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The ROI is Always in the Relationship!

Tag Archives: marketing


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How comfortable do you make your prospects feel?

My husband and I were discussing our workday over dinner on Friday. He shared with me an uncomfortable situation he had with an old school sales guy in his industry. My husband is a talented cabinetmaker and runs a bustling shop in Aurora.

Very often he has sales people who will stop by to try and catch him during the workday to sell trade products like lumber, sheet goods, hardware, shop supplies and tools. Most are pretty respectful of his time and like good sales people pick up on body language and mood when they enter the shop. They can tell if he’s busy working with his team figuring out a project or if he seems open to a discussion.

He’s had a few encounters with a certain sales rep who is pushy and insistent and often makes Simon feel uncomfortable with bold statements like “What can I do to have your business” as he glances around the shop with dollar signs in his eyes.

Even though my husband has told him on a number of occasions that he’s very happy and loyal to his existing supplier, this old school guy keeps pressing and pressing. You have to admire his persistence but his tactics are fruitless. My guess is that he’s barely scraping by with this kind of aggressive sales approach.

What would the conversation look like if instead he asked “What drives you nuts about our industry”? “What do you like most about working with your current vendor”? “I respect your existing vendor relationship however would you consider using us if your current vendor couldn’t pull through on an order for you”?

See how different that conversation would look and feel like? Chances are Simon would be more willing to sit down and talk rather than avoid the man like the plague!

My question to you is how comfortable do you make your prospects? Do you pick up on non-verbal cues like a rushed phone manner and ask if there’s a better time to speak? Do you arrive at a meeting and sense that the person is too distracted to meet that day and offer to reschedule? Or do you push through to make your point so you can count that sales activity for the week?

Trust and comfort are key components to great relationship marketing and sales. It is possible to earn someone’s business and woo them away from the competition. Do so with a humble and soft approach. Ditch the hard sell and awkward moments and pull information from your prospects in a non-threatening way. Build comfort and trust with genuine curiosity of what people really want and add more sales to your bottom line!


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A simple please will do…

Common courtesy seems so uncommon these days. It’s also a critical part of building strong relationships with your clients, donors and the members you deal with.
I was prompted to write this blog after going through drive thru this morning to be greeted at the speaker with an abrupt “hold on”. Wait a minute, I haven’t even ordered and you’ve made this a negative experience! Not a great way to make your customers feel welcome and wanting to come back for more!
What happened to manners anyway? I remember working at Baskin Robbins as an ice cream scooper throughout high school. We were told to greet customers with a smile and “how may I help you?”.  If a customer said thank you after we handed them their cone our response was to be “thank YOU” and another smile.
Why is it then that we’re greeted with grunts and groans and we leave our purchases the only ones saying “thanks”? It’s a little twisted isn’t it?
Do you remember the last time you had a wonderful purchase experience? Chances are that the person serving you was warm and friendly and sincere with their appreciation.
Remember that clients, donors and members leave to work with other companies if they feel we’re indifferent to their patronage. So even if its a bad day or morning “hold on”, smile and show sincere thanks to the people you serve.  Mere manners will set you apart and keep them coming back for more!


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Follow up Matters

 

Keeping your word and following up when you say you will, builds your credibility as a professional.

Great relationship marketers make notes and have electronic reminders to ensure they give the people they serve the best possible care possible.  This means making notes at a tradeshow and then sending yourself a reminder to follow up. It means blocking time off the day you return from an event and make the day dedicated to phone calls, personal notes or proposals.

By pre-planning brochures or media kits to send a client you have promised builds a sense of comfort with your prospect.  I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve attended and the exhibitor promised a follow up and never followed through.  Immediately my view of this individual changes and it affects our future dealings.

If on the other hand I meet with someone at a networking function, tradeshow or business meeting and they promise to follow up with specific information and actually do, this puts a deposit in the relationship bank.  I view this person as a professional and accountable business partner. Great relationship marketers call when they say they will, arrive on time for meetings and follow up promptly.

