Increasing business income is at the forefront of most business owners’ minds.
As we approach the end of 2021, it’s time to start reviewing how things went this past year.
Did you hit your sales goals?
Did your customer base expand?
How effective was your marketing strategy?
How much revenue did you bring in?
This last question can often be a source of frustration and disappointment. Even in a good year, it can be challenging to meet financial goals.
And when times are tricky — like during a pandemic that disrupts your ability to conduct business in a normal fashion — it can seem all but impossible.
There is one thing you can always control
Much of the difficulty with this stems from the fact that there are many factors that are out of your control.
If you can’t directly control it, then how are you supposed to do something about it?
Well, no matter how many things are out of your control, there is always one important thing that is very much under your control.
And this one thing happens to be perhaps THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR in determining how much income your business will attract.
What is this factor?
It’s actually quite simple: The more you communicate with your target customers, the more your business income will increase.
Seems obvious, right?
But before you dismiss this as too simple to be useful, take a close look at your own business and see how you stack up.
How much are you communicating with your target customers — and how many opportunities to communicate you are missing out on?
Communication creates awareness and existence
Think about this: Unless you are continuously communicating with your target audience, you don’t exist to them.
Have you ever noticed how invisible a person is who sits in the corner of the room and doesn’t say anything?
Try it yourself someday…
Sit in a busy room full of people and don’t communicate with anyone in any way.
Don’t speak, don’t look, don’t listen… just shut off all communication between you and the other people in the room.
Gets pretty lonely very quickly, right?
Now start communicating with people.
Not by standing up and shouting at the room, but by going up to people one by one and establishing friendly two-way communication with each person.
And not self-promoting or otherwise bragging about yourself, but being interested in the people you are speaking with.
Before you know it, you’re the most popular person in the room.
Well, guess what?
It works exactly the same way with businesses.
Build rapport with prospects and customers
If your business just sits there hoping people will notice, without actively communicating with your target customers on a regular basis, those customers are going to forget you exist.
If you’re not actively communicating with them frequently, they won’t think of you when they need your products and services.
And you won’t get their attention… or their business.
By communicating we don’t mean shouting at the room. If you run a few untargeted ads in a local newspaper trying to get everyone to notice you, that’s pretty much the same as shouting at the room for attention.
It doesn’t work very well.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with running ads to increase business income – especially if the ads are focused on your target audience and the messaging is done strategically to connect with them.
But, in addition to your broad advertising, how often do you “work the room” by striking up one-on-one conversations with your target customers?
This can be done by writing letters, sending postcards, making phone calls, talking with customers while they are in your store, attending events where you can mingle with your customers, taking clients out to lunch, etc.
And, in case it’s not obvious, we’re not talking about constantly selling and promoting yourself.
We’re talking about being interested in your customers and finding out how they’re doing and how you can help them… and then going ahead and helping them.
Building relationships results in more business
Not only will you find out a lot about your customers and get a better understanding of how your business can meet their needs, but something even more basic will happen…
They’ll start to NOTICE you.
And THINK ABOUT you more often.
And FEEL GOOD about you.
And REMEMBER you…
And…
DO MORE BUSINESS WITH YOU.
(And recommend you to their friends and family.)
Try it and see for yourself:
Ramp up your one-on-one genuine communication with your customers for a few weeks.
Don’t overtly promote yourself in these conversations.
Just be interested in each person you are talking with and find out how they’re doing and discover how you can be of assistance to them.
And then provide that assistance in any way that is feasible, especially when you can utilize something your business offers them.
An increase in business income will follow
Keep track of your business income during this period.
If you do enough communicating, you should see your income start to significantly climb within 6 weeks or so (sometimes sooner).
If your income doesn’t start climbing, you’re simply not communicating enough (or not being genuine in your communication – i.e. not truly communicating).
In that case, simply find ways to communicate even more with your prospects and customers.
The solution to low income is always just doing one very important thing:
COMMUNICATE MORE.
