(Time to read this Blog is about 3 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “it’s amazing how many businesses spend big money to attract new customers while treating the customers they already have so badly!  Calculate the lifetime value of a loyal customer who also tells 10 other people about you, and see if that changes your perspective and your attitude! ”         
   …Donald Cooper.
    
2. Quick Biz Tip:
   Create a regular ‘Idea Fest’ in your business:   
    
   Your staff knows stuff and they hate it when you don’t ask.  If you don’t ask them for their ideas, they think you don’t care.  And, if you don’t care, why should they?
    
   Here’s a simple exercise that has worked well for many of our coaching clients.  Ask each Team member to come up with 3 things that need fixing or improving in your business, or in their department…and how those 3  things could be fixed or done better.  Give them a week to think about this.
    
   Then, have a 1-2 hour ‘Idea Fest’ session in which each Team member shares their list and their ideas.  Each participant gets a cash or other prize / ‘thank you’ for contributing.  Hold these ‘Idea Fests 2 or 3 times a year.  You’ll be amazed at the quality of the ideas that come out. 
    
3. Inspired by sport fishing regulations, our police and Courts are now practicing ‘catch and release’. The police catch them and the Courts release them.
    
   Last week, police in the Greater Toronto Area charged 16 people with 1,538 counts of organized retail theft, totaling more than $600,000 in merchandise.  But here’s the stunning bit of info.  Every one of these 16 people were out on bail from pervious retail theft charges.
    
4. The most and least reliable car brands. According to Consumer Report Magazine, the most reliable car brands are Lexus and Toyota whether you’re buying new or used.  Lexus is, of course, the luxury brand Division of Toyota.
    
   Buick is the most reliable North American made brand.
    
   Four of the bottom five least reliable vehicles, both new and used, come from Dodge Chrysler, including Ram trucks, Jeep vehicles and Dodge and Chrysler cars. Tesla was also in the bottom 5 of all used car brands for reliability.
    
   How is it that some businesses consistently deliver superior products, services and experiences…and others just can’t get their act together? Is it leadership, culture, passion, vision, values, engineering, systems…or is it all of theses?  Your thoughts?
    
5. How I can be helpful. If your company, Industry Association or local Business Group has a Conference coming up this Fall, or in 2025 and need an insightful, bottom-line management speaker who will inform, focus, challenge and inspire you, perhaps we should chat.  I’m easy to find at donald@donaldcooper.com.

Now, to this week’s important topic:

Do you have a cost-effective customer acquisition strategy?     

Every business needs to keep acquiring new customers, or it will die. But customer acquisition must be cost-effective.

Back in the 2016 US Election Campaign, in the Iowa Caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush spent $2,800 on advertising for each vote he received.  In business terms, that means he spent $2,800 to acquire each new ‘customer’ (voter).  But, he was spending other people’s money…so what the heck?

Then, he had a similar miserable result in South Carolina and, since it was not a sustainable customer acquisition model, he dropped out of the Presidential race.  His donors pulled the plug.

But in your business, it is your money that you’re spending on marketing, advertising & promotion and sales expense to attract and retain new customers.  Have you calculated your cost of customer acquisition?   Have you given any thought to or done any analysis of what’s working for you…and what’s not?   What part of your advertising, marketing and sales effort is cost-effective, and what’s not? 

Are you blowing money to make vague, boring promises to poorly defined prospects?  Even worse, are you making value or experience promises that you can’t possibly keep, in order to attract new customers who will then be disappointed, never return and warn others to stay away?   Or, are you spending wisely to send a focused, clear and compelling value and experience message to well-understood prime target customers?  

Most money spent on advertising is unfocused and unproductive.  The most effective and cost-effective customer acquisition strategy is to WOW your existing customers so much that they tell at least 10 of their friends about you.   What we say about ourselves in these cynical times is highly suspect…but what others say about us is ‘gospel’.   What can you do…what will you do…to turn customers into evangelists?

So, how will you improve your customer acquisition effectiveness and reduce your customer acquisition cost?

That’s it for this week…

Stay safe…live brilliantly!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.