Sales & Marketing Consultant, Bestselling Author & Sales Conference Speaker

Businesses operating in the online environment must have a deeper insight on customer behaviour if they want to survive and grow. Social media networks have changed the way people search for various products and services online and how they interact with the companies selling these desirables. If you want to stay ahead of the competition over the coming years, you need to learn what customer relationship management is and how it can help you grow your business.

Basically, this type of marketing strategy deals with customer behaviour in regards to what they purchase, when they purchase, how much money they spend and so on. Such data is invaluable for a company, even one of small dimensions, because it offers patterns of purchasing behaviour that companies could not access otherwise.

A very simple way of digging up such information about your clients or potential clients is to monitor their activities on social media sites. If you ran a travel company – for instance – it would be wise to search the social media networks for people talking about where to go on vacation, so that you could send them your latest deals and promotions, specifically related to where they are talking about visiting on their holiday.

It is very important to keep your database up to date. As you may already know, customer behaviour can shift dramatically, and what they used to appreciate a few months ago may not interest them at all later in the year. Efficient customer relationship management teaches you to always be up to date – and as often as possible ahead – of what your prospects are after, so that you can meet their needs and expectations and encourage them to buy from you over your competitors.

The online marketplace is very competitive. At times it can be difficult to promote your business online, which is why you need to be a step ahead the competition. By gaining an insight into your prospect’s behaviour when they shop online and learning to predict their buying patterns, you have the chance of increasing your sales by implementing effective marketing strategies which are targeted towards your customers exact requirements and needs.

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com

(Image by Sean MacEntee)

All the talk and hype about the new Google algorithms has been causing nightmares for internet marketers and internet-based business owners for a while now and not without good reason. To be successful at marketing and promoting your business online it is no longer enough to simply have a nice website setup and to be implementing bit of SEO on your site. This isn’t going to get you on the first page of the Google search results, and with Google consistently brining out new and more evolved algorithms all the time, you need to start taking into consideration more aspects of the usability and functionality of your site than you may have in the past.

One of these aspects is represented by individual reviews that are left by various people on goods and services. Whenever someone looks up a certain product or service and an individual review pops up, they are likely to read it first. Even if people do not trust everything they read on the Internet, this does not mean that these individual reviews do not make an impact – and what is even more important for you is that individual reviews are taken into consideration by Google, as well.

By setting up a service such as Google+, Google intends to provide consumers with a better experience in regards to goods and services. Since real people with real names and contact details are asked to leave their reviews, their credibility is high.

As a business, this means that you will need to put more effort into obtaining positive reviews from your customers. You can motivate them to favour you by giving you a plus on Google+, by liking you on Facebook and so on.

You should also be aware of the fact that people often feel more compelled to leave a negative review when they are dissatisfied with a certain product or service, than a positive review when they are satisfied. You can counter-attack the force of negative reviews by setting up a reliable customer service sector of your site to solve any issues your customers might be having – before they are compelled to right a negative review about your business.

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com

(Image by Ahh Yeah)

A true contact management system is more than a collection of facts and information about customers or potential customers. It also contains the processes that move those customers or potential customers from one group of people into another group of people.

Studies show that 48% of businesses never follow up with their existing customers. Another 25% of businesses follow up only once after a sale is made. And yet, it has been shown that around 80% of sales require at least 5 contacts. That means, if you’re an average business, three-quarters of the people who are most likely to buy your products or services – after all, they already thought well enough of your business and your products or services that they bought one thing from you – are being ignored!

Why would you spend all of your advertising and marketing budget on trying to find new customers and convince them of the value of your goods or services, when you’ve already got people convinced of that very thing, who just need to know about goods or services other than the ones they’ve already purchased?

That’s where a contact management process comes into play. The first step of the contact management process is to determine where anyone is in your sales pipeline. Are they a completely cold contact whose name you received from a list broker or other lead generation service? Are they a casual contact whose business card you received at a networking event? Are they a slightly interested contact who visited your website and registered to receive your weekly news email? Are they a more interested contact who has had one or more conversations with you about the applicability of your goods or services for their current situation? Are they in the process of purchasing a good or service from you? Are they waiting for delivery or completion of service? Have you delivered a product to them or completed their service? Are they a repeat buyer?

The second step is to analyse all of the people who have been in a particular stage of the customer relationship, and find the common elements that moved them into the next stage. Did they respond well to emails? Did they respond well to printed advertisements or sales flyers? How many contacts did they commonly require to move into the next stage? What frequency of contacts produced the best results?

Finally, implement a process that will automatically track what needs to be done with everyone in your contact list, and when it needs to be done. The process should remind you of action steps you need to take far enough in advance that you can take them at the appropriate time. When customers (or potential customers) respond to your contacts, the process should incorporate that as well, so that you are always contacting people in a manner most likely to eventually produce a sale.

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat
http://www.seanmcpheat.com

(Image MorgueFile)

You probably already know that it’s easier to keep customers and work on repeat business than it is to bring in new business. In fact, if you keep up with marketing reports and news, you know that there is a 60-70 per cent probability of selling to an existing customer, compared to only a 5-20 per cent probability of sales from a new customer.

This should make it clear that you need to work on customer retention as hard, if not harder, than you do new business. You will spend less money marketing to existing customers than you will marketing to new customers, while at the same time see a higher conversion. The tips here are some I have implemented in past businesses and share with others to assist them with their marketing campaign.

1. Resurrect Lost Clients: Plan a marketing campaign built around clients who have not used your services lately. You can choose your timeframe based on the type of business you have. It might be normal for a client to have a month or two between needs, or, it might be that you target only those who have not utilised your services in a year.

Send  lost clients a postcard email or call them. Complete win-loss interviews with these clients and find out what they liked and didn’t like, or why they haven’t frequented your business recently. You can learn a lot about your business by listening to their responses.

2. Listen: Marketing and customer service are often thought of as two different worlds in a business; however, the two can and should be listening to each other. You, as the business owner, have to listen to both. Customer service can clue marketing in on various complaints, wishes and comments that come to them. Marketing can help train customer service on how to respond positively to these comments.

3. Reward Loyalty: Loyalty progammes may seem cliché these day; however, they are alive and in full force. Reward your customers for referring you to others or frequenting you r business. Loyalty programmes are not only for the supermarket; they can be used successfully in many businesses.

4. Personalise: If you want to keep your current customers, you have to make them feel special. Mass emails and generic newsletters are not personal. Call your clients at random, send them a personalised, signed postcard, anything that shows they are unique to your business, not just another number.

5. Network: Send your inactive clients an invitation to an open house. Not only will you have the opportunity to re-introduce your business, you will be encouraging networking between businesses.

Put these tips to use in you r business and watch your current and past clients return to you for business. If you have ideas that you have implemented in your business for customer retention, use the box below to submit your comments.

Happy Marketing,

Sean

Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com

(Image: By Estebanherrer  via Wikimedia Commons)