Who is Following Up with Your Clients?

There are essentially 2 key factors in a successful business. Really, here's what it boils down to:

1. Acquiring new business (read: Customers/Clients)
2. Maintaining / Retaining that business (read: Customers/Clients)

Now, for the sake of this discussion, let's substitute the term 'relationship' for 'business'. I won't get into the reasons for that in this writing, suffice to say we have covered that elsewhere. (note: if you've attended one of my husband's courses on Relationship Marketing you already know why).

So, to clarify, we now have the following 2 key factors for successful business identified:

1. Acquiring new relationships
2. Maintaining / Retaining those relationships

Everything else is a an offshoot of these 2 key business practices. If you are dropping the ball in either of these, it will manifest itself in your business in a multitude of ways. For example, are your referrals down? Orders lagging? Average ticket price falling? Service levels decreasing? Complaints on the rise? Is walk-in traffic down?

ALL - and yes, that means 'All' - of these are due to one or both of the above factors.

Period.

Ok, so we could end this discussion here and the majority of us would be convicted enough to work on those items, activities, and opportunities that we've come up with in just these few paragraphs. Let us instead, for illustration purposes, take a look at a recent example, taken from a conversation with a successful business woman - let's call her Sarah (not her real name).

Sarah was a successful business owner with a 6 year history of serving her clients in her local market area. Her business, like others in her area, had experienced it's share of what she called 'ups and downs'... mostly due to 'the market and the fickle consumers' according to Sarah.

I worked with Sarah to help her better understand that her 'business' and her 'customers' were really just relationships - and that by focusing on the relationship rather than the sale or transaction, she could not only maintain her business and profitability, but also grow it substantially - and simply.

One exercise that helped Sarah understand this concept was when I posed the question to her: "Who is following up with your clients? Literally, who is actually following up with them today, tomorrow, next week, next month - this year... and How?"

As we worked through the response, Sarah realized that her competitors were doing a much better job of following up (reaching out to) her clients than she was. In fact, once she'd attained a customer, there was little she did to retain that relationship - short of 'being open for business' should they decide to return to her store. All the while her competition was out focusing on #1 above: Acquiring new relationships. Advertising, sponsored local events, tastings, open houses, and leveraging referrals were all taking their toll on Sarah's business. We determined that if she increased her focus on #2 (Maintaining / Retaining Relationships) she could thwart the efforts of her competitors and build customer loyalty and referrals for the long term.

As business owners, we all need to remember that relationships are KEY and critical to our business. If you aren't continually in front of your customers or database, ask yourself this important question: "Who is?"

*********
-Nikki!

Tim Mancuso is a speaker, trainer, and author working with business owners and real estate professionals throughout the US. He is the Co-Founder of the GLS, and is currently working on his upcoming book on relationship marketing for business owners.

Fantastic Automated Mailing Service

This is the system I was telling you about:

If you haven't gotten the URL, just Contact Me - then just Click on the 'Click to send a free card' and send out a card to a client, your mom, a loved one, etc. to see how the system works. (There's a video walk-through to help you if you need it).

Key points:
• Contact manager included, web-based, access it anywhere by computer
• Import contacts from Top Producer, Outlook, Act!, etc. – any tab-delimited file
• Automated Campaign system – customizable (Birthdays, Anniversaries, Just Listed, Just Sold, Seasonal, etc.)
• Short + large run mailings
• Actual 1st class stamp on greeting cards - not 'bulk-mail', but personal!
• ‘Your’ handwriting converted to a FONT, with 'Your' signature!
• In the time it takes to send an email, send a Postcard/Card instead
• Custom photo upload, create a custom mail piece with ANY image - or upload your business card, etc.
• 13,000+ existing cards – all can be postcard, greeting card, or tri-fold card

All at a cost that is far less than traditional mail. Very cool stuff.

'Down Market' Means it's Time to Market! - by Tim Mancuso

I read a great post by Tim today and asked that he share it here with all of us. I think this information is timely and useful for helping us all grow during the current market conditions. We are implementing marketing strategies for all of our agents to reduce costs and increase effectiveness – call me for help and let’s get started building tomorrow’s success today!

