How to identify future solutions and opportunities?
Your power page, if used extensively, will help you to identify areas where the client may need more help or may need to purchase additional products. When you read through your notes, you will be able to pinpoint areas that will be a business pain. Customers are always happy to find solutions to potential problems if they see their value. You must do your homework on various solutions before you make any suggestions. It is too easy to just promote your own company and its products. Make sure you know how the competition fits into the picture and what they can also offer to solve that same problem.
Your power page should also contain competitor information. You need to know what others are doing in the market place and what their perceived value is to your client. You need to be better informed and better prepared than anyone else. You want to make it easy for the client to choose you over others. Tighten your business relationship by following through with promises and providing value. Your power page should contain all the information you need to keep the customer.
Checklists
What items do you like to keep track of during visits to clients:
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Choose one potential client and fill in the Information Plan for that company. (see item number 92 for the information plan):
Contact information:
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Sales Volume:
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Problems the company is encountering:
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Who are their customers and what is their opinion of the target company:
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For your lead contact list all of the personal information you can gather (birthdate, anniversary, hobbies, other interests, clubs belonged to, etc.):
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List 2 or 3 pieces of business you have recently lost and the reason why you lost the deal (be honest with yourself!):
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What things can you do for the "lost" customer in order to keep in touch so that you may be considered when new business or projects are on the horizon:
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What is your VALUE proposition? What do you bring to the table for your customers? How have you verified your value:
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Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people's attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the "Networking Queen". Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com