The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Handle Difficult Customers and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. Yes, you can even take that to the bank – these are foolproof! You don’t have to let difficult customers defeat you!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Email Marketing Works If You Can Get Your Customers Engaged With It

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about getting more email marketing engagement. Foundr says there are four things you can do. We highly recommend reading the entire article to get the full benefit. So instead we’ll just concentrate on a part of the article.

Relevance

Our favorite tip was all about creating relevant content which your customers and prospects actually want to read. Personalization matters! Why should your customers and prospects read your ad copy if it doesn’t relate to them personally? Admit it – you wouldn’t, either.

So spend some time, and personalize what you can. Yes, you’re busy. We all are.

But email marketing is truly great. It can have a terrific open and conversion rate.

But you need to put the work in.

#9. Where Will Your Advertising Dollar Go? Where Will They Do You the Most Good?

The next awesome tip is about creating the best, most cost-effective ads.  Wordstream tells us there are a ton of reasons why you would want to get started with digital advertising. That is, in contrast to traditional advertising.

We recommend checking out the article in its entirety. It gets into the specifics of cost per click on platforms such as Google search, LinkedIn InMail, Google maps ads, Amazon sponsored advertising, and more. The article has details on industries. You’re bound to find yours!

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Don’t let difficult customers defeat you!

#8. Churn, Baby, Churn? Er, Actually, Please Don’t

Our following life-changing tip concerns how to get to net negative churn with your pricing. Open View Partners lays the facts on us.

What the heck is churn? And why do you want it to be negative?

Churn is when your subscription business loses customers. Why does it happen with subscriptions so much?

It all has to do with billing.

So if you see a subscription service which you think you’re going to love, you might even be happy to pay for a month or two, to see what it’s all about. But when you get to the second or third month (or perhaps later), you realize the Spaghetti of the Month Club (or whatever) isn’t worth the $85 you’re paying per month (or whatever).

If you don’t think you’re getting value, then you’ll be reminded of that the moment the bill comes due. And then you’ll cancel.

On the business side of things, of course we don’t want that.

So, what do we do?

Let’s Cut Through the Math

There’s some esoteric math in this article but we’ll try to translate it.

Our fave idea is to determine what your customers want to do, and then put a value on that.

The idea of goal-oriented pricing makes sense to us. Further, the article goes into a fascinating rule of thumb. For whatever money the customer thinks they will save with your solution, charge one-tenth of that.

Hence if you create a solution which will save them $100 per month, then the way is clear. Charge ‘em $10 per month.

But that price is not set in stone! Adjust, test, and see what you get. That brings us to another rule of thumb. If you raise your prices, you can keep doing so until you get more than 20% of your prospects balking at the cost.

Because when that happens, you know you’ve gone too far.

#7. Oh, Behave!

For our next sensational tip, we looked at using buyer behavior to grow your business. Founder U has the answers. What are your buyers doing? And why? Because if you can tap into what motivates your customers, you’ll be really onto something.

We loved the idea of helping people to buy more. This is basically when you get a notification from (for example) from Amazon that tells you people who bought X were likely to also buy Y.

So one idea we liked was that of using social proof. Social proof is when you show prospects how people are using your product or service. So if you sell women’s clothing, you can show women wearing your creations for job interviews or for parties or whatever you like. Because sometimes it helps to see the product in the wild, as it were.

#6. Talk to Your Difficult Customers – Here’s How

This tip is so helpful, and it works! Freelancers Union gives us the lowdown on the kinds of communications solutions you need to draw on to deal with difficult customers.

These communications solutions are actually good for talking to pretty much anyone. Possibly the best tip is to restate their concerns. Why do you want to do this? Because it makes it clear whether you understand what it is they’re complaining about. Or maybe you don’t. Just going ahead without clarification is a recipe for more difficulties.

Another reason is to be able to restate their concerns and complaints in language which softens the situation.

“Oh my God! You’ve ruined me!”

But maybe they really mean: “Delivering my order late is costing me money!”

The softer statement is also far more specific. It has details in it which may be actionable.

One Person’s Meat is Another Person’s Poison

True story time.

Before the internet was much of a thing, your intrepid blog post writer was a data analyst.

This was difficult, slow work, requiring lots of precision. My boss at the time was a rather disorganized person. Furthermore, this person just plain did not like dealing with a certain internal customer.

As a result, when this internal customer asked for reports, their requests were often buried under mountains of paperwork. This meant that not only didn’t an acknowledgment go out – it also meant the reports were often done under extreme pressure. Because the request for a report might have come on the first of the month, but the request didn’t actually get to me until the last day of the month.

You know, the day before the report was due.

