Your A-Team

August 11, 2010 in Business with 2 Comments

In the old days, if you wanted to increase your business, all you had to do was hire and pay a handful of salesmen and build a sales team.

Your salesman would go door-to-door, or cold-call, or create direct mail pieces to mail out to your mailing list. They would work 9-5 and attempt to meet a certain quota each month.

Today, your new sales team can be hundreds and thousands strong. The beauty of your new sales team is that you don’t need to pay them a dime. Seriously, and they work 24 hours a day. They never sleep. They’re your A-Team.

It’s true. No payment is required. There’s a catch though. You need to understand that while payment isn’t required, they may need a little training.

Here’s how you do it:

Ask them to share their experiences with your business on Facebook, or Twitter, or anywhere on the internet for that matter.

Encourage them, or better yet, give them a reason to write a review about your Bed & Breakfast or restaurant on a site called TripAdvisor.

Reward them for their referrals, or for bringing a friend to your establishment for bacon & eggs, or for putting in a good word in for you.

To encourage your customers, give them the tools, and the incentives up front, and make it worthwhile for them to send a friend to rent an air compressor from your Tool Rental shop.

If you’re a town or city looking to increase tourism, give your new sales team the tools to show their visiting guests a good time. That can mean free parking or discounts at local hotels.  It really doesn’t matter.

Remember, they work for free. They just need the tools and training.

The new sales team is your A-Team. And like I said, the best part of all is it’s free.

Why isn’t every business utilizing their A-Team?

  • http://damionflynn.com Damion Flynn

    It is funny how few businesses understand this concept and how few others utilize it. I am guilty of it myself sometimes, occasionally from lack of time, other times just from lack of thought.
    With the social space that has been dominating the Internet in the past 5(ish) years, it really can make or break a business.
    The thing that most people lose in this is the psychological aspect. People want to have a purpose and feel like they are helping someone else. Asking your customers to help you by doing these things is often as little as it takes. Now, do something wrong and it will be in every site and email within days, but many people do not put the positives unless it 1) Really WOWs them, or 2) You ask them to help you by spreading the word.

    There is a little fast food American Style Mexican restaurant here locally (Gulfport, MS) called Taco Sombrero (think Taco Bell only better). They have a sign on their wall that says “If we please you, tell your friends, if not, please tell us” – an ingenious way of asking for the referral and the sign alone helps people feel better about eating there.

  • http://noahfleming.com/ Noah Fleming

    Damion

    I always look forward to your insightful comments. THanks so much. You make some great points here….especially the psychological aspect….

    good stuff Damion.