With competition fiercer than it has ever been, business owners are finding it more difficult to draw in their customers long enough for them to make a purchase. We all want our customers to keep purchasing from us as loyalty to our brand is what keeps our company growing.

Do you make your customers feel comfortable? Not only in your store if you have one, but also speaking with you on the phone and connecting with you through any online presence that you have. The more they interact with you and your employees, the more they will get to know you and trust you to offer them the best deal and the highest quality.

Though your customers may be attracted to what you are offering, outside opinion quite often has an effect on the purchasing outcome. Rather than making their own decision to buy, there is quite often a little ticker tape running through their minds of what this person or that person will think of their purchase. This leaves you with the double job of ensuring that your customer feels he needs your product and also taking in account how strongly they will let their friends and others influence their final decision.

You also have to take into account the lifestyle of your customers and whether your product or service fits in with the way they live. While many of your customers are now trying to spend less and lead a more simplistic life, a lot of what is being offered for sale doesn’t fit with this image. There are those that stick by their own rules and there are also a lot who follow the crowd and always buy the newest thing. Social status is important to them and they will buy accordingly. Deciding which group you and your customers belong to will help your business succeed.

At the end of the list and perhaps most important, is price. Price comparisons are easy to do by using the internet and unless yours is in line with the majority, your customers will go elsewhere. Making sure your product is easily available and also priced right will motivate your customers to buy from you instead of going to a competitor.

Always make sure that you can prove the value of your product, put it out there in a noticeable way for your customers and follow up. Keep your customers comfortable by not being too pushy and listen to what they have to say. Find out what they are interested in and you will discover their motivations. Go the extra mile and learn about those who purchase from you.

© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2014

   Most business owners have goals in place, to-do lists that lead to their ability to reach those goals and yet are not easily able to shift their perspective in order to decide which priorities are most important.

Do they have the priorities in place that have led them to choose the goals that will help them the most?

Besides helping you to become successful at managing your time, the actual process of figuring out just what priorities take precedence over others is helpful in defining where your business goes. Some business tasks are much more worthy of your attention than others and successful business owners have learned that priorities also change with time, often quite quickly.

It’s also important to remember that something that is considered a priority for one person, may be completely unimportant to another. Learning to arrange priorities so your business life meshes with your personal life is your ultimate goal. Knowing what you want will make it easier but if you’ve ever asked someone what they really want out of life, the answers tend to be vague, such as money, happiness, security. While all of these are great priorities, they need to be broken down since they mean different things to different people.

Business priorities will also be different for each of us as our goals are as varied as our businesses. Thinking through what is most important to you and what should come first can remind you of what your original goals were when you began your business and can help point you in a new, more satisfactory direction where the outcome will be more in line with your interests. At the same time, you can decide if you are doing things for a real purpose or if they are habits. Some habits may be necessary to keep your business running successfully. Others may be holding you back from becoming the most successful business owner that you can possibly become. While deciding on priorities, make sure they are your priorities and not those that have been imposed on you by the thinking of others. While caring what others think is or can be nice, when it comes to your business, run it your way.

Deciding what is missing in your priority list is another reason to go over it. Sometimes it is the small things that can make the biggest difference, especially in business. Realizing this can re-ignite your interest if it has been flagging and have you looking at your business in a new way. What is most important is that you decide what you can and can’t live without, how much of your personal time you are willing to continue to give up to run your business (maybe this is the time to bring in virtual help), and also if your present goals are still pertinent to what is going on in the present business climate.

Business priorities that you decide on should always be of benefit to you, your business and your family. If a shift in perspective is necessary, spending time on just what your real priorities are, will benefit all of these.

© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2014

image courtesy of seanclark