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Quick Cash Generator #1

Cash In On Dead Inventory

Quick Cash Generator #2

Ethically And Beneficially Exploit Your Loyal Customers

Quick Cash Generator #3

Don’t Forget Your Other Customers

Quick Cash Generator #4

Pre-Purchase Discounts

Quick Cash Generator #5

Gift Certificates

Quick Cash Generator #6

The “Preferred Customer”

Quick Cash Generator #7

Discounting Accounts Receivable

Quick Cash Generator #8

Reactivate Past Customers

Quick Cash Generator #9

Complimentary, Non-Competitive Joint Venture Events

Quick Cash Generator #10

Increase The Transactional Value Of Each Sale

Quick Cash Generator #11

Vendors’ Co-op Money

Quick Cash Generator #12

Renegotiate Your Contracts

For more information or expanded ideas, please email me (jack@nextlevelbusiness.com) and I would be glad to help you.

1.      Now that you know how much a client is “worth” to you over their “lifetime” of doing business with you, you can determine how much you are willing to spend on a client who refers several clients to you.

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The Main Causes Of Most Business’ Problems

One of the most important things you can do when you get a client, is to establish your value – and the quicker you can do it, the more you’ll reinforce your client’s decision that they made the right decision in choosing you, and the faster you’ll gain their continued confidence and trust.

First of all, it’s important to know that there are only a handful of things that cause the majority of problems for most businesses. And if you can get a handle on those things, nearly everything else will take care of itself. In general, most problems can be categorized into these two main categories:

1.      Insufficient cash flow

2.      Inefficient operations

The first category, “Insufficient cash flow,” may be the result of several subcategories, such as:

1.      Insufficient numbers of leads

2.      Poor conversion ratios

3.      Not maximizing the transactional amount of each sale

4.      Not enough return or repeat customers or purchases

5.      Not maximizing the average buying lifetime of each customer

6.      Not utilizing proactive referral strategies

“Inefficient operations,” the second category may also consist of several subcategories:

1.      Overstocked inventory stores

2.      Excessive, redundant or dead inventory

3.      Not enough turn-over of on-hand inventory

4.      Employees not slotted in proper jobs according to skills and abilities

5.      Excessive employees

6.      Underutilized employees

7.      Underutilized, redundant or inefficient operations, management, collection, and delivery systems

8.      Poor time management practices

9.      Poor employee selection, training, motivation, and correction procedures

10.  Not monitoring what the competition is doing, or what the market wants and will respond to

Of course, these are not exhaustive lists. Several additional items could no doubt be added to each of the two categories, and each of those items could be further broken down into additional sub categories. But the main point here is to point out that by working on a few key areas, many of a business’ problems can be solved very quickly, and with relative ease.

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The Best Defense Is A Quick And Effective Offense

The best time to deal with a lagging cash flow is before it ever happens. Installing a variety of systems that function independently of each other and that will continue to function regardless of whether or not the other systems produce is by far the best solution.

But sometimes the unavoidable or the unpredictable hits, and the time for preparation is past. When this happens, many business owners either give up altogether, or attempt desperate measures to turn things around. Unfortunately, neither of these plans is likely to turn things around, and will most likely cause even further problems.

The real solution is to have a very clear and defined plan with predictable and measurable results. In some cases, there may be a trade-off of future profits in exchange for more immediate cash flow. And as painful as that may be, instituting such a plan may be exactly what the business needs to get back on its feet.

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4.      Using the table below, determine what the average Annual Value and the average Lifetime Value of your clients is. That is, how much on average, does each client spend with you each year and over the course of their “buying lifetime” with you? (Appendix A contains an explanation of each line.)

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3.      Develop a multi-tiered program based on the number of new clients your referrals generate, and reward your referrers in two ways: immediate gratification and delayed gratification. For instance:

In this example, the immediate gratification is a one time payoff such as the dinner, concert tickets, the night in a local resort and the weekend get-away.

The delayed gratification is an ongoing benefit designed to keep your clients coming back. In our example, it is the discount your clients receive on their purchases.

In either case, your imagination is the only limiting factor in determining what you can offer your clients. Just remember to reward them for the NEW CLIENTS you generate… not the number of people they tell to contact you. If they’re going to get some nice rewards, they need to do their fair share of the conversion process.

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2.      Let your customers or clients know, both verbally and by showing them, that you appreciate them and their business. Develop a simple script to invite them to refer other people they know to do business with you.

Begin With The End In Mind

 If you know that referrals are gotten with exceptional service and an outstanding experience, then provide that service and those experiences, and referrals from your thrilled customers and clients is almost a given. You’ll find that not only will the number of referrals you generate increase, but so will the loyalty of your current customers and clients, which of course, translates to more immediate profits. When your client base increases, not only do your profits and cash flow increase, but so does the commercial or resale value of your business.

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Referral Programs Can Be “Zero-Risk”

Well crafted referral programs, on the other hand, will only require payment when an actual client is developed. It’s a true “pay-for-results” system, and is totally “Zero-Risk.”

When traditional print ads don’t work, common responses from ad salespeople are that the ad has to be run multiple times in order to create top of mind awareness, the ad needs to be larger, it must be placed in a different (more costly) location, or that it needs color… all of which add to the cost of the ad.

But well designed referral programs are based on newly acquired clients and not on increased spending. You only pay for results.

With traditional advertising, you pay with cash. But with referrals, in many cases, the rewards, incentives or gifts that you “pay” your referrers with can be your own products or services that you either make, produce, or provide yourself, or that you buy at wholesale prices. Of course, the value to the referrer is the retail price of the product or service.

As a rule, people will not refer others to a business unless they have received value from the products or services they purchased from the business, or unless they have experienced great service from that business. The more you can do for your customers or clients to give them a WOW! experience, the more likely they are to return to do business with you, and the more likely they are to refer others to you.

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Here is a simple step-by-step cost-efficient way to increase the size of nearly any business.

1.      Provide the very best quality products and the most outstanding service to be found in your market. Do something that either your competition cannot do, or that they are not willing to do. Set yourself apart. Be unique and special. If you can’t differentiate yourself by the products you sell, then differentiate yourself by the service you provide. Create a demand for whatever it is that you offer. When people experience the benefits of an incredible product or outstanding service it is natural that they want to tell others about it. Let it be you that they talk about.

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