Managing your Customer Relationships
It is vital to manage your customer relationships well. This goes all the way from prospect to delighting your existing customers. Check out these steps to improving your relationship management.
-
Keep track of your customers.
It’s common knowledge to most business owners by now: Successful companies know their customers well. Companies buy information about people and good data on a lot of people can be an amazing tool. Think about how much money is spent on acquiring customer data. This is such a lucrative business because the consumer data is key in knowing how people operate, what they want, and who they are. If your business doesn’t use any type of tracking CRM system, you’re missing out some key consumer data. If you can keep track of the habits of consumers then you’ll be able to spend money on marketing and time on relationships that will be lucrative and spend less time on the ones destined to fail.
Even your customers want to be known, to some extent. They don’t want to receive emails that are completely unlike them. I have little interest receiving emails on expensive boating equipment because I only have so much energy to devote to emails in one day. If I don’t plan on buying expensive boating equipment, please don’t make a sales pitch to me for it. That would waste both of our time and leave a bad taste in my mouth towards your company for not doing your research.
-
Keep track of your sales efficiency.
How many cold calls before you make one sale? Is there a leading salesperson in efficiency? If you can’t answer these questions, you need a better system for data tracking. Some businesses have several sales members on their team. Some businesses are too small to hire a salesperson. Both of these businesses need a way to track who they’re calling, who is making sales, and how efficient your method of selling is. Cold calls might be falling flat while referrals are working better. If there is a way to track this you can estimate what to do next and stop wasting time on a “standard” sales goal or plan.
-
Learn what interests your contacts.
Do they want a discount? Or do they just want to be in the loop with new products?
This is something that I am personally thankful for marketers doing. There is one company that I am subscribed to and they see what I’ve been watching, and email me when it’s on sale. Sometimes they’ll see that I’ve been looking at a certain product and then email me next week with other looks that are similar. Sometimes it is the price that keeps me from purchasing, so their email coupons are what push me to pull the trigger. Other times it is the product I just don’t love. Then when they send me similar products I see one that is exactly what I wanted! Their email marketing is genius. It causes me to purchase more from them as a company. If every company could fine-tune their marketing email communications, I believe they could create lucrative relationships with their customers.
These aren’t overnight fixes for most companies. They require someone’s attention and the use of tools created specifically for Customer Relationship Management. We, along with Forbes and many other successful businesses, believe it is well worth the investment to know your customers well.
We would love to hear if you’re tracking with these tips! Contact us to provide feedback.
