When your business is firing on all cylinders, stretching your sales growth goal is not hard to do. Those two components, systems and culture, convey the confidence to consider a double-digit growth goal. It can be as high as 15 or even 25 percent; sometimes known as ‘Big Audacious Goals.’

Growing your fleet business is a great tactic in a double-digit growth strategy. Fleet business is different than traditional motorist volume. Fleet opportunities will not come to you. You will need to go after fleet business by becoming the salesperson or face of the business.  For many owners, being a salesperson is out of their comfort zone, however, this may be the only way to grow your fleet sales.

Fleet owners or managers are always looking to talk to a facility that can help them control their costs and keep their fleet running reliably at all times. When their fleet does not move they do not make money. Keep in mind, your call to a potential fleet customer provides the fleet an option. Do not expect a yes on the first call, it may take a while to land a fleet but keep in touch and never give up! Always ask when they would prefer you to follow up with them.

There are a few ways to find fleet business opportunities: google local businesses, sit at a busy gas station and write down fleet names proudly displayed on vehicles, drive through the industrial parks in your marketing areas and lastly, ask your current customers.

Your fleet customer will be looking for convenience, a job done right and on time. It should not be too hard to integrate fleet business into your business model. If you need a higher bay door to accommodate larger fleet vehicles you may need to wait, but there are big opportunities for fleet business without modifying your bay door or building size.

You must have a strong value proposition to offer the fleet customer. Ask yourself, why would a fleet customer drive by three other shops to get to you? When you answer that question, you have your value proposition. Never present yourself as a salesperson rather as a solution provider.

Fleet business will require you to have some flexibility because every fleet has different expectations. Relationships will become the most important part of the transaction. It goes without saying that honesty and integrity will rule and always be in the customers’ interest.

Fleet business can sustain your revenue during the up and down times of the year. Get out of your comfort zone and take on the challenge to grow your fleet business!

For more how-to’s and an in-depth discussion on fleet business, please listen to a great Town Hall Academy on Growing Your Fleet Business here: https://remarkableresults.biz/a048

You must have a clear picture of your ‘perfect customer’. Put down, on paper, at least 3 attributes, the avatar, of your ideal customer. (See end of blog for a few attributes to consider) Once you know what your avatar ‘looks like’, when they walk in the door or you walk into theirs, you’ll know right away that they MUST become a customer. This ‘picture’ of your ideal customer drives your interaction when qualifying prospects. When you find a textbook match you’ll get a perfect customer because your culture earns their support and loyalty. They understand you and more importantly you understand and appreciate them.

Your values, integrity, capabilities, equipment, facility, environment, talent and commitment impacts the satisfaction level of your ‘perfect customer. You may not have enough of these perfect customers so by having an avatar in mind it will force you to focus on the right customer/prospect. It also helps weed out the not so perfect customers. Everyone has them. Knowing your ‘perfect customer’ will help you convince a qualified prospect to do business with you. How? Because your customer service culture/strategy fits them and you perfectly and you will, from your heart, sell them on you. It’s hard and a waste of time to sell to an imperfect match that you want their business.

The people you hire, the environment you keep, the tools you use, the policies/procedures you work so hard to maintain all lend themselves to making your target customer satisfied and engaged. Having this ideal customer avatar in place will help you qualify best fit opportunities. Not every potential sale will become a PERFECT CUSTOMER.

Sometimes marginal selling opportunities can become ‘perfect customers’ through some nurturing. You may need to explain why their world will be better by doing business with you.  You know your abilities, capabilities and power to satisfy a job well done. Getting that message across may show the prospect that you can be their preferred service provider and satisfy their needs. Point is don’t give up when you find a perfect match.

Now on to your competitors. They must be fully reviewed. This strategy links to your ‘perfect customer’ avatar because it helps separate competitive strengths and weaknesses and how your customer culture and solutions build differentiation and provide better value. You should have, at a minimum a check sheet so you know exactly how to make a quality comparison between you and them. When you completely know about your competitive situation you can build your competitive advantage and capture more ‘perfect customers’.

Your team must be included in creating your perfect customer avatar. And when you’ve totally defined it, they all should know it and live it. A totally engaged team will produce the level of satisfaction you need to have with each customer if you want to sustain a growing business.

Your customer service commitment will show up in your team’s actions, dialogue, promises kept and work quality. The value of positioning your ‘perfect customer’ avatar into your business pays off because you have purposely designed the ideal ‘perfect customer’ and then you go after him or her.

The below are attribute suggestions. Yours will vary based on your unique capabilities, environment, geography, conditions, need, etc.

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Howard Schultz, the creator of Starbucks writes in his book Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul about the day he closed down all Starbucks coffee shops. His company wasn’t doing that well, so one day, he closed all stores for three hours and had all his employees watch videos on how to make the absolute best drink. He said, ‘If the drink is not good, you’ve got to take it back. You’ve got to say to the customer ‘If you’re not satisfied, let me make you another drink.” He realized that to put his company back on top, he had to give his customers the absolute best service.

Schultz could have gone a different route. He could have just slashed the prices of his coffee to compete. This is many people’s first thought when it comes to topping the competition. And sometimes it does help. If Schultz had just dropped his coffee prices and not enhanced the customer experience at Starbucks, it would have killed the perceived value of his brand altogether. If your price drops and the customer experience does not improve, then all you do is devalue your product. You’re not only killing your brand—you’re killing your bottom line as well. Competing on service is always the better way to go.

It also reminds me of the line from Jim Knight about him calling Starbucks ‘Four Bucks’ because that is what he spends on his coffee at least twice a day. That is some really big bucks for coffee. However for Jim, the value and experience is there every time.

How is your service? Is it legendary? Are you practicing the Platinum Rule of Customer Service from Dr. Tony Alessandra? ‘Treat others the way they want to be treated’. Remember the golden rule. ‘Treat people the way you want to be treated’; doesn’t work anymore. Always put your customer in mind when making decisions. The perceived value of your business is always from the customer’s perspective. Starbucks is a great example of doing something big and important to get the message through to his people that we must be the best at what we do if not fix it, make it right. Your customer deserves it.  

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