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Selling to Friendly Customers

Dear Colleague,

If your office is like most that I see around the holidays, there are greeting cards taped to the walls, doors, window sills and practically every square inch of space available.

It's pretty easy to remember your clients and vendors during the holidays. But I have a question for you to ponder as we turn full steam into the New Year.

What will you do to sell to friendly customers?

By friendly customers I mean those clients and customers that already know you, have bought from you and trust you.

You see, it is so much easier to sell your products or services to existing clients than it is to spend the time, energy, money and creativity to develop a new customer. In fact, most surveys indicate that it takes anywhere from 10 to 20 times more cash to develop just one new client than it does to sell to an existing client.

And when you sell to an existing client, you are selling to a 'friendly client'. Think about it. You have already invested the time, energy and plenty of customer service to get this person to be your fan. So you might as well continue the relationship.

This requires that you keep a constant presence in front of your customers. If you have a plan that puts your company in front of your customers at least once a quarter then you are well ahead of most of the business population. If you really want to solidify your position in front of your customers, stay in touch with them at least once every 30 days.

Here are five ways that you can stay at the forefront of your customer's mind regularly.

• Send a quarterly newsletter. Seems like a simple enough suggestion, but the impact is tremendous. Your newsletter can be the front and back of one sheet. It can be black and white, two-color or full color. It should include a project of the quarter or client of the quarter. It should include all of your contact information and it must include a special offer of some type.

• Send photocopies of newspaper articles. Copy any article that you have written or that has been written about your company. When you are published or the local newspaper has written an article about your company, that is a huge endorsement of your professionalism and commitment to the community. So you may as well get all of the publicity out of it that you can.

• Send an email newsletter. This one strategy alone is the simplest and most cost effective way I know to maintain a presence in front of your clients. Link your company Website to the newsletter so they can visit your site and you get additional exposure. This means that you will have to collect email addresses from your clients and ask them for permission to send a newsletter. Again, if they are your fans, they will grant you permission and look forward to reading your letter.

• Pick up the phone and call. It may not be possible to call every client you have. However, you do have 10 or 15 extremely loyal clients and they deserve to hear your voice once every thirty days. The call should be friendly and you want to be curious about them. Your call is about them. They will ask you about your business when the time is right.

• Send a thank you card. Just say thanks for the business and thanks for the relationship. A simple expression of gratitude will go a long way. Though they may be your loyal clients, they need to continue to see the humanity in you. People do business with people they like and trust. When you show the caring and gentle side of yourself, your clients will continue to place their trust in you.

With each of these strategies, or any strategy that you implement, consistency is the key. I would also recommend that you have several strategies that you can rotate. It will keep it interesting for you and for your clients.

These are just a few suggestions from my book 101 Power Strategies; Tools to Promote Yourself as The Contractor of Choice. In 101 Power Strategies, you will find dozens and dozens of low cost or no-cost ways to promote your business.

Many of you listened in to my free tele-seminar on Monday, January 14th. I appreciate your attendance. In case you were not able to call in, the upshot of the conference is that 2002 is going to be a very healthy year for the construction industry. Consumers have a little different mindset after Sept. 11th . But they are beginning to loosen their wallets again. So, stay in touch with your existing clients. Friendly clients are the best clients to have.

Till next time,

Take great care,

January 15, 2002

Paul Montelongo

"America's Construction Industry Motivator"

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