Do You Follow Up With Your Customers?

Do You Follow Up With Your Customers?
Do You Even Know Who Your Customers Are?

There is not a business alive that can succeed without sales. That is how revenue is driven. I don't care what your business is. You have a product, or service, and your success is driven by how well you deliver that product or service to your clients or prospects. Do you know who your customers are? How do you follow up with them?

It doesn't matter if you are in a traditional sales oriented business like car or insurance sales, a retail shop like a Beauty Salon or Book Store, a professional like a CPA or Attorney, a Realtor or Mortgage Broker, you cannot exist without customers. How do you follow up with your customers?

You also cannot exist without the assistance of other, third party companies. There are others who provide essential services to you as you do your job. Some of these are essential to your success, others provide services upon which you rely upon. Do you know who your key partners are? How do you follow up with these key people?

Even within a large corporation or government entity, there are people without whom your job would not exist. The payroll department is reliant upon every other employee. Without them their job would not be necessary. The Insurance claims analyst has an external client (the policy holder), and many internal customers (all of the other employees whom he or she works with on the policy or claim). Do you know who your customers are? How do you follow up with them?

My point is that every one of our jobs is reliant upon the assistance of others. Whether it's the end customer who uses our product or service and pays the bill, or the various co-workers or vendors who help us do our job in order to satisfy the end customer. Our success is tied to how we respond to others and how they respond to us.

I'm a mortgage broker as well as a referral marketing coach. I have an end customer, the homeowner who is looking to purchase or refinance. But in order to do my job, I am reliant upon a variety or internal co-workers, a wholesale lender with who knows how many people influencing my loan, an appraiser, possibly a Realtor, inspector, Title & Escrow company, and possibly verification of income, rent, assets and who knows what else...

While it's easy to say I have 1 customer, there are a lot of people reliant on me and that I am reliant on to get the deal done.

Here is how I followup with my customers and key partners.

I have found that it is always better to be proactive and nice in order to get new clients and loans through the system. This takes more time, but the payoff is worth it. It also helps to have a system to spread that honey.

I use a combination of high tech and low tech services to bring in new business and facilitate the work flow on existing business.

Here are a few:

• In Person: Usually best for cementing relationships, but most time consuming. You also need to be concerned about your appearance and that of your meeting place.
  
• Telephone: Also very good as long as you are a good listener and can convey your thoughts. I use my office phone, iPhone and RingCentral for fax and 800#.
  
• Internet: Great for attracting new clients and transferring information easily and effortlessly. I have several websites that allow prospects to find me, easily leave information for me to get back in touch with them. I use facebook, ActiveRain and twitter, as well as others sites to attract new clients and make my work easier. In fact, my mortgage and Referral Marketing businesses could not exist without the Internet.
  
• Email: I have a love hate relationship with email. I need it, but about 50% of what I get is SPAM. Chalk it up to my success on google... I have also found limited success using email to draw in new clients. It is to easy to leave a bogus email address or for a well intended email to end up in the SPAM folder. Trust me, it happens.
  
• E-Newsletters: I send out several e-newsletters and know that they work, but they also can easily end up in the SPAM folder or wear out their welcome.
  
• Personal Greeting Cards: Everybody loves a personal greeting card. We are bombarded with email, junk mail, bills... But when we get a personal letter or greeting card, we get excited. I use SendOutCards to easily, and cost effectively send personal greeting cards. It takes a couple of minutes to create the card, push send and it's printed at our factory, delivered to the Post Office and within a few days delivered to the mail box. I can even send a gift.

How do you followup with your clients? Do you know who your clients and key partners are?

What I suggest is to take a good look at your business or job.

• Identify where your revenue comes from. Who are your clients who bring you money or what were you hired to do?
  
• Identify the different steps involved in providing that service or attracting new revenue sources.
  
• Identify who else is involved in the process of assisting you in meeting the needs of that revenue source.
• Identify the steps where communication is best served and the method best for the situation. This should involve a variety of resources including personal visits, telephone, Internet, e-newsletters and personal Greeting Cards.
• Setup a plan and put it into action. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just intentional.
  

If you would like assistance in this, please give me a call.

Larry

Kirby or SendOutCards???

Our door bell rang a few minutes ago. It was a young man going door to door for Kirby. I quickly informed him that we already have a Kirby, which we do, and he thanked me for my time. As he was walking across the street I started praying for him. You see, I've done my time as a Kirby salesman so I could emphasize with what he was going through.

Before he could get away, I grabbed the new SendOutCards brochures that I had just received and walked out to meet him. I gave him a brochure and a business card with instructions on how to send a free card, and asked him to call me if Kirby didn't work out. He asked what it was about. I briefly told him and showed him a few cards.

I let him know that I used to sell Kirby's in college. 1week in training, 1 week riding along with others, 1 week on my own and then I turned in my machine. I asked him how long he had been with Kirby. His respone. Three days.

He said that he would give me a call. We will see.

The point of this?

Everyone needs a vacum cleaner. But they don't need one that does everything and that costs a pay check. (The reason we have one is that I learned a secret. It's a great shampoo system and you buy the 1990 series for a couple of hundred from the Kirby Repair Shop).

You have to filter through a lot of people to find someone who knows they have the need for a vacum cleaner that does everything, has the money and isn't afraid to let go of it. Also, while Kirby is a great product, the sales force has a bad reputation.