-Nikki

Ph: 303-662-0237

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

'Down Market' Means it's Time to Market!

By Tim Mancuso – Trusted Advisor and Consultant

With the current real estate market crunch many people have pulled back on their marketing spend. Successful businesses however are Increasing their marketing – here’s why:

* Less Competition: The downturn in the economy and marketplace tends to ‘clean up’ the industry, reducing the overall number of service providers and thereby increasing your potential ‘odds’ of gaining business.

* Separate the Wheat from the Chaff: As a general rule, only those providing a solid service and/or product will be able to ‘ride out’ the slow-down. Part-time players, ‘Johnny-come-lately’ types, and non-committed businesses will typically flock to other industries…or pull way back on their exposure and marketing…allowing the professionals to ‘shine’ through even more brightly.

* Marketing and Branding Increase: The reductions listed above result in a corresponding reduction in marketing and advertising hitting your core customer. This means that your marketing voice has an increased potential to be heard by your target audience.

* Lower Marketing Costs: The decrease in business marketing hits the segment of marketing service providers fairly hard – for example, as advertising inventories increase, you’ll find that the cost/M more affordable, and many other systems are offering significant discounts and special promotional pricing to bring in (your) marketing business. Basically, it’s a buyer’s market for marketing.

Remember, people haven’t stopped buying, selling, and investing – it’s just a slow down in a cyclical marketplace, a repeating trend which you can make it through. The best strategy to adopt is to determine if you are going to continue through the down turn, and from there recommit to your marketing and capture market share so that when the market turns upward – you are already there and well-positioned for long term success and profitability.

Find your niche, determine your plan and level of commitment to growing your business, cut unnecessary costs, track ROI for all spends, and grow your market share dramatically in this economic downturn.

Tim Mancuso is a Trusted Advisor and Consultant focused primarily on the Real Estate Industry. Mr. Mancuso is currently looking for opportunities, contract and full-time engagements while continuing his training and speaking within the Real Estate community. Mr. Mancuso was Co-Founder / VP Global Sales for MyREALTY.com and the GLS - Global Listing Service and has over 20 years experience as a Technologist, Trainer, Coach, Recruiter and Speaker.

'Where Market Knowledge, Solid Technology Implementation, and Great Service meet - you will undoubtedly find Success.' - T. Mancuso

How To Send Automated Cards and Letters to your Clients

Sending cards and letters to your contacts at regular intervals is an essential business practice for success. Important events such as Birthdays, Anniversaries (both personal and 'of the sale/order, etc.') and Holidays can make the difference in your business relationships - and keep your business 'Top of Mind' with your clients.

One way successful businesses effectively manage such communications is by using an automated online system. The system we use and recommend to our clients features the ability to upload your contact database easily - from Outlook, ACT!, Top Producer, and others - and then create campaigns to send automatically to your clients.

Nikki hosts weekly calls and webinars to help you setup your system and create your campaigns - it's now simpler than ever to maintain your key business relationships without spending a lot of time and money. One of the top features of the system is that it costs LESS than manually sending postcards and handwritten notes.

More on the power of the Hand-Written Thank You Note next post. See y'all at the next Business Networking Luncheon!

Call me for help!
-Nikki

Nicole 'Nikki' Mancuso - Real Estate Marketing Made Easy - System for Business Relationship Marketing

Relationship Marketing: A Valuable Tool for Businesses of All Types

Since 2001 we have been working with real estate agents, brokers, lenders, and title professionals to assist them with their relationship marketing needs. While there are many tools available to the market yourself to a specific 'farm' or sphere, even the best website or online strategy must be supported by a solid relationship marketing campaign.

One of the best examples of this is with a wonderful program called Connecting Neighbors. This neighborhood website program was highly effective, however required continual notification and marketing to the neighbors / neighborhood in order to succeed and achieve 'critical mass' levels of adoption by residents.

At the time, I was working with up to 900 Agents and Brokers in a 4-state area, and the most common request I received was "Can you show me an effective system to handle my postcards and mailouts?" There was not a simple online (effective) program available.