The 3 Keys to Client Retention (which means less marketing)
July 5, 2010 by admin
Filed under Marketing & Promotion
The better you are at retaining clients the less marketing you need to do. One of the reasons that you see so much marketing from other business owners is because they may be great at getting clients but not great at keeping clients.
What is your current rate of retention? I’ve found that the new business owner is lucky if they retain a client for 90 days. This means that for every client you loose in 90 days, you have to replace that client 4 times in a year. No wonder you feel like you have to do so much marketing.
Getting off the roller coaster of client turn-over is all about managing your clients and their progress. It is about adding value in everything you do with your clients and getting them to see the ongoing benefits of continuing to pay for your services.
So how can you add value while managing your current clients so they stay with you longer?
It is easy…if you have the right SYSTEMS in place.
These systems ensure that every client is handled with care and true concern. That each client feels that you are not just there for the call or the meeting but that you are truly their ongoing partner in success. It is also about having ways to monitor their weekly and monthly progress so that they can see and feel the momentum building and the breakthroughs happening.
The systems must be simple and easy to use for both you and your clients. They must be consistent and automated.
- Consistency comforts the client.
- Automattion makes it easy for you.
The Three Key Systems to client retention
SYSTEM #1: Smart Goal setting. Have an automatic system in place for your clients to indicate where they are when they start working with you and what they want to achieve.
- As they close the gap, your clients begin to see the momentum build as well as their return on investment.
- The more progress your clients feel, the more likely they are to stay the course and continue to pay for your services.
SYSTEM #2: Follow up and follow through. You will want to have an automated way to regularly interact with your clients beyond your regular sessions.
- Perhaps a system of instant messaging, an automatic appointment reminder, an evaluation process that allows them to give you feedback on their progress and even a follow up email after your weekly call or meeting.
- These thoughtful and purposeful touches are a great way to let your clients know you are on their team and pulling for them.
SYSTEM #3: Professional and painless billing. Setting up your clients with your merchant account so that they can be billed automatically each month at the same time allows both you and the client to plan for the investment and it eliminates surprises.
- Have your client give written permission for you to charge their credit card on the first day of each month.
- Have professional bills sent at regular intervals.
- When everyone is on the same page with the investment there are no defaults and or uncomfortable questions left hanging.
If you are ready to get off the roller coaster of client retention these 3 systems can make all of the difference.
You can create your own systems or consider The Coaches Console which automates all of the systems mentioned here (and many more) to create a professional and smooth running and profitable service business. Visit the site and take a virtual tour or sign up for a free trial.
Why Marketing is Essential to Grow Your Business
December 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Marketing & Promotion
There are a lot of things in our day that demand our time and attention. Some help move our business forward and some have us ending our day wondering what we have accomplished.
We have a tendency to let ourselves get distracted by the things that are screaming the loudest for our attention, and we also have a tendency to spend time on things we enjoy the most, regardless of whether it is a money making activity or not. And unfortunately, many times it is not.
For most of us, marketing is an essential activity for our business. We must market ourselves and our services to our target audience so they become aware of us and are interested to learn more. With today’s competitive economy, the idea of hanging out our shingle and hoping people will find us will lead to a definite doom.
Therefore, if you are truly committed to having a successful business, and your business is not yet where you want it to be, then you will need to be spending the majority of your time on marketing activities. And the majority of that time should be spent on income generating marketing activities.
There are two types of marketing activities – active and passive.
Active marketing activities give you the greatest exposure, establish connection and creditability, and get you greater results quicker.
- Speaking
- Training events like workshops and teleseminars
- Networking – at meetings, organizations and such
- Social networking with purpose
- Creating joint venture and alliance partnerships
Passive activities are activities you need to be performing in your business but aren’t as direct in generating income but very effective just the same for generating awareness, growing your list and creating interest.
- Article marketing
- Blogging
- Maintaining Your website
- Working on your brochure
- Keep in touch activities – like sending cards, notes and newsletters
If you are committed to growing a successful business, then until you have reached the level of success you desire, you will want to be working full time in your business. Therefore, if you only have 3 clients, then the rest of your work week would be spent mostly on marketing activities.
