Taking Full Advantage

The biggest frustration I've had over the years of selling advertising has been the reluctant business owner who claims that "word of mouth works just fine."  My initial reaction to that is too say, "1955 just called and they want their advertising plan back!"  Of course, I bite my lip and try to explain how things have changed in our world today.

Sales trainer Chris Lytle says that word of mouth advertising does work.  The problem is that you can't control it and "bad" word of mouth advertising travels much faster than "good" word of mouth advertising.  He makes the point, "When was the last time that you heard a good airplane travel story."

In today's advertising world, we have a much greater ability to control the message and we have more tools than ever before to do it.

That's where the "taking full advantage" part comes in.  Does your business have a Twitter account? A facebook page? A website?  Some type of customer appreciation program?  Do you collect regular customer's e-mail addresses?  Do you regularly ask customers how they heard about you and why they are a customer?  Do you ever ask regular customers what you're doing right?  Or what you're doing wrong?

Do you just "throw something together to get the word out" with your newspaper, radio or tv advertising or do you sit down and plan out what message you want to convey?

Once you bring the customers in, are they getting the experience that you advertised inside your business?  Or are you making false claims?

I've always said that there are some people who are in business in spite of themselves.  Put a plan together and work the plan.  Take full advantage of the opportunities out there and set your business apart from the crowd.

Or, you can sit on your hands, put up your sign outside your door and just "wait."  That's what word of mouth advertising is ... "just waiting for people to come in."

Take full advantage.  Seize the customers and watch them pour in through your doors.