Know Your Customer...

How well do you know your customers? Do you understand their product line? Do you know their major competitors? Do you know what special events are coming up in their businesses in the next 6 months? Do you know their annual revenues? Do you know their biggest business challenges? Do you know how they make their promotional products buying decisions?

Having a thorough understanding of your customer's needs will help you better meet their needs, sell smarter and increase your revenues.

There are many ways you can have a better understanding of your customers needs. You can visit their website, read their annual report, spend time at their location, do an Internet search and most importantly ask open-ended questions (questions that don't require a yes or no answer) when you're with them. You can also survey your customers. Surveys are a great way to better understand what's important to them.

I recently discovered a great Internet tool to use for surveys. It's free and easy and you can set up your own survey in less than 5 minutes. It's called Survey Monkey. Most of your customers will be time crunched, that's why I recommend keeping your survey short and to the point and offering a small token gift for completing it.

Want to try it out? I recently created my only super short survey because I want to learn more about you, my valued blog readers. It's a good idea to let your customers know the purpose of the survey. Here's my purpose, I have a few ideas I'm bouncing around for brand new programs that will have you generating more income in your promotional products business, but I really need your help before I finalize the details.

Here's where you can access my super short survey and get your free gift.