One of the most important things to remember, as you build your portfolio of marketing skills, is that you must build strong relationships with your current customers.

Wait. What? You’re asking yourself why you need to build relationships with people you’re already doing business with. You probably think you should be focusing your time on new clients and leaving the current ones to your customer service team. You’re wrong. It’s very simple. Here’s why.

• Your current customers are a source of future business. As your industry grows and changes your current customers will want to be on top of changes within the industry. If you have products or services that address those changes, your current customers will likely stay with you.
• Your current customers are a great marketing tool. If they like you, they’ll tell their friends about you. They’re a great source of word-of-mouth promotion.
• It’s cheaper to keep current customers than it is to find a new customer. It’s also less time consuming. Your business will suffer if you’re always trying to replace current customers and then grow your base on top of that. Keep your current customers happy and add new ones at a regular, steady pace.

A good marketer understands that building strong relationships is about more than landing a new client. It’s about keeping everyone you come into contact with happy, focused, and ready to grow.

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker – Sales Expert

Today we’re continuing down our list of traits effective marketers have and I’d like to point out something very simplistic. Effective marketers, simply put, have an unwanning desire to grow.

They want to grow their businesses. They don’t want to sell just enough to take home a certain paycheck. They aren’t satisfied with a stagnant business, even if it is profitable. They want to continuously ebb, flow, and expand.

What type of growth are effective marketers looking for? There are two kinds, and you know what they are. The first is growth from the aquisition of new customers. The second is growth from the expansion of current customers – selling them new products (or more of what they currently buy).

Most companies gain the majority of their growth from finding and obtaining new customers. Selling to current customers, while it does aid the bottom line, is really a form of retention – letting your clients know you are on the ball and can serve their ever changing needs. Letting them know not only about new products, but about new ways to use the ones they already have, will keep them happy and content for years to come.

How do you feel about your business today? Are you looking to grow or have you hit a plateau? If you’ve hit a plateau, what are you going to do to move past it?

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker – Sales Expert

What is your goal as a salesperson? Is it to sell products?

If so, you’re never going to get anywhere.

The truth is that to be an effective marketer you must be completely conscious of the needs of your customers. You need to get to know them, their businesses, and their needs. If you’re able to do that your sales problems will solve themselves because, in the end, they will essentially sell themselves.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you need to make a list of 100 potential clients and research each business individually from top to bottom. What you do need, however, is an idea of what niche market you want to go after. What are the goals of the type of business you are looking at? What products or services are currently unavailable that would help them to reach those goals? Having the answers to these questions will help you to develop a product or service that will essentially sell itself to your target market.

You should, of course, get to know some of your clients individually. The more they feel you care the better your relationships will be. The point is that you simply don’t have to make it difficult on yourself. Don’t try to jam your products down the throats of people who don’t care. Find the right market and sales will happen almost automatically.

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker – Sales Expert

Today we’re going to start addressing some of the characterists that set superior, effective marketrs apart from subpar or average marketers. One of the first and most important traits of an effective marketer is the ability to stay in the loop.

What do I mean?

You need to always be up to date on the current trends, not only in the world of marketing but in the worlds of those you wish to serve. An effective marketer knows how important it is to monitor the market, gather and sort through information, and have a great market research team on his side.

Knowing what is happening in the market will help you in a wide variety of ways. The research information you gather will help you to identify your target market and build a very strong brand.

The more you pay attention to what is happening in the world around you, the better your odds of moving forward in a successful manner. A great example of this type of research being used effectively is the Chick-fil-A fast food store, an establishment with more than 1,000 units in the United States alone. The company completed extensive market research, found out what customers liked and didn’t liked, and worked towards improvement. They’re one of the few companies experiencing strong growth, even in today’s economy!

Are you really in the loop or do you just scratch the surface to stay in touch? Think about it.

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker – Sales Expert