Marketing Strategies: Customer Retention

I really appreciated Jeffery Gitomers email this week and thought it deserved re-enforcing with some comments here. Several of my clients have been struggling with retention of both staff and customers, and looking for ideas on how to reduce this.

Most businesses spend lots of time and money going after new customers. Most businesses also have a turnover (loss) of current customers, some as much as 50%. Many of them know they are not getting repeat customers, but do not calculate the retention statistics. When presented with the facts, upper management will say “this is normal” because they wouldn’t want anyone to think it was abnormal. In fact, a 50% or more loss of customers is preventable.

What most businesses fail to rationalize that their present customers constitute 100% of all their sales, and 100% of all their profit. Yet by comparison of marketing dollars spent, they’re spending far less to keep their existing customers than they do to gain new ones.

Here’s what Jeffrey recommends you do this holiday season to keep your customer base:

1. Call as many customers as you can personally. No email, no letter, no card, just call. Leave a message telling them how much you appreciate their business this year, and how you look forward to earning their business next year.
2. If you are going to send a card, sign it personally with a note thanking them in addition to whatever your printed message says.
3. Resolve to help them over the course of the next year, so that you can be seen as more than a vendor or a product provider, and be looked at more as a partner.

Back to the issue of statistics, there is an old saying that goes 'you get what you expect'. This can be loosly translated to 'you get what you measure'. So if you are not using key performance measurements in your business, you should be!

A key in keeping customers is providing them with value - things they see as important and would be willing to pay for. So why not follow up with your past customers and give them something they would value? This keeps you on the radar as the goto person for what they need!

If you sold them a house, show them how to build equity. If you sold them a copier, show them how to be more efficient in the office.

Everyone has a value that they can share, and most don’t take advantage of it. By giving value that will make your customers appreciate you, they will think twice before they stop doing business with you. And they won't think twice about referring someone else to you.

If you have not visited Jeffrey's website, you can jump there by clicking here

Norm
www.normanbain.com

Marketing Lessons from the world of MLM

90% of businesses report that they are not getting the business they expected from their web site. Many people do not realize the incredible value that internet marketing can bring to their business. No matter what your product or service is, the internet is by far the best and least expensive marketing opportunity to reach your target market. The trick is in learning how to apply the tools available to actually generate business for you. A website that is not generating business is a waste.

Social networking is the grouping of people into specific groups, like small communities or a neighborhood subdivision. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in schools or in the workplace, it is most popular online. This is because the internet is filled with millions of people who are looking to meet other internet users to develop friendships and business relationships.

Social Network Marketing covers many very different activities. The older and most disliked form of prospecting is where you jump every person within arms reach (the 3’ rule) and spew your opportunity all over them. Not a good idea - and not very effective! The newer and more popular form of network marketing - Attraction Marketing is where you develop a funnel of never ending qualified prospects who SEEK YOU OUT. You are then, network marketing by attraction.

Affiliate marketing and the world of MLM pioneered this approach, and it can be successfully adopted by 'real' companies.

Developing a prospecting system needs brain power, a certain amount of internet competence, a marketing budget and a little patience. Becoming a professional internet marketer will get you to the pinnacle of success. Making your website work as hard as you do, will be time well spent!

Here is what business owners are saying who have applied this strategy: “We have been running waiting lists for products for about a year now, and no one has any clue how we are doing it without spending big advertising money. I love this stuff…”

Many small business owners still think they can take a pass on the power of online social media tools, particularly if they reside in seemingly low-tech industries like plumbing, fishing, or lawyering. This is a huge opportunity to pass up. Take the time to discover how you can make the internet work for your business.

Ann Sieg has written an ebook that outlines the 7 lies of network marketing. Click here to download it. A good light read.


Norm
www.normanbain.com

Welcome to the site

Its a Tuesday morning in a sunny Winnipeg and I've just created this site to share some thoughts and answer some questions about what makes businesses successful.

While we all have thoughts about what works and what doesn't, these pages will share my experiences of what has worked well.

Your business may be a large multinational organization, or a home based startup! In either case, these posts are designed to provide the best resources available to help you succeed. Your success is what this site is all about.

Whatever success means to you, I wish you more of it on your journey with your business!


Norm
www.normanbain.com