23 Feb 2017

L2B Blog: Great ways to build your customer base

by | posted in: Life Lessons | 0

Great ways to build your customer base…whether you have a small business or an empire, the principals of building your customer base will still apply. Gaining new customers is one of the most difficult aspects of running a business, so it is important to retain and look after the ones you already have. Customers are the lifeblood of any business, so it is vital you keep generating leads and retaining your existing customers, while on the ‘hunt’ for new customers.

 

Here are 10 Powerful Tips To Grow Your Customer Base

  1. Focus on the right customers. Just because you might have a small business don’t just think you can only sell to other small businesses.
  2. Stay connected with your customers. Engage with them. Build a solid relationship with them. The internet and social media marketing makes this extremely easy to do.
  3. Offer extra value. Always try to over-deliver so your customers will stay loyal to you and keep coming back for more.
  4. Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals and testimonials.
  5. Understand and address your customer’s key frustrations.
  6. Keep communicating with your customers. Don’t let them forget about you. You can do this via online newsletters, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook etc. Provide offers and information which may be of value to them.
  7. Make it your aim to get to know your customers. Find out as much as you can about them. Get to know their interests, their partner’s names, how many children they have, what pets they have, what car they drive etc.
  8. Improve your customer service skills. This includes how you communicate with them, how you answer the phone and how you present yourself and your business. Whatever contact your customers have with you, it should always be a positive experience.
  9. Ask customers how you can do things better. No company is perfect, but if you allow your customers to give you feedback, you will keep them on your side and loyal to your business.
  10. Create forums or Facebook groups where customers can share information and ideas. Create a community for them to be a part of. It all helps with the engagement and keeping them loyal to you.

When it comes to increasing the size of your customer base the first people you should look at are your most loyal customers. They are your best salespeople because they are more likely to recommend your business to others. A wise man once told me that knowledge is power but word of mouth conquers all.

 

Sources:

http://www.chadfullerton.com/10-steps-to-grow-your-customer-base/

About Nadine Vermeulen

I started working at Leads 2 Business in October 2014 in the Leads 2 Quotes Department. I managed all the Daily Tender Bill Requests and followed up on BoQ's for our Daily Tender Subscribers. In 2017, I was promoted to L2Q Assistant and now work with Bill of Quantities for Contractors. 🙂

19 Oct 2016

Closing Date

by | posted in: Construction Chat, General | 0

Closing Date

96-blog-closing-dates

When I started working at Leads 2 Business, I had no idea what was in store for me, I had little to none experience in the Building and Construction industry, let alone Tenders.  It was all completely Greek to me, however, as the days progressed all the information started to come together like a puzzle, piece by piece. After tons of training and the feeling of my mind going to explode, I could finally look at the complete picture instead of looking at the puzzle pieces one by one.

Learning the nitty gritty of the tender process has been quite interesting, I mean, I always thought that if you want to build something, you go ahead and build something. Not so fast buddy, clearly this was not the case. I soon came to realize that it’s quite a process. From a light bulb moment, to a design, to obtaining the correct professionals and, and, and,…. Phew!  The stages include advertising of tenders, sale of tender documents and attendance of compulsory briefing sessions by prospective bidders.

I work in the Leads 2 Quotes Department and deal with the Daily Tender Bill Requests  and closing dates became pretty important to me because once a closing date has arrived I cannot obtain a BoQ for a Tender and if a closing date can be so important to me, just imagine the importance of a closing date for someone who is tendering on a Tender.

By the said closing date, the tenderer should have gotten all his ducks in a row. Where required, attend the compulsory site meeting and get the feel of the project ahead. Start getting prices from Vendors to submit with his bid documents and making sure all his returnable documents are in order.

Take note that a closing date is your deadline. That date is the last date you can submit the relevant documents required to place your bid. Your bid has to be in by the specific date and the specific time stated on the Tender notice. Not a second later. If you submit your bid a second later, your bid will not be accepted. This is to avoid any irregularities and corruption.

Unfortunately, if it was compulsory to attend the site meeting, and you did not attend your bid would not be considered as well. The rules for Site Meetings and Closing Dates unfortunately go hand in hand unless otherwise stated.

But don’t let life get the better of you, stock up on the energy drinks and caffeine. Take note of the dates, take note of the meetings. And just like a wedding, save the dates.

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About Nadine Vermeulen

I started working at Leads 2 Business in October 2014 in the Leads 2 Quotes Department. I managed all the Daily Tender Bill Requests and followed up on BoQ's for our Daily Tender Subscribers. In 2017, I was promoted to L2Q Assistant and now work with Bill of Quantities for Contractors. 🙂

14 Sep 2016

Types of Tenders offered by Transnet

by | posted in: Construction Chat, Construction Events, General, Uncategorized | 3

transnet-1

Well, well, well, just look at this, my second blog 🙂 (Pat on the back for me). I am excited and nervous at the same time, but let me take a deep breath…relax…and do this. This month I will be chatting about the types of Tenders that are offered by Transnet. OK, this can’t be that bad a topic, can it? I mean, it’s just Transnet right? This will be a quick one, phew, definitely relaxed now, easy peasy lemon squeezy. With my fingers doing the walking I search for the Tenders offered by Transnet on our awesome website, and low and behold, there they are…wait…what!? This can’t be right, looking at the screen with wide eyes and slowly but surely starting to hyperventilate, I begin to realize that this is not going to be as easy as I thought. Upon my lovely search I discovered that we have housed a whopping number of 13 030 Tender Notices for Transnet so far. Breathe…Breathe….Breathe…ok, I am running for the hills! Goodbye….

