Steps
- Focus Your Marketing Activities On Businesses, As Opposed To End Consumers. If you do a great job, residential or home users might buy one or two computers from your business every three or four years. The owner of a small business however may wind up needing literally dozens of computers and accompanying service from your business on a regular business. This dramatic difference in lifetime client value makes it much easier to justify investing properly in client acquisition.
- Reach Decision Makers Earlier on in the Buying Process. Many computer dealers bang their heads against the wall trying to profitably advertise in the phone book, or coupon packs, or online. The trouble is? when a prospect finds you that way, they?re in contact with 5-10 competitors. Reactive advertising forces your profit margins into a comprising position, almost like a commodity broker. You can however sidestep this all together by marketing proactively to more value-conscious, less price-sensitive prospects.
- Use Relationship-Oriented Marketing to Reach More Value-Conscious, Less Price-Sensitive Prospects. For smart computer dealers, this more proactive approach should include getting involved in a few business-to-business (B2B) related organizations, exhibiting at local B2B trade shows, giving short talks to members of local B2B organizations, holding your own seminars, and networking with other B2B trusted business advisors.
- Speak Their Language and Solve Their Problems. Rather than following the herd of computer dealers that clutter up their marketing with logos and products, focus your marketing on big problems that you know your prospects are facing. Think along the lines of ?How to Protect Your Computers from the Bad Guys?. ?7 Simple Ways to Get the SPAM Out of Your Inbox?. ?How to Find a Good Computer Dealer?. Not sure what problems are on the mind of your prospects? Survey them.
- Prove You Know Your Stuff. Most of what you say in your marketing materials will be viewed with skepticism. However you can turn the skeptics into believers by including brief, results-oriented client testimonials in your marketing materials.
Sources and Citations
- ComputerDealerSecrets.com - Original source of this article. Shared with permission.
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