Follow-up: A marketing Basic
When an entrepreneur begins a business, his first step is to create a business plan. And one of the parts of the business plan is the statement of specific business goals. The structure of the business cannot assure the accomplishment of these goals. And no matter how wonderful the products or how beneficial the services, these cannot assure the realization of the business goals. What is needed is an effective marketing strategy.
Unlike advertising, the marketing of a home should be an unswerving endeavor aimed to achieve the definite goals. It need not have the greatest chunk of the capital but it should maximize the budget assigned to it.
Most home businesses do not have thousands or millions of dollars of capital to enable them to hire a team of marketers and advertisers. In a home business, the marketing is usually shouldered by the home business owner himself. Thus, the home business owner must brush up on his marketing strategies, if he studied commerce before. If not, a crash course in marketing may be needed. Or he may find articles such as this to stock up his knowledge in marketing.
One of the basic concepts of marketing is called “follow-up”. There are two groups of people that an entrepreneur must make a follow-up. These are the potential clients and the present clients.
An entrepreneur must determine how many times and how often will he make follow-up calls or send emails to a certain prospect. This should not depend on how the call was received. For example, a certain entrepreneur may decide to make 10 calls. If, during the fourth call, the prospect seemed to give his final “no”, the entrepreneur must still make a door open for future calls. A simple “Okay, bye” is not the way to go. “Perhaps you will consider it in the future. Is it okay to call you again next month?” is a better parting reply. Persistence is the greatest ally of the entrepreneur.
The two major objectives of making follow-ups to prospects are:
- Give the prospect time to think about the products and offers of the home business
- Assure that the prospect does not forget the entrepreneur and his home business
The present patrons of the home business should be given a follow-up, too. This is often forgotten by many businessmen. The currently satisfied patrons are more open-minded about the other products of the home business. And if the products are consumable, then the present patrons should be called or emailed to check if they need another supply.
Follow-up is a great concept in marketing. It will greatly help the entrepreneur to achieve the definite goals of the home business.
Small/Home Business Tips, Marketing & Advertising 2006-02-03 Home Business Tips
Leave your Comments Here
You must be logged in to post a comment.