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The Top 10 Ways to Add "Extra" Value
Everyone wants the best possible value
in every transaction, but each of us defines "value" in different ways. Some
customers want the lowest price, while others will place a higher value on
reliability, convenience or things like color, popularity (think Pokeman cards!)
or durability. The challenge for business is to provide extra value for every
customer, at the lowest possible cost of doing business. The following "Top 10"
suggestions are particularly suited to service businesses such as coaching or
consulting, but can easily be adapted to other environments.
1. "Try before you buy." Give clients a free sample, taste or experience before
asking them to commit. This can often be done in groups or teleclasses. Done
correctly, it gives you a low-cost opportunity to expose large numbers of
potential clients to the value of your service, while giving the potential
client a safe, easy way to sample your work.
2. Follow-up after the sale. Much like allowing prospects to sample your work,
groups or teleclasses allow you to follow-up, add extra value and potentially
sell additional services after the original commitment is over. Many coaches
combine these pre- and post- groups into weekly or monthly teleclasses that are
open to past clients forever!
3. Client newsletters. Use a weekly newsletter to keep past and current clients
informed, add extra insights, techniques, tips and solutions to common problems.
Published by email, they are free, and very easy for clients to forward to
friends and colleagues, providing you with potential additional marketing.
Extra: Insert a quick 1-page newsletter with your monthly billing statement!
4. Let clients share their skills. Invite your clients to share their
experiences, their own tips, discoveries and enthusiasm with each other. Host a
monthly forum and invite guest speakers. Often a client will have particular
expertise or a skill they are willing to share with your other clients either in
person or in your newsletter. Everybody wins!
5. Public newsletters. In the "information age", the value of information is
rapidly approaching zero, so capitalize on this trend and give away what you
know! Display your skills, expertise and wisdom in either electronic form or on
paper and invite past and present clients to participate, pass the information
along, and provide a marketing forum for your business at the same time. Again,
everybody wins!
6. Use your website. Ask your webmaster to add a newsgroup or set up a chat-room
on your website. As you develop written material for your clients, post it on
your website and make it available to other clients (you can password protect
it) or to the general public. Let clients know that your information and
experience are available to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
7. Celebrate with your clients. This ranges from sending flowers or champagne
when they win the big contract, to sending birthday cards and holiday greetings.
Everyone needs more hugs than we receive, so give your clients recognition
whenever possible. Let them know you care.
8. Commiserate with your clients. Sometimes things don’t work out well, they
lose contracts or miss the big promotion. That’s a great time to "gift" an extra
session, to pay for the lunch or pick up the tab for the phone calls. Again,
it’s about caring and building personal relationships that add real value and go
far beyond minimum expectations.
9. Use your network for your client’s benefit. One of the most astonishing
"extras" is to provide your client with the name of the perfect accountant,
lawyer, chiropractor or web designer based on your rolodex of contacts. As your
team of resources grows, use their combined talents and strengths to make
appropriate referrals and put people in contact with each other. This is a huge
extra that costs you nothing!
10. Ask your clients what they need. Routinely, ask your clients how you could
go further, provide better service and be more effective with them. Almost
always, they are delighted to be asked, they know the answer, and the request
they make will typically cost you little or nothing to fulfill but will mean the
world to that client.
"Written by Dr
Philip E. Humbert, writer, speaker and success coach. Dr.
Humbert has over 300 free articles, tools and
resources for your success, including a great newsletter.
It's all on his website at: http://www.philiphumbert.com"
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