Tech Business Tips for Winning Over New Customers

Featured article by Amy Tori, Independent Technology Author

The vast majority (96 percent) of small businesses fail within the first ten years, according to a report cited in Inc. While there are a variety of reasons that can cause a business to fail, one common denominator is being unable to attract new customers.

If you have determined that customer acquisition is related to your organization’s poor performance, this article is for you. Whether you’re running a logo creation service, or are selling Juul e-cigarettes, this article will help readers from a variety of industries to attract more customers.

Get closer to the target audience

The first thing to do if you’re struggling to acquire new customers is to actually speak with existing and prospective customers. By getting closer to the target audience, you may uncover the reason why your business is struggling.

To get started, ask members of your target audience open-ended questions about their needs, wants, and pains as it related to your industry. Record this information and share it with your team in order to help them better understand the target audience.

Developing personas is another good idea to help everyone involved better understand the target customer. It is also associated with business success. One study reported in BoardView found that over 70 percent of businesses with documented personas met or exceeded revenue goals.

If you’ve already met with customers and prospective customers, you likely have the information you need in order to develop personas. A persona is simply a summary of information related to a particular type of buyer.

In order for personas to be helpful, it’s a good idea to include demographic, geographic and psychographic information about the target audience. As a result of personas, marketers and salespeople will be better equipped to position your business in a way that appeals to the target audience.

Reexamine pricing

Dan Ariely is a Professor of Behavior Economics at Duke University. In his famous TED Talk, Ariely explains that people don’t always make rational choices when making purchasing decisions. He uses an example from the Economist to explain.

The Economist once offered an odd set of pricing options for those interested in subscribing to the publication. For $59, readers could subscribe to the digital-only version of the outlet. For $125, readers could subscribe to the print-only version of the outlet, and for $125 readers could subscribe to both.

Ariely conducted a study based on this pricing framework and found that 84 percent of participants went with option three (the $125 option). When Ariely eliminated option 2, 68 percent of respondents went with option one (the $59 option).

This example goes to show that pricing is something that every business must examine closely. Rather than setting pricing and moving on, you must constantly examine how prospective buyers are reacting to price.

Those who are interested in reexamining their organization’s pricing structure should first create a framework to track the prices of packages associated with each deal (either won or lost). Then analyze both won and lost deals based on price.

It’s possible that your organization wins more deals in a particular price range; if so, it’s an indication that pricing, marketing, or selling needs to change in order to improve win rate in the long run.

Evaluate customer service practices

Consumers have more power than ever before. One study from Forrester found that 74 percent of buyers begin online research before they ever speak to a salesperson.

That means providing existing customers with outstanding service is incredibly important if you want to retain their business, and if you want to benefit from word of mouth referrals.

One report found that the average consumer shares a positive customer service experience with nine of their friends or colleagues. By ensuring that your business is satisfying each customer, you’ll be building a pipeline of new prospects while solidifying existing relationships.

To determine if your organization is currently satisfying customers, consider asking customers to complete an NPS or CSAT survey. An NPS survey stands for Net Promoter Score; it asks respondents “on a scale of one to ten, how likely are you to recommend this business to a friend?”

The survey helps business people to understand if existing customers are satisfied enough to advocate on behalf of the brand.

Similarly, a CSAT survey asks “on a scale of one to five, how satisfied are you with your experience.” This question helps to evaluate the performance of customer service representatives.

Conclusion

Thanks to People You May Know, a new film about the impact of social media on our expectations and culture, consumer expectations are changing quickly. As a result, it can be had for business people to understand why their organization is struggling to attract new customers.

By focusing on customer personas, pricing, and customer service, readers will be more likely to get to the bottom of any issues.

What are your tips for building a thriving business? Let us know by leaving a comment below!