Are you appreciative of your loyal customers and those business interactions that increase sales?
Do your customers know that you are appreciative? If you answered yes to the second question, how do you know this to be true?
Many times sales professionals from all types of industries be it real estate, banking, manufacturing, construction, legal, retail or service believe that their clients know of their continued appreciation. Yet, how do these know this to be true?
From my business coaching training practice, I believe that many loyal customers are taken for granted because sales professionals fail to put in place an appreciation plan to develop and strengthen loyal customers. This plan would have not only have detailed information on each loyal customer, but a plan to connect with customers on a regular basis.
The foundation for this plan is the sales professional’s high ethics. These ethics are located within the values statement found within the strategic business action plan. Examples of high ethics or values are appreciation, gratitude or thoughtfulness.
The use of auto responders and the Internet, sales professionals allows sales professionals to demonstrate their high ethics with far greater ease than ever before from monthly or weekly ezines to email alerts. Of course, these actions do require some time, but the time can be eventually reduced as practice makes perfect.
Using direct mail should be another goal within this appreciation plan. By creating customized mailings, loyal customers can be touched not to mention touching new customers or even potential customers (a.k.a. qualified prospects). There are many affordable ways to create postcards from the U.S. government’s postal office to businesses such as Vistaprint and Reach Out with Cards. I have developed birthday to special holiday cards that I send to my customers.
Another way to build appreciation is to make referrals for your customers. I carry the contact information and sometimes, even business cards of all my clients. When a potential opportunity arises, I readily share their names. This allows me to be viewed as a trusted adviser by both the new and existing clients.
When you demonstrate high ethics through the creation of a customer loyalty appreciation plan, you will not only increase sales, but remain in ethical congruency with your core values statement. Sales coaching tip: Remember, genuine gratitude never goes out of style.
