Turning an opportunity into a customer

Convert more leads in any situation with these tips from PR

You’re at a dinner party or networking event and someone asks you the inevitable question, “What do you do?” Surprisingly, he actively listens to your answer and actually seems interested in your business. Now what?

Every day presents new and different occasions for selling your product and advancing your brand. You don’t want to hit prospects with an in-your-face sales pitch, but you also should not let the chance to make a sale slip away. Turning a touch point into a customer can be one of the most stressful aspects of doing business today. With help from a public relations firm, you can learn to make the best of every type of opportunity to engage prospects.

Customer complaint.

An unhappy customer takes to social media to make her displeasure with your company known to all. Perhaps your representative didn’t show up or the product arrived in a less-than-ideal condition. Whatever the situation, your company has not lived up to expectations, causing a loss of trust in your brand. Instead of going on the defensive, turn the situation around to your advantage.

How you handle the issue from start to finish will determine whether the customer stays with you or is lost forever, taking friends and followers along with her. Let her know you are aware of the problem, but don’t immediately offer a solution. Listen. Learn valuable information you can use to discover the best ways to help and to improve your business for every customer. Go out of your way to fix the issue.

Be sure to communicate with the right tone so that you not only address the problem, but also gain a new ambassador for your brand.

The chance encounter.

You never know where you will meet your next customer. Perhaps it will be on a redeye flight, at a community barbecue or your child’s sporting event. In these kinds of situations, small talk can quickly turn into a real opportunity, but a straight sales pitch is not always the best course of action.

Instead, work to build a relationship as an alternative to the hard sell. For example, you can offer your services as a guest speaker for an upcoming event or as a mentor to the prospect. When customers see that you want to help them succeed, not just sell a product, they will be more likely to trust and purchase from your company.

Any interaction with your company.

Every day, customers, prospects and applicants call your company with questions, come in for meetings, visit your website and engage with you on social media. Each one of these encounters represents a chance to gain a new customer and make a new friend. If you don’t take the initiative by putting your best foot forward, capturing feedback and nurturing these leads, you have only yourself to blame.

You can use PR tools and tactics to share information, craft personalized messages and accurately measure how well your engagement initiatives support your overall business objectives. Additionally, you should train everyone at your organization, from the IT director to the CEO, how to address customers and help solve problems. Nothing makes consumers run away faster than an organization full of people who just pass the buck from person to person.

The experts at Axia Public Relations can help guide you in what questions to ask and how to build your company’s reputation with every interaction. Contact us or register to take a HubSpot video tour to learn more about our inbound marketing approach to educating customers and improving lead generation.

Lisa Goldsberry is a blogger for Axia Public Relations with more than 15 years of public relations experience. She specializes in business and technology PR. Lisa has worked for Axia since December 2013. Learn more about Lisa Goldsberry. Connect with Axia on Twitter @axiapr or tell us what you think in the comments below.