Wednesday, September 9, 2009

E-Tip 204 - 6 Tips to Stay Ahead of Your Competition

Tip #1. Offer Exceptional Customer Service - How you handle your customer service can make or break a buyer's (or client's) decision to utilize your company. Your customer service team needs to respond to a person's issue(s) in a timely manner. We also recommend that you perform a follow-up customer satisfaction survey to help you keep an eye on how your team is performing and what changes are needed to improve a buyer's (or client's) experience.

Tip #2. Focus On Retaining Current Clients - It is true that it is easier and less expensive to keep existing customers than find new ones. To help you retain existing clients, focus on developing a meaningful relationship with them. Once you do, your client base will also become a valuable referral source.

Tip #3. Be On The Cutting Edge Of Technology -The business landscape has changed dramatically in the past 12 - 18 months. If you want to be recognized as an industry leader, work on growing your business by doing more with technology. Doing so will keep you ahead of your competition. People want to do business with innovative companies.

Tip #4. Streamline Your Internal Processes -The successful business leader knows how to increase efficiency and productivity. This can include PDAs for instant e-mail response, call forwarding features on your phone, having the newest laptop and use of the latest software programs. Although technology can help people stay connected so they can work faster and smarter, you also need to look at developing process improvement initiatives. Remember, people do business with people.

Tip #5. Have Your Salespeople Make More "Oh By The Way" Calls - Simply sending out a letter or an e-mail to a client or prospect is just not good enough. To stand out in the business world, a national marketing expert recommends having your sales team make more "Oh by the way" calls to follow-up a continuous series of marketing campaign. What is an "Oh by the way" call? It is an opening statement by a salesperson like this, "Oh by the way, did you get my letter on x, y and z?"

Tip #6. Keep An Eye On Your Competition - Be sure to keep an eye on your top competition so your business does not fall behind what the industry leaders are doing. Like the old adage says, "Figure out a way to do it better, faster or cheaper" as doing so will give you a winning formula.

Summary - Following these tips will help you stay ahead of your competition; however, you still need to be tops in your field in order to sustain momentum.


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