HOME
Sales Mainpage
Enquiry
|
How To Keep Customers For Life
by Gerry Robert
It happens so often. Work forever to find and sell a client, then lose them.
Has this ever happened to you?
Your work and work with a prospect only to find out that at the last
minute, he bought from your competitor. Someone you know had a higher
price than you.
You make a call to a long-standing client, and he tell you he is no longer
in the market to buy what you are selling.
All of a sudden, a trusted referral base dries up for you. The person
who referred many prospects to you suddenly fails to return your calls
and he stops sending people to you.
What happened? Can this sort of thing be prevented? Is it possible to
ensure that the hard work you do to find and sell people last? Is it
possible to prevent your prospects and customers from going to the
competitor? It most certainly is possible and I would say essential
if you want to sell effectively in the '90s.
Keep in mind how vital this role in selling really is. Most of your energy,
time and expense are in the "locating" of prospects and client bases.
You spend forever trying to find hot prospects and sell them. You feel
wonderful once you sell them but what about after that? Unless you
charge this aspect of your selling career, you are doomed to spend forever
on the sales roller-coaster.
UNDERSTAND YOUR CLIENT BASE
One of the first things I do when I work with a company is to get them to
define their client base. your client base is probably the most valuable
asset you own. So many salespeople fail to even organise it, let alone
define it.
In today's era of technology there is no excuse for salespeople fail not
to have computerised their client base. At the very least you need to have
a well though-out system for managing your client base. One which allows
you to record valuable information, call notes, action steps, and contact
recording.
It's been so long that you have been in contact with your past clients that
some of them have moved, moved out of the country, or died and you have no
way of knowing because you are in contact with them so infrequently.
The frirst thing you should do is to list everyone in you client base and
confirm that that information you have is correct. I recommend contacting
everyone by telephone or letter. Set up a personal interview with everyone.
The referral potential alone by doing this will blow you away, Now divide
all the names into one of three networks.
THE THREE NETWORKS
Everyone you come into contact with will fall into one. of these three
networks. Each one should have a different strategy of contact
management and each one should be kept separately. Thinking about your
client base in these three networks wil allow you to be very organised and
thorough in your planning and it will ensure that no one slips through
the proverbial cracks.
Some people use the A/B/C rating system for contacts. I don't really like
that approach. Salespeople tend to only focus on the As at the cost of the
Bs and Cs. The problem is, those Bs and Cs will eventually turn into As
but they will go to someone else if you don't focus on them. Instead,
everyone in your client base should receive high priority of don't
have them in there. My system calls for different strategies for each
category.
- THE ESTABLISHED NETWORK
The Established Network is composed of past clients, hot contact, and your
Winners Circle. These people are know to you and you are known to them.
You have an established relationship with them.
- THE PROSPECT NETWORK
The Prospect Network is composed of new prospects. Keep in mind that my
philosophy is to use attraction as the primary marketing tool. The goal
wil this netowrk is to stay in constant contact with them so that when they
are ready to buy, you will know it and they will naturally think of you.
- THE SPECIALTY NETWORK
This network is often neglected by most salepeople. Every industry has a
Specialty Network. It could be corporate accounts, governmental contacts,
or Multiple Sources Referrals (MSC). For example if you are a recruiter at
a head-hunting agency, a Specialty Network contact would be the Director
of Human Resource for a multinational corporation who (xxxxxx) people
constantly.
Anyone who has a special relationship with you in the sense that they can
send many people your way should be part of this network.
If you are a real estate agent then a mortgage broker, lawyer or accountant
might be a Multiple Source Contact. My suggestion is that you have several
of these in your Specialty Network. Most people just clumsily fumble onto
these. I suggest prospecting for them. These are people who are in front
of a large number of people who are pre-disposed to buy what you are selling.
DETERMINE HOW MUCH CONTACT IS IDEAL
Think of a propular hamburger franshise, a popular expensive watch and
a popular airline company. How many of you thought: MacDonalds, Rolex and
Malaysia Airline? Probably most! Why? Because they are in regular contact
with you. Sure they have million dollar budgets but the principle will work
for you, no matter what you sell.
It is long been established that the more frequently a prospect, referrer,
or past client hears from you the more likely they are to buy from you,
refer others to you or re-orders to you or from you. So why didn't more
salespeople stay in contact with them?
CHASING THE BEST CUSTOMER!
The old way of selling says that to win you have to find the next customer.
People have been taught that to win a selling you must be out there cold
calling an unkonwn marketplace. We would all agree with Mr Pareto who
taught us that 20 per cent of the people will give us 80 per cent of the
business. Conversely, 80 per cent of the people will give us only 20 per
cent of our sales.
The 20 per cent is what I call the known market and the 80 per cent is the
unknown market. Most people are trained in the antiquated notion of finding
the business from the bottom. "Enter from the bottom and search out the known
market." Past clients, hot prospects and Specialty Networks are all the part
of the known market. I say, spend more time here.
