299 Don’t Forget Your Customers

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">This is an old saying in sales and one we forget at our cost.  We might have made the sale and then we keep moving forward.  We get wrapped up in the intricacies of the getting other customers to commit and in the logistical details of delivering our previously sold service or product.  Our schedule fills up quickly and we have filled it with the present and future, not the past.  That customer we sold to gets forgotten in this busy life and they return the compliment and forget about us too.  We know that creating new customers is more expensive on an acquisition cost basis and that selling again or selling more to our existing customers is easier than making a new sale.  Why then don’t we do a better job of developing further business with our existing customers?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US"> We usually do a good job in the immediate post sales service period, but the key word there is “immediate”.  We don’t schedule in the “just checking in “ contact, because we are too busy chasing down the new contacts.  Now that the customer has had the benefit of our product or service, we don’t call back and ask, “How has it been going? Are there any subsequent issues that have arisen that we can help with or fix?”.  A good rule to apply is always make the time to connect with the buyer.  They will either be happy and we can see if they know others, who would also benefit. If they are unhappy, we can fix the issue for them. Silent, unhappy customers are not what we want, because we are killing our brand and our reputation without even knowing it.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US"> Clients may have cyclical needs when there is a certain cadence to their buying.  Upgrades or replacements require follow up.  When these are scheduled into our diaries, we can make sure to re-contact the client.  It may be that there is no sequence logic and so we have to</span> <span lang= "EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">