Business e-Book Collection September 2013 | Page 6

Improve your offering to new customers
Do you know how much of your business is being generated by new customers? You
should. New customers and their spend are two of the few measurements of
improvement that you can easily make.
So, how do you turn prospects into customers? A quick check online will give you
hundreds of do’s and don’ts, but the one main message that comes through loud
and clear is:
Win your Customers’ Trust
How do you do that? Geoffrey James, on inc.com, has the following suggestions:
1. Be yourself.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Value the relationship.
Be curious about people.
Be consistent.
Seek the truth.
Keep an open mind.
Have a real dialog.
Be a professional.
Show real integrity.5

Interestingly, several of these suggestions may result in you telling the potential
customer that they would be better served by another company. While this might
seem counter-productive, what it does is builds trust. You aren’t just there to sell
them whatever you can, but you genuinely want to assist them to solve their
problem. This action serves, not only to win their trust, but also to win their heart
– a tactic that will see them returning with another problem when they think you
may have a solution to offer.
In our digital world, this matter of trust is even more important – the 2012
American Express Global Customer Service Barometer shows that on average,
consumers will tell 24 people about a bad service experience.6

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http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-build-customer-trust-9-rules.html
http://about.americanexpress.com/news/docs/2012x/axp_2012gcsb_us.pdf