wirejewelry's Tip #1 for a Successful 2009!

First of all, I hope you're excited for this upcoming year (well, I guess it's already here so it's not 'upcoming' any more =). With the New Year just passing our thoughts are often turned towards our new year's resolutions, right? Each of us is striving to become better individuals, husbands, wives, business owners, etc. and the New Year offers us an opportunity to do just that!

The problem is most of us have forgotten about our New Year's resolution faster than we created them. A good friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that she was going to stop drinking soda. When she told her kids that on the following Monday she would no longer be a soda drinker, her kids said, "Ah mom, it's always Monday….". So she said she'd quit drinking soda on Tuesday instead! We often times set goals, but neglect to follow through, so we end up trying multiple times.

So over the next few days I'll be sharing with you some very powerful marketing and business strategies that have been applied by many jewelry makers and have proven successful. The ideas have come from many different resources and many different home jewelry makers, but they all have one thing in common: If put into practice, they will help you and your business succeed. The trick is going to be to apply these principles and to continue moving forward.

I'll let you know right now that you probably won't hear anything that is considered ground breaking or "Never Before Heard". Did you know that one of the most powerful and influential books written about human relationships and business was written in 1936? Yep, that's right, over 70 years ago, but it still is one of the most well read books in business today. That book was written by Dale Carnegie and is entitled How to Win Friends and Influence People. Why is that book so well-used still today? He teaches fundamentals that have been used for centuries and will continue to be used for many years to come. So while not all of the tips we'll be talking about during the next few days will be earth shattering, you can expect that each principle or idea will be easy to implement and has been proven to work again and again.

The first tip that I'd like to share with you today is something that is over-looked often times by most businesses. This first tip is extremely east to implement and has the potential to create huge returns!

Whether you realize this or not, you will spend much more time, energy and money trying to attract new customers than you would selling multiple products to existing customers.

Believe it or not, your existing customers are the most valuable asset you have! Nope, not even your rolls of gold wire or your incredibly friendly staff (as good as they may be) can compare to the value your current customers carry.

Unfortunately, many businesses fall short in this regard, because they spend the majority of their resources trying to recruit new customers. Now, I'm not saying that you should stop trying to market to new customers. In fact, you should continually be on the lookout for new customers, but once they've become your customer, you need to do everything you can to keep them that way and to sell to them again and again and again.

So what can you do to take advantage of your current customer base?

Today I'd like to offer 2 suggestions to tap into your valuable current customer base.

  1. Quality is Key! - The very first thing you want to make sure to do is to offer a quality product. Businesses that offer services or goods that are not quality may experience some success, but it will always be short lived. There is not a Fortune 500 company out there that has a Company Mission Statement that reads, "We will offer poorly made and cheap products to our customers…" By doing this, not only have you lost a customer, you've also lost potential repeat business and future referrals from this customer.

    You should be the leader in your industry in both knowledge and efficiency. If there is a new trend in the market you need to know about this in case your customer asks you about it. If there is a cheaper, quicker way to accomplish certain tasks, then you need to know about this so that you can always devote your time to providing quality products and services to your customers.

    wirejewelry.com offers a Tip-of-the-Day that is designed to keep you as a business owner and as a jewelry maker informed about new trends, commonly asked questions, and more. These tips are sent out on a daily basis and can be invaluable to you as a jewelry maker. To start receiving these tips, just click on the link below and you'll start receiving your tips automatically!

    FREE 7 Part E-Course - Discover the joy of Jewelry Making!

    Tip of the Day - Submit and get answers to everyday jewelry making questions.






  2. Relationships - Once you have won the business of your clients, it's important to develop an ongoing and continuous relationship with that person. So how do you do that? One of the most effective ways to build a relationship with a person is to remember key things or events in that person's life. Let me give you an example…

    Let's say that George comes into your store to buy a piece of jewelry (If you don't own a store, don't worry, maybe he contacted you via a friend or family member). George has decided to give his lovely wife a wonderful wire-wrapped piece of jewelry for their anniversary. He browses through your selection and then finds the perfect one! He decides to purchase it for his wife.

    During the transaction you ask about his anniversary, maybe how many years they've been married. You can also talk to George about what types of jewelry his wife likes. Does she like gold, silver, beads, etc.? Suddenly, you have an enormous advantage as far as building a relationship with George.

    Next time his anniversary comes up, you can send him a personalized letter or card in the mail asking about his previous piece of jewelry. You can offer him a discount for his anniversary.

    Now, this is just one example of how you can capture your customers' information so that you can build those future relationships. Some ideas on what types of information to capture would be: Name, Address, Phone Number, Email Address, Birthday, Anniversary Date, etc.

    You won't want to overwhelm your customer by asking for their entire life's history, so be selective and cautious when you start asking for information, but believe me, this information will go a long ways in making your customers feel welcome and at home at your store.

    Ok, so there it is. Tip #1. I hope you've enjoyed exploring some possibilities here today. In future emails we'll delve into more in-depth examples of how to communicate with customers, how to better market your business and many other principles that will help your jewelry business to flourish this year!

I'll see you in a few days for your next tip!

Brandon Hutchins
www.wirejewelry.com