This was a lousy way to do things and I told my boss as much. When the boss was away on business, I took to looking through the top of their desk (not in the drawers; that would have been far too intrusive) to see if there were any buried report requests. I would do them, assuming I could find them.

One day, the internal customer called and demanded to speak with me. My boss said, “You’re about to get an earful. I’m sorry.”

Instead, the customer was calling to thank me for being on top of things. And we arranged for this customer to make requests directly of me, thereby leaving my boss out of the equation entirely.

My boss was relieved, my stress level went down, and the customer got what they needed.

Ducking and avoiding this hard to work for internal customer was the worst way to handle things. Please don’t do that to your hard to work for customers and prospects!

#5. Don’t Be Daunted by Difficult Customers Demanding Discounts

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot!

Difficult customers getting you down? Are they demanding a discount? You’re not alone. Fortunately, HubSpot has the solution.

It’s All About the Strategy

There are several reasons why difficult customers might want discounts. And sometimes they’re not even trying to be difficult! So, when do you give in?

HubSpot says it’s more important to figure out why, and how.

Haggling For the Sake of Haggling

If you don’t think this exists, think again. Possibly our favorite tip concerned this very subject. Essentially, if you seem close to a meeting of the minds, but the rug keeps getting yanked, that should tell you something.

Sometimes, customers and prospects push for discounts because they unfairly believe every product and service is overpriced. How do you deal with these difficult customers? Ask why they want a discount.

Having to give a reason is very powerful. If they can’t – that is, it’s not a budget consideration – a lot of people will back down.

Quid Pro Quo

Another great strategy is a form of compromise. Such as, I’ll give you 15% off if you commit to an extra year on your service contract. Or whatever bargain you think is best.

But no matter what, don’t just hand out discounts willy-nilly, to anyone who wants them. That’s a sure-fire way to fail in business. You just won’t make enough money. Your difficult customers and prospects will smell blood in the water, and they’ll all want less.

And, most importantly, it gives off a clear signal that you don’t believe in your own work product.

Ouch.

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Don’t let difficult customers defeat you!

#4. Tackle the Triple Bottom Line

Check out this spectacular tip, all about balancing your profits to a higher purpose. Startup Professionals says there’s currently a kind of triple bottom line. It’s not enough to just make money. You also have to be socially responsible. And green. Also known as people, planet, and profit.

So, how do you juggle all of that?

What Does Success Mean to YOU?

That’s the first step, and we could not agree more. If your sole concern is social responsibility and being green, you may find you don’t make too much money. And so the article (rightfully, we think) suggests you might not want to be an entrepreneur. Maybe a nonprofit or a government role is more your speed.

You know, there’s nothing wrong with either.

Measure!

Hey, there’s our favorite thing to do. Measure not just your profits. How about seeing if you can quantify how much you’re helping the planet? One ton less paper used every quarter is something you can point to. It’s tangible. And you can adjust as well. Maybe that’s hard to do. Or maybe it’s a lead pipe cinch, and you can do better. But you won’t know that until you start measuring.

#3. Get More Done – Yes, You Can!

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help make you more productive. Fundera tells us a lot of it is about procrastinating. We all do it. So what happens if we do something at least semi-productive during that down time?

Two ideas they had which we really liked were to do minor chores and to change your scenery. If you’re putting off a task, how about spending a few minutes tidying up your desk? If you’re procrastinating about something, why not change the venue? You may find getting a little exercise, or just a new set of walls to stare at, can bring your productivity mojo back.

So one of our favorites was a bit of relaxation therapy. Apparently, there’s a real-live Japanese study which supports a few minutes looking at pictures of baby animals can increase your concentration and, thereby, your productivity.

Note: we said minutes, not hours.

One, two, three, everyone – awwww.

#2. Back to Email Marketing – We’re Talking About it a Lot Today…

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on email strategy. Sumo has some excellent ideas.

Now, we’ve looked at this kind of marketing before. Yet it bears repeating. Essentially, one of the things you want to do is communicate with your customers and prospects at logical times.

Sumo shows off two different flavors of welcome emails. One is a welcome for signing up for a webinar. The other is a welcome with a giveaway. By using two separate welcome emails, why not try a little A/B testing?

Our fave bit was the emails both set expectations. They both tell you how often you’ll hear from Sumo. So if it’s too much or too little email, you can’t say you didn’t know.

#1. Human Resources Means Managing Actual Humans

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on HR management tips. Effortless HR says communications are key. Kind of like our tip #6, although presumably your employers are easier to take than your toughest customers!

So our fave idea was one which we truly hope is something of a no-brainer. That is, encourage all opinions and ideas.

Yes, even the ones that maybe aren’t so positive. You just might learn something.

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Don’t let difficult customers defeat you!

The post Take Courage and Don’t Let Difficult Customers Drag You Down –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.