A man's got to know his limitations!

There's a moment at the end of the 1973 Dirty Harry movie, Magnum Force, when Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) has just dispatched Briggs, the last bad guy, and he says, "A man's got to know his limitations"

It's a great line delivered by a great actor. The movie message was that people can often over-estimate their capabilities.

However, from a business perspective, it can often feel the other way around - it's like we are too cautious and unsure of our capabilities meaning that we accept things the way they are and are reluctant to challenge ourselves to test out our limitations.

The obvious exception is the start up business.  In the world of the entrepreneur, everyday seems to be a challenge to our boundaries. And it's often easy to get overwhelmed.

That's when it can help to go right back to basics. So if you are in start up mode, perhaps it could be useful to look at the three most important marketing tools to help you get and keep new customers. And no matter what your limitations are, you can easily use all 3 of these tools:

1. Face-to-Face: In this increasingly digital and impersonal world, it’s essential you meet with customers/clients in person whenever possible. This shows you respect them and take the time to work with your clients to give personal attention to each of them.
2. Always follow up promptly: Take the time to send a follow up letter, for example, about what you've discussed, new agreements or partnerships made and to thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Likewise, you should always send thank you letters or small gifts to partners you find success with. This seems an obvious courtesy but is frequently missed.
3. Phone call: Use a telephone call to follow up with them to talk again about the matters you talked about in your meeting and offer any assistance you can to help their business run smoothly and more successfully. There's a huge temptation to default to email (which obviously has it's place) but there's nothing more worthwhile than a chat.
   
   

Of course, none of these will work if you don’t have a quality product or service to back you up!

Here are the 5 most important steps for getting your start up business marketing really motoring:

1. Research your potential customers, buyers, competitors and their preferred methods of distribution.
2. Talk to potential customers. Take a hard look at your product from a customer’s perspective and see what it needs to be successful.
3. Follow up with your 3-step process from above.
4. Develop systems for contact follow through, quality control standards and customer service.
5. Develop post-sale follow up system to keep lines of communication open is customers and build on your current relationship which increases future purchases.

I love Clint Eastwood as an actor and "mans got to know his limitations" is a great line, but the reality is that it's doesn't have to be about your limitations. Focus on doing the basics as well as you possibly can and your business will flourish.

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And perhaps the tools offered in our FREE test drive will offer you these very same things .... and much, much more!