How to Find Customers...And Help Them Find You, a Story to Read.

What's a sure-fire way to find new customers? Have current customers refer them to you. That's hardly surprising, as referrals are typically the top source of new business for any company.

What is surprising in the small business arena, is how often small businesses don't utilize their current roster of clients to grab a share of growth that is literally there for them to take. It's story time....as I prepare you with this small business story, feel free to grab a listen. I feel it is appropriate for the story I am about to unveil. A little small business music....

The story is of one who seemed destined to fail, or so she thought: A Flower Shop Owner in a rural community in Idaho. (Protecting identities here) but the story begins.

I walked in to this business on my way home from a week of driving Frank-J, (the name of my FJ Cruiser that my 6 year old strongly suggested), where I was interviewing, finding discovery, and jotting down my notes from previous discussions when sitting at the red light, in a one light community, I saw a must-have bullfrog stuffed animal in the window of this flower shop. I had to pull over. I would never be able to justify my excuses enough to skip this stop simply because my youngest is all about frogs right now and this could not be passed up.

As I entered this shop, I noticed a person sitting behind a counter reading the local newspaper. I grabbed the frog for my 6 year old and headed up to cash out and hit the road to freedom with Frank-J and my new temporary mascot. As I set it on the counter the words "about time" rolled right off her tongue as she rang it up, and thus a real discussion began.

I asked her what she meant by "about time?" Her response: "My first sale of the day." I responded with "how is business doing, anyway?" By the way, this is a very vanilla approach for when I walk in to any business. Her response, "Dying like the roses in the back," she responded with. As she said this, I took a good look in her eyes and saw the defeated wrinkles and a blank stare that surrounded her eyes. As I noticed this, that little voice in my head said...

Guess what Simon, you may not be getting home right away....

I thought to myself, I really want to get home, but I just could not let it happen that way. I did the unthinkable, but it was necessary. I asked her what time she closes the shop for the day and she informed me that her doors were open for another 30 minutes. I asked if she was the owner, and she told me she bought the business six years ago and it's been a headache ever since. I told her to keep the doors open until I came back. I left, checked in to the nearest hotel, and went back.

Instead of traveling home, I created a new plan which involved me staying the night in this blip of a town so that I could talk some dollars and ideas with this woman who was working the counter, obviously exhausted, hope defeated, and just wanting to ignore the depth of issues involving her business. Fortunately, there was a bright spot. I knew that I was going to eat well with the local hole in the wall bar/restaurant down the street that seats 28 people but serves enough food on every plate to feed an army. Usually you can find farmer's in this place talking about their crops, throwing a few local brews down, reminiscing about the old days, and devouring a plate of food, that not only was tasty, but huge in provisions.

I now had my excuse to stay.

After I checked in to the only hotel in the area, I walked back to the flower shop, where I saw the woman cleaning up her store, and asked her if we could talk business. She reluctantly, and awkwardly I might add, agreed.

We started it all off by talking about her passion for the business, spoke of people in town who utilize her services, looked over her finances, and I just listened as she shared her story. WOW. Survivor of cancer, lost her first child do a drunk driver, and her husband's truck was just stripped in the middle of the night of all his tools to get his work done as a construction worker. To sum it up, quit complaining about your life, because there is always someone else who has a dish served worse. She uses her business as her escape from the pain, and I learned a great deal about human emotion.

I was left momentarily in shock and silent, here I made assumption, and now that I heard the story, my assumptions lead me to make a difference. Moving on...

I now had a new passion for the night. To feed the heart of opportunity and change for her family. During the next few hours after talking about the basics, we talked about finding customers, and also how customers could find her. The end game, to generate more revenue, period.

My first question to her was her execution on getting customer referrals? Again, she asked me to explain. I told her, in a short version answer to this, a good first start was for her to develop a comprehensive marketing plan in step with her business plan. The blank stare appeared. She had no plan. No plan of any kind. Her plan was to wake up each and every morning, turn on the open sign, and wait for the book of customers to come in. Uh oh. I flipped my Orioles hat around and went to work.

