Build A Solid Customer Base

Cash-flow is the lifeblood of any business, anyone who has been in business, especially a start up, understands the pivotal importance of generating sales. The ability to generate sales and cash flow is the real differentiating factor between a healthy business and a dying one, not the product features or the amount of work you've put in. For start ups the focus is getting or attracting customers, for larger companies the primary target is keeping those customers. It is always important to understand what you are trying to achieve with your sales pitch or advertising campaign. Selling does not mean the same thing for a company chasing growth and a mature business trying to protect its customer base, confusing the two has serious consequences. Ok, so here are my thoughts on how to be build a solid client base

1. Be Relevant 

To build a solid customer base you have to clearly understand what your customer is thinking(i.e. the need or want) and then engage. Customers are humans not some form of alien living on Mars. Connect with the person rather than just push a sale, we know your product is awesome; so what?, what does it mean to me?. Steve Jobs was a marketing genius not because apple products were amazing(Note: they really were significant innovations) but he was able to give them relevance in people's minds, through design and functionality he saw products from a user's/customer's, and not developer's perspective. Google sent Yahoo to the graveyard of search engines because they(Google) thought as users and not sellers, simplicity.  

2. Engage

In the quest for understanding the customer's mind, the customer engagement cycle becomes an invaluable tool. Customer engagement is not a once off thing, campaign or that other thing we do on social media but it is a philosophy engraved in your day to day interaction with clients which has a positive or negative aftermath every time. I tried to search the web for an explanation of the customer engagement cycle and honestly most of what I found was either too complicated, long or theoretical. Personally I believe customer engagement is when you interact with the customer either directly or indirectly. At Viva Rousses we have developed our own customer engagement cycle with three stages: trial,repeat and referral. how a business interacts with customers at each stage of the circle determines the direction of the relationship, if the customer is thinking "crap" you are toast.

 a) Trial

The first time you interact with a client, the one thing that's on your mind is have them try your product. Most people especially start ups will have their relatives and friends to be the first trials, that is of cause the easiest way of getting your first clients(trials), but not the best cause they rarely are honest with you. At this stage you need real customers, someone who will buy your product not cause they are trying to impress you but cause it has actual value to them. Your aim is to get them to be thinking about the next stage in the cycle i.e. repeat and to do that you have to impress

b) Repeat

If you see a customer come back for your product, it means you impressed the first time, the challenge is of cause keep them coming back. I always tell my partners we don't want the customer's cash but their cashflow. Cash is what you get when customers part with their money first time trying your product but cashflow is when they keep coming back. Strong positive cash flow is what makes big businesses big and having clients back continually is what defines a successful repeat engagement. Like in any successful long term relationship keeping the customer interested by surprising them with gift vouchers, inviting them to events and interacting with them on social media(Not pushing a an Ad) is key. Evolving to suit the customer's changing taste and preferences is also an integral part of a successful repeat engagement. I say successful cause more times than not most repeat engagements end up in failure as time is the ultimate acid test to a relationship as better offers from your competition are always being invented and a click away. If a customers is thinking i'll definitely buy this product next time it is more likely than not that they'll tell two or more friends to try it out, and that is the next stage on the cycle, referral/lead.

c) Lead

I don't know why I put lead last cause it is the first thing that happens before trial, and of cause a happy customer will generate leads/referals for you. Leads come from two different sources, first from actively selling using cold calls, adverts or whatever tactics you may find to have potential clients try out your product, trust me there are a lot of companys selling too. The second source is the most compelling, referals from actual users, that is your customer as your sales rep. This is when the cycle becomes a powerful tool, if your first customer generates two leads for you and those two generate two more each, repeat that process again and again you have yourself a solid growing customer base.

Of cause this sounds like a theoretical way of building a client base, but if you take time to find out how your customers became aware and decided to try your product, you will find this a very powerful tool. What does this mean, don't take interactions with customers for granted. If it is a product company, you will take the customer's experience with your products seriously.As you engage or interact with a single customer be aware that, that one client can bring you two or more clients if you play your cards right, having them come back(thinking repeat) is what defines the fate of your business.