New or Old – Which Is More Important?

I was watching a video recently and the narrator/host asked, “What is the difference between a customer and a client?” The person he asked this to said, “not a thing, they are the same.” Well, the narrator/host then proceeded to instruct him that was indeed incorrect, as a customer is someone that buys something from you once or twice and a client is someone who purchases from you over a period of time more than once or twice. In other words, a client is someone that you have built a relationship with over time. After thinking about this, it seemed to make quite a bit of sense to me!

Now, with that being said; if I could show you how to build those relationships, turning those customers into clients and to possibly increase your sales by 50% without increasing your marketing budget, would you be interested? Of course you would, what marketing or sales/service professional or business owner wouldn't be interested?

By the time you have finished this blog entry you will see what I am talking about and want to CONTACT ME about how I can help you with this!

Take a few moments and think of all the inactive customer files you have in your file cabinet. Business owners and sales professionals often make the costly mistake of servicing a customer once then assuming "they'll stay" as a customer or client without maintaining and growing that relationship.

A year later that business owner is wondering what happened to that customer and where they went. Why haven't they heard from them? Did they leave and if so, why?

There are many reasons a customer or client may leave you, but the ones you will hear most often are:

• They felt your pricing was too high/unfair or better product.
• They had an unresolved complaint or service dissatisfaction.
• They are influenced by a friend's or relative's advice and switch to their brand
• They took a competitors offer.
• They left because they felt you didn't care - They leave because they felt the sales person and company were indifferent to their needs. They feel taken for granted.

When you consider that the last two make up the majority of why a client or customer will no longer use your service or buy your products - it can be a hard pill to swallow. After all it means they are an inactive client because they felt you didn't care about them and your competitor did. Did you show them the appreciation they must have to remain loyal?

This makes sense when you consider that customers often purchase your service or product because they either have started to develop a relationship with you, they owned another product or yours, or they were referred to you by a friend or associate.

When faced with the above facts why do businesses spend about 80% of their marketing dollars going after new customers and clients rather than nurturing, retaining, and maintaining the customer relationships they already have? Wouldn’t it make sense to show your current customers more appreciation? Make them become clients not just “customers”, make them someone you have a great relationship with!

Before you spend your time and money going after new customers and clients you do not currently have a relationship with consider the following statistics:

• Repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers.
• Referrals among repeat customers are 107% greater than non-customers.
• It costs six times more to sell something to a new prospect/customer than to sell that same thing to a repeat customer/client.

As you can see your marketing dollars will go further if you use it to build, nurture, and develop your customer relationships. SHOW THEM APPRECIATION! This isn't as difficult as you may think. Building these relationships just means treating your customers and clients as if they truly are your strategic partners and showing them that you truly care about them, and making them feel special. It's important to try to satisfy them with the right products and services, supported by the right promotion and making it available at the right time and location. But, remember customers can easily detect indifference and insincerity and they simply will not tolerate it. Long-term client and customer loyalty is a long-term challenge that you must strive for every day and with every transaction no matter how big or small.

While a growing business obviously needs to constantly capture new customers, the focus and priority should be on pleasing your existing customer base. Turn them into “Clients for Life” and realize those companies that fail to nurture and retain their customer base WILL ultimately fail. You will also spend a-lot more to get new customers as you will in maintaining your existing customer base. Not to mention you will also be limited in your ability to attract new customers if you can't hold onto and satisfy your existing customers, turning them into clients.

The bottom line is that one of the key components in marketing and business growth is to spend the majority of your time and effort nurturing your customer relationships, so that you get business from existing clients and customers. This is a strategy that will move you forward in increasing your sales by 50% without increasing your budget.

Stay in touch with those past customers, do it in various ways and make sure it is personal DO NOT ASSUME AN EMAIL EVERY NOW AND THEN WILL WORK (IT WON’T, IT IS WAY TOO IMPERSONAL). Set your self apart and do something different than your competitors…do you know your customers birthday, wedding anniversary or even the date they originally did business with you and etc. Imagine how much they would appreciate A REAL GREETING CARD from you on these days or the value it will have on your relationship with them…BELIEVE ME, IT IS PRICELESS!

CONTACT ME NOW for more on information on a great way to nurture those customers and make them keep coming back to you!!!