Marketing Survival Newsletter - Finding and Keeping Customers
In our preparation for this TPI Software Survival Newsletter we realized that we haven’t talked about general marketing concepts for a long time. We tend to focus on specific marketing steps but lose site of the larger concepts. Sort of losing the forest for the trees idea. So, in this newsletter I’m going to talk about the forest rather than the trees. Well, at least one of the forests. In this newsletter we’ll talk about finding and keeping customers. A little subject that is one of the cornerstones of your success. Like all the concepts we work with at TPI, finding and keeping customers requires a consistent, long term strategy to be effective. It also requires an organization wide dedication to making it work. Your customers are an extension of your organizational family. If you treat them like family they will probably never come back. Funny, that sentence started out like a good idea but rapidly went off track. What I really mean is customers may be an extension of your organizational family, but you want to treat them like gold. So let’s start with the basics and work through a complete program for finding and keeping your customers.
Ten Steps to Success with Finding and Keeping Customers
Know your customer base and where to find them. This requires a little research, but knowing your customer base is fundamental to preparing an effective marketing program. With new clients, the first service we offer at TPI is Market Research. Not because this is our favorite thing to do, but because without a thorough knowledge of the market and its demographics we cannot make knowledgeable decisions about marketing, sales, and distribution. Neither can you. Research your market first, then build your marketing/sales plan.
Properly build your prospect database. How many times have we heard that "the most valuable database in the world is the one right on your computer"? It’s true, you already own the most valuable database for you, and smart companies know it. A well organized, complete database will tell you all you ever want to know about new leads, hot prospects, and customers for future marketing and sales activities. If your database is set up properly you will be collecting information on each new lead that will allow you to move that lead to a prospect, to a customer, and to a repeat customer smoothly and efficiently.
Develop a long term, repetitive, multi-faceted marketing campaign that achieves the three steps to successful marketing: 1- Creates awareness, 2- Creates demand, 3- Supplies the product and continues demand after the sale. Such a marketing campaign should be multi-faceted, meaning that it incorporates several different types of marketing. These might include mailings, advertising, card decks, PR, show attendance, speaking engagements, seminars, etc. I was at a seminar recently where an expert speaker commented that it takes 7 contacts with a prospect before you reach consciousness. I’m not sure it’s that bad, but 3 or 4 are needed for sure. A repetitive, multi-faceted campaign will, over time, assure you of this.
Use PR to your best advantage. All industry publications are searching for news. Note, I said NEWS, not ads. You have thousands of dollars of free exposure waiting for you in the area of PR, if you simply use it properly. News releases, feature application stories, and product reviews are all avenues where you can benefit a publication while benefiting yourself. Remember, the goal is to communicate something useful to the reader, so issue a press release whenever you have something to say, create a user story on interesting applications, announce all new program versions or releases, make a big deal of organizational changes or activities, and send all new versions of programs to editors.
Develop a set procedure for receiving leads and entering them into your database. This procedure should include a filtering process to weed out cool prospects and identify hot prospects. Enter the leads each week, and make sure some form of follow-up action is taken. We recommend a three step follow-up to insure the best chance of closing a sale. But, whatever follow-up action you implement, make sure it is consistent and long term.
Create professional marketing materials that are customer focused. Your brochure, advertising, web page, etc. all represent who you are. This seems almost too simple to say, but the image you present is what the customer knows about you. All too often we forget this simple fact and fall into a cost saving mode with the very materials that help us create the sale.
Educate rather than sell, and tell the customer that your interest is in serving them rather than just selling a product to them. How many companies can you think of that are famous for customer service? They are the companies whose success has been astounding. Nordstrom and Starbucks are two that come to mind in my area. There is a good reason, none of us like to be sold to, we all like to be served. So, make an organizational shift to customer service. You will profit from it.
Promote your efforts, your ideas, and your service. In your materials mention the actions your company has taken to insure quality customer service, quality product, and future innovations to your software. People won’t know what you do unless you tell them about it, so as part of your educational process let them know what you are doing for their benefit.
Implement an effective and regular customer follow-up program. Ask your customers about how they use your products. Let them know that if they have any questions or suggestions, or if they need your assistance to contact you on your 800 line. Keep in front of them with helpful product tips and never ending quality customer service. They will remember you kindly when their need for more product comes around.
Be truthful and do no harm. This sounds easy, but in practice it is the hardest of all things to achieve. We are often times motivated only by profit, and as such we tend to forget that there are higher values in our lives. Business is like any other activity, if you take the higher ground you will elevate everyone around you. Your reputation and future are built on today’s actions, so make your actions as lofty as your goals. Make your marketing and customer service a place where truth and harmlessness are practiced without fail. If you do, you will reap the rewards of customer loyalty and high regard, and the reward of personal satisfaction.
Most companies I work with have two primary problems. First, they need to know what action must be taken to achieve their goal; second, they must implement the action. Now that you know what actions need to be taken, your task is to implement them. I know that you are up to your ears in alligators and the last thing you need is more activities, but whether you are a small business or a larger business growth and future success depend on the ten principals I just discussed.
I suggest a three step process to implementation.
This is easier said than done, but the point is that if you break the ten steps down into individual steps and attack each step one by one, you will make the overall process manageable and doable. The weekly review is important because everyone needs guidance and encouragement. You can use the weekly review to monitor progress, make adjustments, and maintain enthusiasm for the process.
Finding and keeping customers is like all the aspects of your business, and your life for that matter. It happens over a long period, one step at a time. Start today with the first step. If you have any questions or comments please contact me.
~Nick Vasilieff
This newsletter was written by Nickolai N. Vasilieff; freelance writer and marketing consultant specializing in high technology industries.
For more information see www.nvasilieff.com. To contact Nick with questions or feedback, call 503-267-6339 or email vasilieff@mac.com.
Return to© Copyright 2009 Third Party International. All Rights Reserved.