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Added for You - How to Sharpen Your Sales Message with Do-it-Yourself Focus Groups - Small Business Power Tools
It doesn’t matter much if you think your customer care is good. What do your customers think? Do you know at the beginning of the selling process that your customer is going to be satisfied? The experience that your customer has with your company has more to do with your behavior towards them than anything else.Too many people treat a customer like a moment, rather than an important EXPERIENCE. You see, people just want to know that they matter. Not just their money or their time, but they want to know that they matter as a human being. When you treat your customers like taking care of them is the absolute most important part of your day, you solidify in their minds good though
If you don’t mind being a little aggressive, you can hang out around stores that cater to the people
Tell most people that you are in sales and watch their reaction. Their experiences with high pressure, poor service and poor quality have conditioned them to believe the worst when they hear this word – salesman.This visceral reaction might be why many involved in sales now call themselves business development representatives. Yet, after talking to them, you know that what is, is. They are in sales.So why this extreme negative reaction? If we look to the past, we may remember the used car salesman or the high-pressure salesperson that we encountered during our work experience. Our negative reaction has more to do with their ethics and values than their selling skills.
While you may not want to hire a full-fledged market research company to conduct a focus group for you, there is nothing to prevent you from doing your own informal focus group or groups.
How should you use a focus group?
I like to test new product ideas in focus groups (see paragraph #1, above) or to solicit ideas for new products or services. For example, suppose your company manufactures a line of pet supplies – leashes, dog dishes, chew toys and the like. I think you could easily pull together a group of six or eight dog owners to brainstorm ideas for new pet products. A good place to start is by asking, “What do you need for your dog that you can’t find at the local pet store?”
Another way to approach this is get together a group of dog or cat owners, explain the idea or service you’ve come up with, and see how they react to it. You do have to be careful when you ask friends, what they think of your idea because friends don’t want to have to look you in the face and tell you that this brilliant idea of yours if just plain awful.
If you don’t mind being a little aggressive, you can hang out around stores that cater to the people
A recent movie starring Richard Dreyfus and Bill Murray tells the story of a man desperately trying to be included as a member of his psychiatrist's family. Whenever the doctor attempted to exclude him, his family would respond by asking, "What about Bob?"In the midst of all the work relating to diversity in the workplace, one group often gets excluded. When affirmative action categories are closely examined, we find that nearly everyone is covered in some way except this group. In discussions of equity, this group is excluded. As we struggle with ways to break through the glass ceiling, they are the ones on the other side. In our quest to value differences, we often
While you may not want to hire a full-fledged market research company to conduct a focus group for you, there is nothing to prevent you from doing your own informal focus group or groups.
How should you use a focus group?
I like to test new product ideas in focus groups (see paragraph #1, above) or to solicit ideas for new products or services. For example, suppose your company manufactures a line of pet supplies – leashes, dog dishes, chew toys and the like. I think you could easily pull together a group of six or eight dog owners to brainstorm ideas for new pet products. A good place to start is by asking, “What do you need for your dog that you can’t find at the local pet store?”
Another way to approach this is get together a group of dog or cat owners, explain the idea or service you’ve come up with, and see how they react to it. You do have to be careful when you ask friends, what they think of your idea because friends don’t want to have to look you in the face and tell you that this brilliant idea of yours if just plain awful.
If you don’t mind being a little aggressive, you can hang out around stores that cater to the people
Your customer database is one of the most valuable business assets you have. If you are able to keep your customers for many years and do business with them repeatedly you have a foundation that will keep your business growing and prospering long into the future.What information should your database contain:* The names and addresses of all your active customers, that is anyone who has made a purchase from you in the past year. Your file should also include the phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of all your active customers. To keep this data up to date and accurate, make sure you review it a least once a year.* The names, addresses, phone, and fax numbers
How should you use a focus group?
I like to test new product ideas in focus groups (see paragraph #1, above) or to solicit ideas for new products or services. For example, suppose your company manufactures a line of pet supplies – leashes, dog dishes, chew toys and the like. I think you could easily pull together a group of six or eight dog owners to brainstorm ideas for new pet products. A good place to start is by asking, “What do you need for your dog that you can’t find at the local pet store?”
Another way to approach this is get together a group of dog or cat owners, explain the idea or service you’ve come up with, and see how they react to it. You do have to be careful when you ask friends, what they think of your idea because friends don’t want to have to look you in the face and tell you that this brilliant idea of yours if just plain awful.
If you don’t mind being a little aggressive, you can hang out around stores that cater to the people
As some of you know, I'm the highly introverted (INFP) who is also a Sales and Marketing director for a company that sells both nationally and internationally.So, this tells us that I really, really, really dislike sales prospecting -- at least in the stereotypical 'pick up the phone and cold call' 'sales hunter' way. I'm always looking for ways to find prospects in unorthodox ways.One of these is spelled out in my article Cold Calling for Introverts (http://halwarfield.com/articles/cold-calling-for-introverts/) where I detail a means of using the phone that won't cause an introvert to want to lie down and die.I found another one yesterday -- it's called Google A
Another way to approach this is get together a group of dog or cat owners, explain the idea or service you’ve come up with, and see how they react to it. You do have to be careful when you ask friends, what they think of your idea because friends don’t want to have to look you in the face and tell you that this brilliant idea of yours if just plain awful.
If you don’t mind being a little aggressive, you can hang out around stores that cater to the people
We're living in incredibly turbulent times.The well spring of this uncertainty lies in one of the characteristics of the newly-arrived Information Age. Business people are being buffeted by an increasingly rapid rate of change. Consider this. In 1900, the total amount of knowledge available to mankind was doubling about every 500 years. In 1990, it was doubling about every two years.Imagine the implications of that kind of increase in the rate of change! It means new products, new regulations, new market configurations, new customers, and new technology in almost every industry. It's no wonder that we're confused and uncertain about what to do.And the growth of th
If you don’t mind being a little aggressive, you can hang out around stores that cater to the people whose opinions you would like and ask them if they would be willing to participate in a focus group. I’ve found that you usually need to offer some reward like $25 or coupons for a free lunch or dinner. But if you ask nicely, and make sure people understand you’re not trying to see them something, you might be surprised at how many people will say “yes.” Plus, these people are not your friends, so they may give you better, more honest answers.
Where to hold your focus group? If you’re doing a focus group with friends or neighbors, you can probably do it around your kitchen table. If you;re doing it with strangers and have a conference room in your business that will hold seven to nine people comfortably, have a focus group there. Or you should be able to rent a small conference room in a hotel or motel at reasonable cost. Plan on having soft drinks for your attendees and maybe some munchies. I like to run focus group in the evening, as it can be hard to get people to come during the day.
Naturally, your focus group should consist of the people you feel are most likely to be customers for your product or service.
How do you run a focus group? Start by asking everyone to tell a little about themselves – to break the ice. Next, you might ask the group to talk about some of their problems or issues – as they relate to your products or services. Take the example of the working moms. Once they’ve introduced themselves, ask a question like “you’re busy, probably
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