In our blog last month, we talked about ‘Success’ measures (outcomes) vs ‘Activity’ measures (Causes of outcomes).
And we agreed that, in order to be consistently successful, small business owners needed to make sure they had some good ‘Activity’ measures in place that they used rigorously.
This month, all I am going to do is suggest that most business owners ask the wrong questions … and therefore put the wrong solutions into place … and suggest some better questions for them to consider.
This is just a simple set of ideas, but, if you follow the thinking and then apply it to everything you do, you’ll find you get very different (and much more effective) outcomes!
| Ineffective question | More effective alternatives |
| How can I get more customers? | What do I need to change in order to be more attractive? How do my customers find me? What can I do to be more visible there? Where might customers be looking for me? What do I need to ask in order to know for sure? |
| How can I get people to buy more from me? | What do customers think I do well … and not so well? What do I need to consider changing? What extras will add real value to customers? How can I build loyalty? What could I do to increase my trustworthiness? What do I need to do to get them to want to come back and buy more? |
| How can I increase my margin? | What do customers value most about what I do? What don’t they like? What could I do differently from this information? What can I do to be more attentive at each stage of the customer’s journey? How can I show them that I genuinely care about their outcome? |
This is, of course, by no means a definitive list of questions.
But it is a great set of questions to get started!
Slow Selling will help you continually ask these questions and find the answers you need in order to consistently blow your customers’ socks off and increase sales and margin continually (and sustainably!).
Slow Selling is a UK based not for profit organisation for small business owners.
The aim is to help you grow your business through customer loyalty, reputation and referrals … without all the hype, hassle and nonsense.
To find out more, please click here