If you do your job well in building a solid relationship based on trust,
honesty, integrity and FREQUENCY (xxxxxxx) will have a customer for life.
Keep in mind that the biggest expense in any business is the cost of
acquisition. Once you acquire them, it makes good economic, not to
mention - mental, sense to do everything in your power to keep a top of
mind position with each person in your client base.
FREQUENCY IS THE KEY
What usually happens, is that salespeople will send out a holiday card,
maybe a birthday card and be in touch with their client base when they
have time; which is almost never. I suggesting a much more aggressive plan
of action. I'm a big proponent of more is better! I want to retain those
people so if your going to err, I say do too much rather than less.
Here are some guidelines for contact management and client retention:
* Be unique
Make sure that everyone of your contacts with your people is different.
I don't recommend sending out cards at New year's. Why? Because everyone is
doing that. I would send them a month or two earlier and joke about how
organised you are this year.
* Focus on them
The idea of contacting people only looking for business wil be counter
productive. Instead, focus on them. Focus on building the relationship.
Use humour if appropriate.
* Position for referrals
If you sell houses, why not take a photo of the best listing of the month
and send a colour print to all your client base every month. Might they
know of someone who might buy it? Sure!
* Do it often
I recommend that you have a strategic plan for each network. Each one should
be contacted according to a well thought-out plan. Now, while I'm on this
point let me suggest that some of you hire a personal assistant to help
you with this.
You can hire someone to come in and type letters or address cards etc for
one or two afternoons a week. This could be the best thing you ever do for
your sales careers. Here is my recommendation for frequency for each
Network:
- The Estabilshed Network:
Contact at least 24 times per year.
- The Prospect Network:
At least 12 times per year.
- The Specialty Network:
No less than 12 times per year.
This might cause some of you to radically change your priorities in selling
but let me tell you I think that many of you need changing. You are not
making the money you know you can make in selling and you are working
very hard. The reason for this is that you are chasing the Unknown and
neglecting the Known Market. Change your focus.
REASON TO CONTACT
Here are some reasons to contact them.
* Irrresistible Offers
Why not re-package what you sell and give them an irresistible offer.
I know of an insurance agent who sent all of his clients a postcard
with how much coverage they had and he offered and additional US$100,000
of coverage for a small monthly fee. All they had to do to get it was
place a checkmark on the postcard and send it back. He'd take it from
there. The response was outstanding.
* Provide Desired Information
Consider becoming a source of information for people. This is great
because whenever you have new information, it gives you a natural "in"
to contact them. For several months after I bought a house on Main Street
in my town, I was curious what other similar houses to mine was selling for.
My real estate agent missed a golden opportunity to service me with this
information. I had to search it out myself. Find out what information
you could supply on an on-going basis for your client base.
* Special Events
Think about the value of having an annual celebration for everyone in your
client base. I know of a real estate agent in Canada who holds an annual
New Year's Eve party and a dance on valentines Day. Want to know why she
doesn it on those dates? Guess what are the best months for real estate in
Canada? April to June; right after her two big events. Her name is freash
in the minds of all of her clients.
|
This Website Designed, Hosted & Marketed By:
WWW.MALAYSIA-BEST.COM
Internet, Marketing & Business Resources
Note: This website is created with the aim of providing a place for
Marketing personnels, executives, students, entrepreneurs, CEOs, COOs, COEs, and
business owners to communicate, share and learn from each other,
marketing techniques and strategies, business ideas and opportunities.
Instead of the traditional "negative competitive mindset", we can all benefit more
from a new WINWIN paradigm we call "positive collaboration mindset".
Instead of competing with each other blindly, and wasting much precious resources,
we can instead work together to produce
better products and services that satisfy the increasing expectations and needs of our
customers. In the new millenium, only companies that come together to work together will
eventually survive and make profits.
Apart from business ideas and strategies, this website will under permissible circumstances,
offer reports and articles that help enhance our life. It is often said that we can change our
life for the better while at the same time build a better world, if we put to practice our new
mindset and make an effort to help others as well, while we are working towards our dreams.
Through positive discussions and exchange of ideas, we can all inspire each other to great
heights. The most important thing is that, we believe that we can all help each other in life
and to achieve our dreams. Yes, we can all make this world a better place :)
If you happen to come across any broken link on this website, please inform us. Thank you and please
come again.
This Website Best Viewed With 800x600 Resolution
Copyright © 1997-2000 MBC Marketing And Business Resources.
All rights reserved. All trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
Last Updated on March 15, 2000 Wednesday
For further information, please contact: webmaster@awesomelife.com
|
|
|
![[Awesomelife Logo]](../../alc-logo-med2.gif){kind=logo}
