Happy Friday, everyone!
This week's poll question is based on an article written by sales trainer Art Sobczak, "Little Things You Can Do That Have Huge Impact and Keep Customers Buying" (click here to read). Art notes the importance of
...building and strengthening our relationships with customers. After all, our best and cheapest source of new business is from our customer base. And you can bet that your competitors are trying to romance them. If the extent of your relationship with them is solely handling orders and transactions, they will eventually wander elsewhere if they see a better deal. Don’t let that happen. What your customers can’t get elsewhere is YOU. Businesses don’t buy from businesses. People buy from people. Go out of your way to do the little things that form a personal connection that is unique to you.
Art shares several real-life examples of simple yet memorable ways sales reps have found to make a good impression on their customers, ranging from thank-you notes to magazine subscriptions to remembering the client's spouse and children. Art then closes with the question that we'd like to pose to you:
What do you do to add a personal touch with customers, to keep them happy and strengthen your relationships?
Looking forward to reading your replies!
Happy birthday, beautiful Flowers, cards of congratulation. But it didn't really help to retain customers...
First off, it starts with attitude and determining how your relationship will transpire. If you are "Just a Salesperson" then you are vulnerable to someone who takes a deeper interest in helping your clients and adding value by offering advice and marketing wisdom.
Get to know the personal side of the people you are dealing with. Harvey Mackay just wrote about this: http://harveymackay.com/column/customize-customer-service/ and here's an excerpt:
I have long preached the concept of humanizing your selling strategy. In addition to building a strictly business relationship, you need to get to know your customer as a person. Find out what their interests are, learn about the family, discover what you might have in common. I have shared my formula for learning about customers in the Mackay 66, a customer profile that we use at MackayMitchell Envelope Company religiously. It’s available free on my website,harveymackay.com.
But as I so often say, knowledge is not power until it is used. This information is a starting point to help you customize every meeting, phone call or email. You need to be creative to make your encounters memorable.
But beyond the expected Christmas gifts and the like, look for ways to add value to help them with their business that doesn't directly benefit you (don't sell them something). This could be conducting a seminar on how their staff can feel comfortable offering up-sales to customers, or introducing the business owner to others that they could partner with. Introduce the florist to the jeweler and baker, for example.
And on the fun side, when you have an opportunity to give them tickets to an event, do it. When I do concerts, I give some of the tickets to programming and some to our sales team.
I "love" the card! I'm not sure how certain females react to it. I assume you have other cards depending on the targeted individual.These days it doesn't take much to offend certain people. At the risk of repeating myself, I "love" the card.
" Away Day" and " Clients night" work well for us. We find a good location , a country hotel and make presentations that update the clients on the changes in media development, eg The impact of social media or live radio activation in small towns, farmers days , rural banking etc , we also share research findings with them so that they can understand where they are, and we also talk to them one on one , and tell them things we do not like about them, eg arrogance , delays in payment etc, the team building wining and dining keeps us closer .We also watch plays together in theatres, special invite.
In my mind it is how I change the relationship. I don't want to be the salesman for this or that station. I want to be that unpaid marketing expert working for my client's benefit. I'd advise and help on any marketing of their business. Because I am in media, I know the local options and how they work, so I can earn my buys by helping my client make good decisions I believe will work. I have turned away dollars to do the client right. For it, it's the long term and integrity of doing the right thing for the client, as my boss said, spending their dollars as if they were my own.
For me building that trust is the key to a happy, long lasting client. I make it a point to toss back their words to prove I listen to them and are guided by their words.
