Razor Blade Wars (The Key to New Customers)

   Many of you whom I have met may have noticed I have a teensy bit of a hair problem.  This is not new.   I started shaving my head 15 years ago.  And when I started shaving my head, it was not as universally accepted as it is now.  There were many times that I cleared the aisles of soccer moms and grannies at Kroger, simply buying some Honeycomb.  Since then, it is my trademark look.  And I have always been a Gillette Mach 3 user.  I love that blade.  I once tried the Head Blade.  I looked like I got into a fight with the Samuri Delicatessen and lost. 

   Recently, I ran out of my Mach 3 blades.  It was bad.  Five o’clock shadow on my head is not a good look.  My lovely wife Sarah, aka the Coupon Queen, had a solution.  She recently obtained a deeply discounted Schick Quattro.  Oh yes, the four blade razor.  I didn’t really have a choice.  I used it.  And you know what, it wasn’t too bad.  In fact, it did a fine job.

   What does this have to do with the entrepreneurs of the world? 

So many times we give up on our marketing efforts toward a very specific type of customer we want, because they don’t respond immediately.  If we don’t get instant gratification, we try something else. 

Think about it like this:

• I did 7 sit ups yesterday and I’m still 40 pounds overweight.
• I put half a tank of gas in my car last week and now my car doesn’t run again.
• We put our house on the market last Saturday and we still don’t have any offers.

  Sounds absurd, right?  But that’s what we do every day with our business.  We’ll try one or two random things for a short period, get frustrated, and move on.

  Persistence is the key to getting new customers.

• If you are implementing a social media campaign, do not expect 1,000 likes and twice the revenue in a week.  It will take time, good content, and a lot of interaction.
• If you are writing a newsletter campaign, try it out a full year, before you declare people don’t read it.  By the way, make sure you write good stuff.
• If you are networking and prospecting, do it several times a week.  Not once in a while, as you have time.  Also, make it a point to identify other people you want to work with and give them a reason to want to work with you.  If they are already using your competitor don’t just give up and say they don’t need me.  You never know when they will run out of blades.

The TSBDC offers free and confidential one-on-one counseling for existing and start up small businesses.  To register for go to www.tsbdc.org.   

Other contact information - Phone (615) 230-4780  www.volstate.edu/tsbdc

The Tennessee Small Business Development Center Network is funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration and local community donors.