I mentioned to her that she needed a good, detailed profile of her target market that could be expanded to cover a 50 mile radius of her business. We designed a document on a napkin, yes, a napkin, (she was out of lined paper), and starting outlining some ideas. Fortunately for her, she realized that her business could reach 3 outside communities that don't have a flower shop at all. The smile started showing. We talked about the characteristics of the communities that would ultimately dictate how to attract the attention of those customers, using strategic advertising, networking in other community social functions, and contacting decision-makers, (i.e., business leaders who run the local paper mills, etc.).

We also went over some tools to help her potential new batch of customers find her more easily. The most important one being a well-designed website. (Be on the lookout Chuck, I got a site repair job for you). It should be professional in appearance naturally of course, but we talked about the ease of navigation, easy contact information, and keywords for her business to use as others hear promotional activities that her business is doing out and about in the area. I told her that when she uses those search tools, the customers will find her easily.

We discussed social media. I shared with her the instant presence she could have with her business using social media, but to also understand that it doesn't necessarily translate into instant results. This will have to be a constant, daily habit. There is no magic bullet, it is a trial and error with every marketing initiative, but the more she learns the names of her customers, expands to new communities, and aligns key information relevant to all those new communities to get that emotional connection, the better chance she would have in converting them to customers. Her mind was at work. The store at this point had been closed for a few hours, and yet, she informed me that this was the most productive she had been all month. She was hungry for more words. I kept feeding them to her. It was another hour before her husband showed up and he got involved with a listening ear and some discussion.

The key points we discussed:

• Look for events or create events that may bring her potential market together. This includes events that might her target customers, as well as new companies to utilize her business. We created a list of ten ideas that she could implement easily in her own community that would put her in the forefront of everyone.
• Follow up with people she meets after all networking and social functions. If they didn't want flowers now, I am sure at some point real soon they will.
• Work the network...hard. Ask friends if they knew people who could use her services. Offer up a free dozen rose's to be delivered to their spouse should they send her a referral, or partner with a restaurant for romantic evenings where she could give a referral fee of a dinner discount and drop off some flowers when the guests make reservations. (Those were just some of the ideas we worked on)
• Ask for feedback with every delivery. Post images and phrases and send them out on social media tools she is using and then always ask for feedback. (Another idea we thought of was giving a person who posts a tweet about her business while she was still in their presence could get a bundle of flowers as an added bonus).

When I finished spending time with what looked to be a defeated small business owner, she was again showing a smile along with showing a bit of hope that she could really become successful as a small business owner. Her husband was just as appreciative. It was all she/they needed. We bid our goodbye's, I thanked her for her willingness to listen and collaborate, and off I went down the street the opposite direction to get some provisions and hear the farmer's share their stories of the good old days when guys like me weren't around with our Frank-J's cruising the main streets looking for stuffed frogs.

In conclusion, by spending a few evening hours with this distressed business owner, I was able to bring her hope and hopefully a good story to share with her husband. I will be checking in with them weekly to make sure that her business is moving in the right direction, and it will be all worth it. I'm sorry little buddy for being a day late, but the small business owner who sold me this frog, needed some help. His response was a classic..."it's all good Dad, you are my hero and it is nice to know you can be a hero to someone else." Kids, gotta love em'.

Get Focused. Get Busy. Sprout and Grow.

P. Simon Mahler, nominated as both an 'Expert' and 'Leader' Influencer in North America for small business, currently consults, builds stronger economies in rural America, and volunteers full-time for the SCORE organization as part of the "Mentors to America's Small Business." Dedicated to building stronger economies in small communities and helping small businesses succeed through educational entrepreneurship, Simon is committed to the future success of each and every small business in small towns across the country. He is always available to take calls for action and is willing to mentor to any small business out there across the globe. Follow him on the journey of his next endeavor, by starting a business of your own. His virtual incubator program has transformed ideas into sustainable small businesses and yours could be next. His daily blog of activities will be posted on LinkedIn for you to enjoy. Find him on social media and connect to get some great ideas to get your business growing!

Email: [email protected]

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