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3 Game Changing To-Do's to Take Your Business to the Next Level

Posted by Brandon Weaver | Mon, Apr 22, 2013 @ 11:03 AM

business tips meetingThe season has started and no matter how your team finished up last year, you expect great things this year. Spring training was about practice and about taking it to the next level. With the season just getting underway, it got us thinking of ways to improve and establish a new beginning for your business.

In light of these, here are 3 game changing to-do's that can help jump start your business:

1. Review Traffic from the First Three Months. Considering it is now April, look at analytics for the first three months. The unofficial definition of insane is to do the same thing over and over expecting different results. If something is not working, stop doing it. Seems simple enough, right? You need to "trim the fat" and focus your efforts on activities that generate positive ROI. Whether it's online visits or in-store traffic, there's always a way to track visitors and customers. For example, offering promotions in a specific medium only, such as social media or email marketing allows you to determine visits and customers from a unique coupon code.

2. Study Your Competitors. What are they doing right? Whatever it is, try to emulate it. What can they improve on, and how can you capitalize on it? Maybe they're promoting themselves too much on social media or hiding from negative customer feedback. Both of these have a solution: social media should be about conversations and providing added value, not marketing to marketers. Address negative comments to a blog post or review section to show that your business is listening and that you care about their business.

Picture this baseball scenario: you're at the plate facing a pitcher you know likes to throw breaking balls in the dirt as his signature strike out pitch. Yet, you continue to lay off these until he's forced to throw you a fat fastball in your wheel house that you can drive over the fence. Without studying film on him and understanding his strengths, you might not have the patience to wait for the right pitch and use it to your advantage.

3. Understand Your Buyer Personas. This may be the most important tip. Your customers differ in their demographics, buying behavior and goals. If you don't truly know who you're selling to, how can you expect them to buy from you?

One thing to be cautious of is to make assumptions about your customer's workday responsibilities. Instead, ask your sales team what objections they hear from prospects to help you understand how to market to them. Maybe your prospects want a solution to save them time and lighten their workload. Maybe they want to go "green" and deposit sales without making repeated trips to the bank. You can't really know the answers to these unless you listen to your prospects.

To understand your buyer personas better, consider joining an association and attending industry events, just like our VP of Sales Charles Dortch III at Las Vegas Market and our Director of Marketing Andrew Donahey at NADA Expo 2013. These allow you to network better with key business professionals in your target markets while adding value to help solve whatever problems they are facing.

Your business must be adaptable to an ever-changing customer base. People are watching their wallets more closely now, which has led them to becoming smarter in their buying habits and how they shop. To stay ahead, you have to learn more about your customer base. If you don't, you will be left in the dust looking up to your competitors wondering "what if?"

 

Written by Brandon Weaver