Great follow up isn’t limited to the first contact after meeting someone.  Relationships are built on consistency which breeds familiarity and comfort thus developing a trustworthy bond.

It’s important to follow up with prospects, and more importantly – existing clients.  Many people forget about existing clients once the sale is made.

Here are 4 great ways you can stay in touch with clients so that they know you care about their wellbeing and success well after the transaction.

1. Personal call – follow up one month or six months down the road to ensure that your client is experiencing the benefits you promised. Without this call you may never hear about any challenges the client is having which may result in a lost relationship in the future.

2. Personal note – send a past patronage card to thank them for their previous business. Imagine your car salesman sent you a note one year in to your purchase thanking you for your business! How would you feel about this person? Would you be more likely to tell others about his or her professionalism?  This is a great way to position yourself during a time when your services are not top-of-mind with your clients.  You remain on their radar so when a friend or family member mentions the need for a new vehicle they immediately think of you.

3. Unsolicited proposal – see a new product or opportunity that your client might benefit from? Perhaps there’s a special on an existing product or service that they’ve used in the past, send them the information so they know you’re thinking of them. Your clients will appreciate that you went out of your way to inform them.

4. Article of Interest – send an electronic or physical copy of an article you find that may benefit or interest your client, member or donor.  Did they mention that they are gluten free? Perhaps send them a link to a recipe for gluten-free cupcakes.  I had lunch with a financial advisor once who did this and I was floored.  Clearly she paid attention to my menu selection and then followed up by email with a website link!  I was impressed and did it cost her anything to do? No.  Did it make a lasting impression? Absolutely!

 

Follow up can be done in many different ways.  The key is to do so when you promise that you will and then surprise clients, members and donors with unexpected acts of thoughtfulness to enhance the relationship.


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Lifetime Value of a Client

 

We’ve all heard the expression that it costs less to retain an existing client than it does to attract a new one.

Marketing efforts should be focused on your existing members, donors and clients. This means that your time and energy should be put towards building lasting relationships with the people who are currently loyal to your organization.

So often, businesses are focused on marketing to a cold prospect while ignoring the immense opportunities that lie in your existing database.  Let’s take a look at client value and I hope you’ll be able to agree with me that nurturing existing relationships will pay huge dividends in the long run. Your existing member spends $1000.00 annually for their membership.  Perhaps there’s some dissatisfaction that member has voiced they leave.  Will the association lose $1000.00 in revenue? We’ll no, not really, you’ve actually lost much more than that.  Does the average member belong to your association for 5 years, 10 years, perhaps event 20 years?  When that’s the case, we need to examine the lifetime value of the membership which means that an unhappy member reflects a loss upwards of $5000.00, $10,000.00 and $20,000.00!

Your donor who typically spends the same amount each year and choses to go with another charity will result in a similar loss.

For entrepreneurs, we often think “oh well that was only a $500.00 loss” but how many times would that client normally purchase from you?  Is it three times a year? Ten times a year? If it were ten times a year at $500.00 and the relationship has been severed and perhaps that client had a ten year potential that $500.00 would actually be more like $50,000.00 in lost revenue.

That’s a staggering number and that doesn’t even include the typical amount of business that client may have referred you over the years. So enough of the doom and gloom, I put those numbers there to illustrate the importance of relationship building in business and appreciating the lifetime value of the people we serve.

Spend your time and energy nurturing the relationships from your current client base.  Make sure that they know how much their patronage means to you.  Do small inexpensive things to remind your clients just how important they are.  Send a personally handwritten note, set up a quarterly meeting intended as a discovery session.  Check the temperature of their account.  Are they pleased with the service you’re providing, could you do anything to improve your service. This meeting is not a sales call, you’re letting your member/donor/client know that you don’t want to become complacent and value their business.

Proactively spend your marketing budgets and efforts on your existing relationships and think of each client’s lifetime value.  This will significantly impact your day-to-day dealings and the way in which you handle each transaction!