For those of you who have a job that you want to leave and are really committed to building your own business, then I encourage you to put your head down, make the short term sacrifice and squeeze as many hours out of your day as you can marketing your business.
It is only temporary and the faster you get your business grown the sooner you can leave your job.
If your business is where you want it to be and you have a steady stream of referrals and people contacting you, then you may be able to reduce your marketing activities, but you do not want to ever completely let up on the marketing pedal because clients will come and go.
In sales, it’s called the pipeline. You want to always be putting names in your pipeline, and nurturing those relationships so that you always have a steady stream of clients coming in while others leave.
If marketing is a necessity for companies like Weight Watchers and McDonalds, then marketing will most likely be a necessity for us too. Therefore, it is advantageous for us to spend our time on activities that will move our business forward – and marketing is indeed one of them.
This post was graciously submitted by:
Kim Clausen
Ready2Go Marketing Solutions, Inc.
www.Ready2GoMarketingSolutions.com
Key Number One to Successful Self-Marketing
August 17, 2009 by Kate Steinbacher
Filed under Marketing & Promotion
Marketing always seems to be one of the more difficult tasks, and marketing ones self, for many, often becomes insurmountable. This does not have to be true for you! Learning to market yourself comfortably will go a long way in your life whether you are marketing yourself for a new career, a promotion in your current place of business or to sell your business services.
Key Number ONE is: Learning to Overcome Rejection
I. Overcoming rejection, the ages old concept of rejection and how to overcome that down in the belly negative feeling that comes when you put your talents on the line and they are rejected.
What is actually being rejected?
Try this vision: What is real…At this moment I am OK. I have certain talents and abilities, hopes and dreams, needs and values. I have family and friends that care about me. I have accomplished many things in my life; be it my schooling at what ever level, my employment history and my ability to be a team player and many other learned talents along the way. The concrete evidence of my existence thus far proves I am capable of tackling the world and what it has handed me. I am O.K.!
You take one small action of opening your email and you discover your business proposal was rejected. What happens? The air is knocked out of you, you get that lead feeling in your gut, suddenly, the act of reading one email has changed “I am OK” into “I am not good enough”!
Look back a moment…has anything actually changed from the information above? NO, you are still all of those very capable things. What has changed is your attitude. You have allowed yourself to take the rejection personally. All of a sudden it is about you not being good enough, when moments before you were just fine. You have given your power away because of someone else’s action. In reality what happened is another person had a stronger set of tools for this particular situation, or perhaps there was a personal contact that was selected or the person making the decision had a bad day the day of your proposal, we will never know.
Getting Over it! We meet rejection every day, whether it is of our dreams, of a new job or a promotion or a sale we have endeavored to close. There are 3 important rules to dealing with rejection successfully: a. Don’t take it personally. b. Use it as a learning tool. c. Quickly take appropriate actions to move on to the next challenge.
The first rule of dealing with rejection is: Don’t take it personally! It is rarely about us, even though our egos seem to try to tell us it is. Our minds are very creative and energetic and if left alone, are masters at the negative. I call it my “Itty Bitty Pity Committee”. Replace your old committee with a sensible group of voices: which include your intuition, your heart, your intelligence, your curiosity, your passion, your spirit and your experience.
Your new “Success Committee”, will help you deal with rejection as a learning tool. Which is the second rule of dealing with rejection: Use rejection as a Learning tool. Ask questions when you receive a no. What did not meet your needs? What was missing so I might improve? Rarely is a person reluctant to help another improve. Then set up an appropriate action plan to carry out what you have discovered. Choose to learn from the rejection and move on to the next with a greater arsenal of tools for your future success.
The third rule of dealing with rejection: Quickly take appropriate actions to move on to the next challenge. Take the learning and grow your knowledge base and tool kit. Create a plan of action to move past the rejection and on to the next challenge. Think of rejection as a tool for learning and improvement and you will soon move beyond it to the realm of success.
Want to see Overcoming rejection in action? Look up the story of author J.K. Rowling of the Harry Potter novels. She was rejected by the best of the best printers over 100 times! Aren’t we all glad she kept believing in herself?
