Relationship Marketing Training that develops customer retention and loyalty
The selling process never ends! In fact, your relationship with a sales prospect, who is now your customer, should continue to grow.
It's
far less expensive to cultivate your existing customer base and sell more services
to them than it is to seek new, single-transaction customers. Focusing on customer
needs, through relationship marketing, is a proven method to keep
the sales rolling in. You'll need to continue to seek new customers, of course.
Just don't overlook the untapped potential of your existing ones!
Relationship
marketing also increases the return on your sales investment. (Even if all you
had put into previous sales efforts was time, that's valuable too!) When you sell
an additional product to an existing customer, you don't have to repeat preliminary
steps such as prospecting, rapport-building and information gathering because
you're working upon a foundation that's already been laid. So, repeat sales are
less expensive to obtain than new sales.
Follow these tips for relationship marketing: - Listen to customers. They'll tell
you what they need from you if you'll just take the time to listen and make them
feel comfortable.
- If they don't volunteer information, ask questions
to uncover their problems and needs. Then, focus on solving problems or
meeting needs rather than selling them another product. They'll appreciate
your interest and you will, most likely, make a sale in the long run. And, even
if you don't make an additional sale, customers may refer you to someone else
based on the excellent service you've provided them.
- Be honest. Don't
try to sell something that's not needed. Likewise, if you can't fulfill particular
customer needs, tell them, and try to help them find someone who will. Your helpfulness
will be long remembered and those customers are more likely to come back to you
when they need your type of product or service again.
One
relationship-building tactic is to "get in front of your customers"
through the mail. You may want to send the following: - Thank You notes
for orders, referrals or continued business.
- Short notes about positive
meetings or phone calls.
- A newspaper or magazine article about a customer's
business.
- Articles or information about a customer's competition.
- An
announcement of your new product or service. (Don't forget to focus on its benefits.)
- A notice of a special sale or offer. Include coupons for customer discounts
or invite customers to special "pre-sale" days.
- A newsletter
from your company. Include beneficial tips and information for your customers.
- A hot lead. (Your customers are in business to make sales, too)
- A
notice of a meeting or seminar of interest.
- A reminder of a pending order
or reorder. (You may help them avoid a costly lack of inventory.)
And
finally, a few tips on correspondence to prospects and customers: - Get
to the point in the first sentence and limit letters to one page.
- Use
personal, hand-written notes when possible.
- Use a PS; it always get read.
- Spell correctly.
- In thank-you notes, don't thank more than once.
You could close with, "We appreciate your business." Generally, once
is enough.
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Top Marketing Ideas
Steps
in the Sales Process |
