You may want to grab a pen and some blank paper, and the beverage of your choice… Now, let’s get started building YOUR business!
Lesson 6
THE SECRET TO KEEPING YOUR CUSTOMERS FOREVER
Today we begin with a question. It is no overstatement to say that properly understanding the answer to this question is ONE OF THE TOP FACTORS that determine success or failure.
Here’s the magic question.
HOW MUCH IS ONE CLIENT WORTH TO YOU IN A YEAR?
For some it’s $500. For others, it’s $1,000. Yet another group might answer $5,000, $10,000, or even more!
No matter what you answered, the simple fact is this.
IT COSTS FOUR TIMES MORE TO GET A NEW CUSTOMER THAN TO KEEP AN EXISTING ONE !!
Now the good news. Here’s how to keep YOUR customers FOREVER.
The way you keep clients forever is with CONSTANT CONTACT.
Your customers are busy people, and busy people tend to forget what isn’t constantly in front of them.
In this lesson we’re going to learn how to stay in front of them all the time.
The easiest way to do anything repetitive is to CREATE A SYSTEM, SCHEDULE IT, and then LET IT RUN like clockwork.
Studies show that for optimum recognition you need to be in contact with your customers every 21 days. But to make things easier for everybody, we’ll say contact every customer at least once a month.
Now this might seem like a waste of time and money, especially if you have clients who use your services only occasionally or seasonally. But is it?
The answer is DEFINITELY NOT!!
We need to maintain CONSTANT, REGULAR CONTACT with our clients because it is the ONLY way to know when they need our services. When they’re ready to buy, we need to be ‘TOP OF MIND’ or we lose the sale.
The same goes for prospects. Regular contact with prospects is VITAL. You can’t predict their timing or their needs. To succeed, you must be there when they’re ready to buy!
If you haven’t kept in touch, when they are ready to buy they’ll chose the path of least resistance. At buying time, loyalty walks out the door and CONVENIENCE walks in!
You must POSITION yourself to be the first name they think of when they think about what you do.
=======> Here’s How to Do It
How do you keep in touch every 30 days?
There are a number of ways to do this. Let’s look together at six ways to stay in constant contact.
1. The easiest (and most powerful) way is to start a newsletter.
Send your newsletter to absolutely everyone! Make it easy to get, and give them good information so they’ll want to read it.
People won’t take time to read what you send if they know there’s nothing in it but a big ad for your services, so make sure your newsletter contains useful information.
Just as you don’t time out of your day to read straight ads, they won’t either. Yet people DO take the time to read magazines and newspapers. Follow their model. They have content people are interested in, along with advertisements. Do the same and you can’t go wrong.
You’re customers and prospects are the same as you. They read what is interesting to them. They rarely read with the intent to buy something.
Your newsletters job is to build a trusting relationship with that customer while gently letting them know how you can help them solve their problems.
Remember, while your newsletter shouldn’t be one big ad, you CAN and SHOULD advertise in it. The key is to let your customers know what you have available to help them, what specials you have, what promotions you’re doing, and when you bring out new products.
Remember, you are their trusted friend. Just keep the focus on them, because that’s what they REALLY care about.
We’ve spent a lot of time on the newsletter, because it is simply the MOST POWERFUL method to stay in touch. It should be your primary consistent follow-up method. It shouldn’t, however, be your only contact method.
Here are some other quick ideas to make you a follow up champion!
2. After every purchase you need to send a Thank You card.
3. After each referral, send a note and a small gift.
4. Within a week of the first sale, and periodically thereafter, do a quality control call, to make sure your client and the recipient were satisfied with the service.
5. Every 90 days, send a customer satisfaction questionnaire.
6. Make at least 2, preferably 4, personal phone calls a year to each and every client. This is not a call where you’re trying to sell them anything, you’re just checking in to keep that personal contact alive.
=======> Is it the Real World?
Does the constant contact approach really work? YOU BET IT DOES! But don’t take my word for it alone.
This concept is taught by ALL the sales and marketing greats, from Zig Ziglar and Dan Kennedy, to Brian Tracy and Joe Polish. THEY ALL TEACH IT, AND THEY ALL PRACTICE IT. It works for them, it will work for you too.
=======> In Your Next Lesson
In the next and final lesson, we’re going to pull together everything we’ve learned throughout the past 6 lessons and you’ll find out:
The Four Steps to Unlimited Success
As developed by ultra successful entrepreneur, the late Walt Disney!
Liz Thompson is the co-founder and CEO of HealthyWealthynWise.com. She is also the founder of guide2giftbiz.com, the premier educational site for the gift industry. She is the author of 5 books. She can be reached through her web sites: www.healthywealthynwise.com and www.guide2giftbiz.com , by e-mail at lthompson@healthywealthynwise.com, or by calling (304) 725-2502.
