If you are like most entrepreneurs & professions, if you are tossing & turning at 2 am, it’s likely that you are trying to figure out how to grow your business.
This blog post was inspired by “Customer Pipeline Dreams” at entrepreneur fail.com
Creating a sustainable stream of incoming customers is one way to feel more confident about the future and to sleep well at night. Have you asked yourself things like …. how do I create a full pipeline of new customers? How can I constantly keep the pipeline full? What kind of customers are in the pipeline? Why aren’t there ever enough customers in the pipeline?
A customer pipeline is about several things including:
- creating your brand and product/service awareness
- generating solid leads
- converting those leads into sales
- maintaining existing customers & keeping them happy
- up-selling and cross-selling
Do most of those activities sound like marketing? You’re right — they are. It’s about ‘relationship marketing’ — building & maintain relationships.
Here’s 6 steps so that you can create a customer pipeline:
- Identify your target customer & Perfect Client (don’t omit this step — extreme focus will give you lasting customers)
- Identify those leads that fit your target customer & Perfect Client criteria
- Categorize your leads into short-term, medium-term & long term
- Create communication tailored to each of the different categories you have created
- Implement (& edit) the communications, position & offerings as needed.
- Convert leads into customers and continue the process
Dreams of having a full customer pipeline will soon be reality if you are consistently focussing on the six steps. And rest assured, it becomes easier over time and as word spreads about your business, you will become successful.
Comment below to let me know the various methods that you use to fill your pipeline. How did you create it and what has worked best for you? If you would like some help creating your pipeline, register for the ‘Summer Tune-Up’ on June 15th. You’ll get some great feedback & brainstorming from the other participants as well as an opportunity for hot seat coaching!
Grow, Prosper and Succeed!
