Here’s a new example about The Crucial Customer Message…
There’s an old story about Henry Ford (founder of Ford Motor Company) who played golf with his friends.
One day, Henry mentioned that he had purchased a big life insurance policy.
His golfing buddy exclaimed, “Henry, we’ve played golf regularly for several years now, And you bought the insurance policy from my competitor.”
Henry replied, “I had No idea you offer insurance. I would have preferred to purchase the policy from you.”
Ouch!
Btw, That’s why we like Ezines (or Email Magazines) so much.
Ezines give you an excellent opportunity to keep in touch with your customers, leads and prospects, and let interested people know what you’re doing.
In this post, we also illustrate the Crucial Customer Message:
We buy auto and homeowner’s insurance for years.
–Did You Know That. . . State Farm Insurance offers Certificates of Deposit (CDs)?
We didn’t.
Okay, so you don’t care; and actually we won’t lose sleep over this either;
But, we happened to discover to this ‘New’ offering by accident.
We were working on a marketing program for our longstanding State Farm insurance Agent Rose.
As we were discussing the business and creating a forecast, she told me that they want her to sell 4 CDs every month.
I stopped taking notes and blurted out, “Since when do you offer CDs?” and by the way, the interest rate was very attractive.
The funny thing is I typically call the office (telephone) to pay my auto insurance bill by credit card.
So, At Least Twice a Year the agents have a Perfect opportunity to describe their CDs and ask for the sale.
But Rose’s colleagues Wasted this Outstanding Opportunity Several Times Now. I did ultimately buy a CD though…but who knows how many other CDs I (or their other clients) would have purchased from State Farm, if they had only floated the idea…
And the employees earn a $25 bonus for each new CD they close.
Again, Explain Your Offering often enough so Your Customers are familiar with your line of products and services.
I actually AM interested in investing in CDs now, and I had NO idea that State Farm offered this product.
I can’t recall whether:
1) I ever heard that they offer CDs, or
2) I had heard and forgotten, or
3) I had received their brochure and
a) Put it aside to read later; or
b) Read it and forgot about it; or
c) Tossed their brochure into the trash.
Either way, they lost a sale.
Never Assume that Your Existing Customers Know or Remember Exactly What You Do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Save even more by clicking:
45 Easy Ways to Finance Your Business without Issuing Equity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Technorati Tags: financial ratios, calculate ratio, bookkeeping, accounting, balance sheet, income statement, statement management, manager, run business, profit, cogs, cost of goods sold, revenues, sales, costs, gross profit business plan, investors, finance, profit, organize, plan, map, budget, resources, mission, goals, milestone, capital, vendor, supplier, employee , Gelb, Joe Gelb EIN
