will. Here are some ways to engage your prospects and customers alike.

Online Chat

I recently added Online Chat to our website and have seen great success using it. I find we are engaging prospects which otherwise we may have missed. We are showing a genuine interest in our website visitors, providing them free advice, giving them many different ways to connect and contact us. It shows our willingness to earn business and be mindful of a new customer’s needs.

You Call Prospective Customers At Their Convenience

This is the reverse of the 1 800 number. We ask web visitors on our Contact Us page to simply email us their number and best time to call them. The prospective customer can tell you when and how to contact them. Amazon.com has been doing this for a while. It can cut costs, mitigates frustration if you can’t take their call, and yet, it really shows your commitment to a customer’s needs and schedule.

Make Your Website Customer Centric and Friendly

I see so many websites which are so uninviting, provide little information and make little or no attempt to woo the web visitor. A website really needs to be all about the customer. Offer great content and free information to sincerely help the prospect. If it is good advice, the prospect is much closer to becoming a customer. Be sure to have customer testimonials.

Offer a Newsletter

When a prospect first enters your “realm”, your business, your sales process, give them access to a Newsletter. If the prospect fails to convert, then at least you are still in front of them, striving to earn their business, while providing them great info to use. A Newsletter needs to cater to the prospect, not be an obvious sales piece for your company. I like Newsletters sent twice per month. 4 times per month can be too much, depending on the Newsletter and recipients, and once per month is not enough. Be sure to ask the recipients to pass the newsletter on to friends, associates and fellow businesses.

Offer Surveys

Whether online or offline, offer surveys for prospects and customers alike to complete. It gives you important feedback on what you are doing right and wrong. It gives you another avenue of engagement.

Offer Free E-Books

Free E-Books are an excellent way to mine prospect contact information and provide that prospect or customer with your experienced advice and expertise. These also have a viral nature, often being passed along via email.

Offer the RSS Feed to Your Blog

Blogging is an excellent way to provide prospects and customers great information, tips and advice on a daily basis. Be sure to offer your RSS Feed so the prospect and customer can get your daily blog straight to their email inbox or updated in their RSS favorites. This is a fantastic tool to earn business, capture a prospect’s email address and solidify your relationship with your customers.

Avoid Auto Responders

I am all about technology and automating processes. But many prospects will be turned off by an email communication that is sent to everyone. They are not special. Find ways to personalize with in your auto response systems to show a prospect you think he or she is special. It is worth the added step.

Give Prospects Ways to Connect With You

The Social Network world is an awesome platform for prospects and customers to really connect with you on a personal level and on a level which they may prefer. Be open to integrating your business, yourself, your key executives and managers and employees, into the social networking world.

Write a Hand Written Thank You Note

Business people rarely do this anymore in the technology age. By sending a thank you to a prospect for considering your business or to an existing customer for their continued business shows that you care. It separates you from the pack and really engages the prospect and customer on that emotional level, which is key.

Show Them You Care

At the end of the day, if a prospect knows you have the necessary skills, products and services to help them, it is the “x” factor that closes the deal. Showing them you truly care about them will seal the deal. Caring taps that sub-conscious area, providing an emotional connection. Don’t just engage, really connect with your prospects. The same goes for your customers. Caring strengthens loyalty. Never forget your customers. Help them. Care about them. They will stay loyal and refer you great customers year in and year out.

Find New Ways to Engage to Prosper – Get Back to Basics

Think of ways you can better engage your prospects and existing customers. It is well worth the effort, particularly in this coming age of the new customer who values it. Or are just going back to the way business used to be? We used to earn it! We earned customers by nurturing a great relationship. It isn’t necessarily a new type of customer, it is just that customers are running the show and markets now, not the businesses.

Today’s Video is on Giving Prospects Value First

Posted in Business Marketing Strategies.

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