The Top 5 Ways to Attract and Keep Customers in any Economy

I have a friend in Florida who owns six Subway franchises.

He’s rolling in dough, whole wheat and greenbacks.

He loves the recession. He’s remodeling his house (stimulating one South Florida contractor to keep swinging a hammer).

Dollar stores are also doing a gang-buster business.

The healthcare industry is thriving, too, but they’re in a world of their own (as long as there’s no cure for sickness and aging.)

Supermarkets are packed. People are cooking, not dining out in restaurants.

In fact, anyone selling a staple of life, or offering a low-ticket product or service, they’re just happier than a pig in… you know what.

For the rest of us…

This economy sucks

But only if, during the long-gone good-times, your business had been on cruise control and you got complacent, fat and lazy, and saw your customers as dollar signs and not people.

Without naming names, some marketers are clearly suffering far less than others, because they cared to look deep into their customer’s eyes and not just plumb the depths of their wallets.

Call it relationship building, call it caring about your customers, or just call it staying in business, making a great income, taking vacations, and buying new cars (Japanese or German) even in a recession.

While I can’t offer you, for obvious reasons, a precise 5-point strategy to achieve this type of recession insurance for your particular business…

I can give you the general blueprint.

How to keep your prospects loyal and their wallets open

First, a note of caution: Reducing your prices may help, of course, and may even be prudent. But that’s a short-term fix, which commoditizes your service. In fact, by reducing your prices, what you’re doing is training, even forcing,
your customers to price shop.

Remember, price is what your customer pays, value is what your customer receives.

Accent the value, and the customer will pay your price.

And you do it this way (inspired by a single sentence from Blair Warren):

1. Allay your customer fears

Right now your customers are looking more and more like deer in the headlights. They’re watching way too many doom and gloom news shows. They’re hearing about once-upon-a-time giants of industry filing for bankruptcy, shutting doors and putting thousands of people out of work. They may even know a few.

And, quite frankly, they’re afraid they may be next.

So they’re holding on to their money; worried the good times will never return. Frugal and conservative defines them. Food and shelter are their biggest concern to the near exclusion of everything else.

Your job then is to lift their heads, open their eyes and sing, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.”

Help them understand that change is the only constant in life—and this economic melt-down, this too shall pass.

Show them that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer—give them hope, and put your arm around their shoulders.

Then infuse them with some good ol’ time religion, lift their spirits and get them dancing in the aisles—put excitement and happiness back in their lives.

2. Confirm their suspicions

Conspiracies, real and imagined, abound in times of economic stress.

Your customers see danger everywhere they look, and they wonder who is really there to watch over and protect their best interests, and who is there to fleece them of their shrinking income.

Don’t deny the reality your customers perceive. Don’t argue with or ignore their fears. Place yourself on their side. Put yourself in their shoes.

Recognize that the quickest way to bond and, most importantly, become an advocate on behalf of your customers is to first accept and validate (within reasonable limits) their viewpoint.

Then, once you’ve shown them you understand and agree with them, you’ll find it so much easier to persuade them of your viewpoint.

Switch their allegiance from fear and suspicion to that of fearlessness and confidence and you’ll immediately become their champion and protector.

After all, it’s so much easier to close a deal, make a sale, even to a skittish and suspicious customer, when they trust you—and see in you a like-minded and kindred spirit.

3. Justify their failures

Don’t make your customers feel like losers.

If they’ve yet to reach their goals, pat them on the back and then show them why.

There’s a big difference between criticizing and critiquing. Be a coach, a mentor, help them to see why they stumbled and fell, and how they can pick themselves up and still reach the finish line.

Never put the blame solely on their shoulders.

Show them that many factors, often beyond their control, contributed to their failure, just as other factors, equally beyond their control will determine the shape of their eventual success.

And yet with your expert help, show them how you can decrease the number of failures they will face, and how you will increase their odds of success, however defined.

4. Throw rocks at their enemies

This is too easy, and a cousin of number 4, above.

Identify the immediate threat or obstacle confronting your customer’s well-being, happiness and success. Join them in a justifiable hate fest. Heap scorn, ridicule and bad intentions on the perceived roadblock.

And then quickly move on. Don’t wallow in that shallow pool, but splash there just long enough to gain your customer’s attention and confidence.

Then, once you have made common cause with your customer—sharing the same enemy and holding to shared goals—and working together to achieve them—you’ll be accepted on their team, and into their inner sanctum—a
trusted confidant.

5. Encourage their dreams

Isn’t that what it’s all about? Dreams and their fulfillment.

Without dreams what are we? Our dreams define us. Our dreams are our life’s work.

Some dreams are large, some are small, but all need more than just wishful thinking. They need the mechanism to make them come true.

What you market and sell are not made of metal, wood, plastic, gigabytes or an intangible service—they are dream-makers. They are magic and they are real.

And for your customers, your products or services are their best chance of reaching for the stars.

Do not deceive your customer into believing they can accomplish the impossible, or that the impossible is achievable.

But if your product or service can indeed make your customer’s dreams come true, do not hide the truth—but rather proclaim it, prove it and deliver it.

And when you do all of the above, with style and grace, truth and honesty…

Your business will thrive in any economy.