WHO ARE YOUR BEST CUSTOMERS?

Written by Carol Woods


There is a marketing theory that says, "your best prospective customers are a lot like your current customers". In other words,repparttar customers you should haverepparttar 121535 easiest time selling to are very similar to those who've bought from you inrepparttar 121536 past.

Great idea. But, what do you know about your current customers?

If you have a small customer base and have spoken to many of them personally, you may have a good feel for that. But often that is notrepparttar 121537 case. If you want to know more about your current customer base without calling each of them and doing some sort of survey, how can you do that?

Here is one way: customer profiling, which is developing a set of information about your current customer base.

Customers can be profiled on demographics or psychographics. Psychographics are beyondrepparttar 121538 scope of our discussion here; we'll be focusing on demographics. This discussion will focus on business customers, howeverrepparttar 121539 same process can be used for consumers.

To quickly profile your customers:

-First, you need data on your existing customers in electronic form. If you collected and stored information on company type, size, and location atrepparttar 121540 time you initially sold them, it's easy - just downloadrepparttar 121541 information from your database. If you didn't - no problem - you will need to download what you do have (at a minimum company name and address) and match it with existing database information. (I will assume here that you all have information stored in some sort of electronic system.)

Promote your business and get paid to do it!

Written by Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D.


How can you gain credibility and exposure for you and your business, reach a motivated audience, develop a far-flung network, hone your presentation skills -- and get paid to do it?

Many writers, artists, speakers and entrepreneurs have found an answer: they teach classes in adult education programs. Adult education is big business. Inrepparttar new century, "change" is a hot topic and learning is no longer confined to traditionaldegree programs.

As people want to grow their careers and enrich their lives, specialized programs have evolved to reach this market. Some teaching venues require at least a master's degree. Others allow you to share your unique skills, from designing brochures to tarot reading. Temple University's continuing education program has offered a half-day class taught by a cleaning lady. The subject? Speed cleaning.

If a target market exists for your business or if you have knowledge that people can use onrepparttar 121534 job, chances are a target market exists for you inrepparttar 121535 world of adult education. By entering this world, you can demonstrate your skills to a receptive audience, meet some terrific people, learn more than you expected and even have some fun.

Teaching requires more than a good speaking voice and a knowledge-filled brain. Every minute you are inrepparttar 121536 classroom, you are marketing yourself to your students. You must keep students involved for up to eight hours. Sincerepparttar 121537 average adult attention span is about fifteen minutes, you have to design exercises, activities and questions. You have to deal withrepparttar 121538 unexpected.Students will arrive late, ask off-the-wall questions and challenge your expertise. Occasionally, students will be rude, insulting or even abusive.

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