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Digg it UP - Why Marketing Begins After The Sale
The expense was substantial. An immersion workshop with twelve participants sharing a common goal to hone their skills. With nervous eagerness like kindergarteners embracing school, we received input, critique, and suggestions about our work. Some of the feedback I used. Some of it I didn't. But all of it was helpful.I haven't always viewed feedback that way. At times in my career, I've taken it more like a personal indictment than a helpful gauge; an intruder I needed to defend against, rather than input I needed to evaluate. I've even found myself akin to a workshop colleague who said he wanted input, but when he got responses different from what he expected, he argued and debated and explained. What he wanted was praise or input he agreed with, not honest reactions.You see it's not enough to ask for feedback. You have to be open to receive it. After three days of our colleague's defensiveness, any willingness to offer anything but
A good mar
Customers come, and customers go. Whether you sell to consumers or to other companies, that’s a sad fact of doing business. Sadder yet is the fact that it can cost you between three and 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. With that in mind, give some thought to the following 12 proven ways to keep your customers by keeping them happy.1. Your customers are always right. Always! Yes, you can win a battle with one or two, but doing so repeatedly can eventually cost you the war. Someone’s always waiting to sell them what they want, how, when and where they want it.2. Don’t treat your customer like mushrooms by keeping them in the dark and feeding them… Well, you know the saying. Have answers available when they ask about their back-order, delivery or refund.3. Make it simple to return or exchange merchandise. But it’s OK to require them to call in for a RAN (Return Authorization Number).
People like to do business with companies that: truly value them as customers; know them by name and buying preference; regularly consult them as to their satisfaction with purchases; ask for their preferences regarding future products and services; handle complaints and inquiries promptly.
All businesses can and should do all of these things and more. The problem is that most businesses don’t have a systematic and effective approach to customer retention. This is because the mindset of most businesses is to pursue new customers at the expense of paying too little attention to current customers.
A good mark
Financial Advisors have a certain image that they need to portray, and that really comes across in the business cards that they hand out. Financial advisors need to show their conservativeness, formality, and stability, along with the reputation of the company they represent.The business card design is so important in this field because you are dealing with money, and people are very concerned about where their money will go and what kind of profit they can make with it. This is a huge business, and there are thousand of financial advisors to choose from, so the first impression can be a huge factor in whether they choose you. The design should be both bold, and traditional. You want to show them that you can invest their money wisely while taking a little risk to ensure more profit. There shouldn’t be any bright colors or pictures, just confident lettering and possibly a small clip art design. A financial advisor wants his or her bus
People like to do business with companies that: truly value them as customers; know them by name and buying preference; regularly consult them as to their satisfaction with purchases; ask for their preferences regarding future products and services; handle complaints and inquiries promptly.
All businesses can and should do all of these things and more. The problem is that most businesses don’t have a systematic and effective approach to customer retention. This is because the mindset of most businesses is to pursue new customers at the expense of paying too little attention to current customers.
A good mar
It's an IT jungle out there …and many of your employees may be thinking the jungles a bit greener somewhere else. With solo contracting becoming increasingly attractive, how do you make sure you retain key IT personnel?Here are seven tips I’ve found helpful when working with companies suffering from talent drain, things you can do to not only retain staff but increase productivity and performance.1. Stay on top of your rate of attrition Ironically, many companies examine their rate of staff attrition only after extensive losses. A widely publicized survey (done by CareerBuilder) earlier this year reported that 32 percent of IT workers planned to leave their jobs in 2006. The Walker Loyalty Report for Loyalty in the Workplace reported that only 34 percent of workers were truly loyal.”Considering that Silicon Valley’s average annual rate of attrition is about 20 to 30 percent and the national ave
All businesses can and should do all of these things and more. The problem is that most businesses don’t have a systematic and effective approach to customer retention. This is because the mindset of most businesses is to pursue new customers at the expense of paying too little attention to current customers.
A good mar
Much of the literature and advice on implementing business change focuses on knowing where you are going and making sure that you understand and communicate a consistent vision of the future. Indeed, I have looked at the importance of this in an earlier article in this series. This month’s article, however, looks at the past and its often under-estimated importance in implementing change.Clean sheets and blue skiesBusiness change projects tend to begin with a “visioning exercise”, to determine where the organisation is going and what its objectives are. The output of this exercise is used as a guide to determine the changes that need to be made. Much is made of “starting with a clean sheet” or the clich?d “blue-sky thinking”.This approach has the benefit of allowing more radical changes to be made, facilitating (consultant clich? overload warning!) “thinking outside of the box” in an environment where “there are no sacre
All businesses can and should do all of these things and more. The problem is that most businesses don’t have a systematic and effective approach to customer retention. This is because the mindset of most businesses is to pursue new customers at the expense of paying too little attention to current customers.
A good mar
Q. My performance review was disappointing, although I’ve had two promotions in the last four years. My boss said I needed to work on showing more leadership skills when I’m working on a team. When I try to pin him down for a discussion, he brushes me aside.A. As you move up the ladder, you’ll be expected to work on your own, with less and less feedback and direction.A lack of feedback can be a sign that you’re trusted and respected. You’re expected to read between the lines and interpret unwritten signals.Start with these three questions:Q1. What is your company’s culture around performance reviews?In some cultures, you’re expected to take a negative review in stride. Responding will be viewed as defensive and insecure behavior. Other cultures value discussion and at least the appearance of openness.Q2. What signals are you sending?Your boss needs to know that you’re willing to talk tough.
A good marketing plan emphasizes retaining customers. It says the best way to retain customers is to provide continuing satisfaction and reinforcement to individuals that are, or have been customers. Most marketing plans concentrate on getting customers, whereas a good marketing plan zeroes in on keeping them. Its goal is to make good customers into even better ones.
The cost of constantly acquiring new customers is high and sometimes prohibitive for small businesses. With current customers, the business has already paid the acquisition costs and customers tend to increase their spending over time. This means that the additional business a company does with its current customers will more profitable than with new customers.
The era of the mass consume
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