transnet-2transnet-3

 

 

Ok ok ok, I am back from Bora Bora with a new mindset about this blog, I can do this. Where were we? O yes, that’s right, 13 030 Tender Notices are housed by L2B to date, but what can you expect from the largest and most crucial part of the freight logistics chain that delivers goods to each and every South African through its pipelines and both to and from its ports? Moving cargo onto ships for export while it unloads goods from overseas. So, lets dig a little deeper shall we? Transnet operates an integrated freight transport, formed around a core of five, yes five, operating divisions that complement each other (which we will look at shortly). These are supported by a number of company-wide specialist functions such as Transnet Projects which underpin the group as a whole.

transnet-4 transnet-5

 

Transnet is made up of the following operating divisions:

 

  1. Transnet Freight Rail (formerly Spoornet – the freight rail division)
  2. Transnet Rail Engineering (formerly Transwerk – the rolling stock maintenance business)
  3. Transnet National Ports Authority (formerly the NPA – fulfills the landlord function for South Africa’s port system)
  4. Transnet Port Terminals (formerly SAPO – managing port and cargo terminal operations in the nation’s leading ports), and
  5. Transnet Pipelines (formerly Petronet – the fuel and gas pipeline business, pumps and manages the storage of petroleum and gas products through its network of high-pressure, long distance pipelines)

 

Here are just a few of the Tenders that Transnet offers:

With a variety of Facilities Management, Electrical & Instrument, Plant & Machinery, Mechanical, Materials & Supplies, Infrastructure, Security & Fire, IT & Telecom and plenty more, you can see that Transnet offers a tender for each and everyone, which is only a click away on our website 🙂 www.l2b.co.za

You can contact me on 087 150 1465 or by email nadinev@l2b.co.za #justsaying 😉

Phew, now that wasn’t so hard, was it?  So what are you waiting for, get clicking and have a look at those tenders 🙂

transnet-6

 

 

 

About Nadine Vermeulen

I started working at Leads 2 Business in October 2014 in the Leads 2 Quotes Department. I managed all the Daily Tender Bill Requests and followed up on BoQ's for our Daily Tender Subscribers. In 2017, I was promoted to L2Q Assistant and now work with Bill of Quantities for Contractors. 🙂

31 Aug 2016

City of Johannesburg, future outlook, where are we going/growing?

by | posted in: Construction Chat, Construction Events | 2

City of Johannesburg, future outlook, where are we going/growing?

I always believe that in order to know where you are going you have to know where you are from, I personally think that applies to every aspect in our lives including where we live. So when I was asked to write about the future of our beloved City of Gold, the thought occurred to me that it would be pretty amazing to see where it all began, like a newborn on a journey through life.

Johannesburg was founded in 1886 as a result of the discovery of gold, which rapidly attracted people to the area and within 10 years the city Johannesburg included 100 000 people.  Like many 19th century mining towns, Johannesburg was a rough and disorganised place and major building developments only took place in the 1930s. By the late 1960’s and early 1970’s tower blocks such as Carlton Centre and the Southern Life Centre filled the skyline of the Central Business District. Sandton City was opened in 1973, followed by Rosebank Mall in 1976 and Eastgate in 1979. Johannesburg kept on evolving and is now home to some of Africa’s tallest structures such as Sentech Tower and Ponte City Apartments.

Johannesburg is often described as Africa’s economic powerhouse, and contentiously as a modern and prosperous African City. Johannesburg like many metropolises has more than one CBD including but not limited to Sandton CBD, Rosebank CBD and Roodepoort CBD, just to mention a few.

Just have a look at the amazing evolution of Johannesburg:

Johannesburg City Centre in 1896

Johannesburg City Centre in 1896

Modern Johannesburg

Modern JohannesburgCommissioner Street 1890

Commissioner Street 1890

Commissioner Street 2015

Commissioner Street 2015

The Rand Club 1888

The Rand Club 1888

The Rand Club 2015

The Rand Club 2015

With an ever evolving city, what does the future hold for Jozi?

  • The Kazerne Intermodel Transport Facility : Construction is underway on a world-class intermodal transport facility which will transform the commuter environment in Johannesburg’s CBD, creating a clean, safe, welcoming place for residents, commuters, tourists and investors in the heart of the inner city.

( PPA 16631 )

  • The Illovo Precinct : The precinct will have various components including office and commercial, hotel and conferencing, residential 1, residential 3 and retail.

( PPA 8548, PPA 8549, PPA 8550, PPA 8551, PPA 8553 )

  • NMT Milpark Precinct : Construction of the Milpark Precinct non-motorised transport implementation development in Milpark, Gauteng.

( PPA 18328 )

  • Riversands Commercial Park : Riversands offers a variety of commercial precincts – allowing for retail, office, warehousing and light industrial business premises. Riversands Commercial Park is set to become the preferred commercial development in Northern Johannesburg

( PPA 17864, PPA 17865, PPA 17866, PPA 17867 )

 

With a short insight into the future of Jozi, the place of Gold as we know it, is one of the top places to be, see and experience. Our very own “Big Apple” as you may say.  A World Class African City of the Future.

Johannesburg-Sunset

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/

http://businesstech.co.za/

 

About Nadine Vermeulen

I started working at Leads 2 Business in October 2014 in the Leads 2 Quotes Department. I managed all the Daily Tender Bill Requests and followed up on BoQ's for our Daily Tender Subscribers. In 2017, I was promoted to L2Q Assistant and now work with Bill of Quantities for Contractors. 🙂

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