Look,  a lot of this is about doing things, and doing them well rather than brilliantly.  This may seem unambitious, but if we are honest with ourselves, we often do not do them at all.

So what do I mean?
Well here is a checklist of things that you could have a look at, you will have seen these before, but how often have you actually taken a step back and really looked to see what your customers see?

Of course it is difficult, of course you are busy but you have a choice,  take the customers who happen upon you or go looking for the ones you want! Of course there are other things that are important but sales and profit are important for most of us so this is a good start!

What is my most profitable product?
It is important to be aware of the true cost of sale of each product or service we sell, because obviously we want to sell the most profitable from our range, costs could include credit card costs, admin costs, preparation time, advertising, delivery, wastage etc as well as the actual purchase cost. This is often an inexact calculation, but in a perfect world you would multiply margin by number of sales to calculate your best product.

What does my best customer look like?
There is a lot of talk about referrals and word of mouth advertising being the best, well it might be. But only if it is from your best customers – if you are a handy man and you want to build extensions then referrals from customers that you have replaced tap washers for are not going to help. Once you know who your best customers are likely to be then you can go about finding and selling to them.

What are my customers buying – and why me?
Just why do my customers choose me and why do they come back – odds on it is not price after the first transaction. Make sure you really know and understand this, you might be surprised, I use a particular garage because they supply a free courtesy car, which is usually a bit of a banger but I do not care. At other times in my life I have enjoyed driving a variety of nice hire cars and happily paid for that.
Do the mechanics of what I do support the sales promise?
We often make promises about what we do such as “great customer service” “reliability” - But is that what we actually do? If we are going to deliver Tuesday then let’s do it in the morning, if customer service is important  why not ring up and ask the customer if all is well after the sale is complete.
Do the people who answer the phone give the caller the impression you want.

Do my customers enjoy buying from me?
If it has been an easy and pleasant experience then you have a customer for life – if not you may complete the current transaction but there will be no more!

It is hard to take a fresh view of your business when you have so much of yourself invested in it, you may find it easier to have someone else take a look and report back.

To Contact Chris call 01550 739 016 or click here