Everyone sends Greeting Cards. Sometimes we look for expensive cards, sometimes cheap ones. Sometimes we have time to brouse the Hallmark cards isle by isle, sometimes we don't.

SendOutCards is an elegant, and cost effective, solution to a real need. Whether you buy from my online store, a retail outlet that you need to drive to, or set up your own store is up to you. You are not locked in by a large committment, unlike the Kirby... Me, I buy most of my cards from my store because of the convenience, cost and creativity.

My hope is that this young man will check out the website, send a couple of free cards and give me a call. If he has the guts to try Kirby, he will be extremely successful at SendOutCards.

How about you? Want to give it a try? Email me at nicetouchmarketing@gmail.com

HOPE is in the Cards

There is a movement starting in America to spread HOPE in the midst of our current economic crisis. HOPE IS IN THE CARDS is the brainchild of Russ Haan. Russ is a regular guy. He's a small businessman with a family and many of the same problems that we all face today. But he also realized that he was blessed with a loving family, a home and health.

What makes Russ extraordinary is the vision he has to see America get through these times by spreading the message of hope rather than sow seeds of discontent. In his own words:

"The premise is so simple:

What if every American sent just one letter or card of support to another American. What would happen? What would it do to our collective national spirit if the word HOPE was written on the back of every envelope?

You’d go to your mailbox and it would be filled with something besides bills and collections notices. It would contain HOPE. And better yet, you might even have a personal card or letter from someone saying THANK YOU or I BELIEVE IN YOU.

Those kinds of messages can do more than just make someone’s day brighter for a moment — they can change people’s lives.

So, I’ve decided to give this idea a try. You’re invited to join me. After all, we’ve absolutely nothing to lose, and absolutely everything to gain.

Please, spread the HOPE."

I've decided to join Russ and his movement in spreading the message of hope. SendOutCards has a very similar message. We believe in following the promptings of the heart to reach out and touch people with a heart-felt greeting card. We know the power of a card and the impact that this has on people. We've experienced it and have seen others experience it.

My goal is to send a card a day to encourage those I know or care about. With SendoutCards, this will cost me about $32 per month. Not a bad price to spread some cheer.

So, join Russ and I in spreading the message of hope. Look at what you have to be thankful for and help others to do the same.

If you would like to join us, here are a couple of links:

To learn more about HOPE IS IN THE CARDS and to let Russ know that you are on board and that her heard about it from me. Click here www.HOPEISINTHECARDS.org.

To learn more about how you can send cards for about $1 per card, email me at NiceTouchMarketing@gmail.com

Larry

Send a Postage-Paid Father's Day Card For Free!!

Yes, you read that correctly. For the next few days you will have the opportunity to send a FREE Father's Day card on me. There is still time to get the card in the mail, but you better not delay.

Send me an email at nicetouchmarketing@gmail.com and I will walk you through the process of sending a card.

So, I encourage you to spend a few minutes and send a Father's Day card to your Father, Grandfather, Father-in-Law, Husband or even your favorite mentor. Heck, you can even send one to me. I'm a father.

Enjoy and Happy Father's Day!!

Nice Touch and the Vacation Thank You

My family and I were up in Seattle over Memorial weekend and visited an old friend. They have a beautiful home on a small lake. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the short time we were there.

As we left my wife mentioned that she had forgotten to take a Thank You gift, and that she had apologized to my friend's wife. I casually mentioned that we would send a Thank You gift when we got home.

We had taken some pictures of us around the campfire roasting marsh mellows and I created a personal Thank You card and ordered a box of candy through my SendOutCards account.

Here's a copy of the card I created:

This is just a small example of how you can use SendOutCards to reach out and touch your loved ones in a way that is unexpected and more personal.

If you would like to see how easy it is to create a card of your own send me an email and I'll walk you through it. nicetouchmarketing@gmail.com

Until next time.

Larry

The Power of a Card

I spoke with several people this week whom I sent a card to. One was a realtor who I sent a Birthday Card with his picture on it and another a Realtor who is quiting smoking. Both of them were surprised, touched and curious about how I did it.

The first one I pulled his picture off the Internet and placed it on the cover of the card. I also sent a gift box of goodies. He was touched and we will get together next week to go over the system. The card cost me $.93.

The second one I just found a pre-made card, similar to what I would have done if I was at the grocery store or mall. She was touched as it spoke to a felt need. he also is very impressed with he system. This card cost $.62.

These were sent from the comfort of my home and delivered within 2 days to their postal address.

If you would like to learn how you can make people feel better let me know.

The Surprise Birthday Card and Social Media

We have a lot of friends, clients and business acquaintances that we would like to send a Birthday card to if only we knew their birth day. In this post we will look at several new ways that are available through social media.

Of course, the simple way to get someones birthday is to ask. A simple question " Hey, I like to send Birthday cards out. What day and month is yours?" Don't worry about the year as that is getting personal and can make some feel uneasy.

But I'm also finding that Facebook and Plaxo are wonderful sources. Both have profile pages, and formats for sending an e-Birthday card. While e-cards are OK, I've grown leery of e-cards as there are a lot of viruses spread through bogus links.

Facebook is great as it is a tremendous gathering place. I use mine mostly for friends and is closed to the general public. The drawback to Facebook is that most people don't put their address in it. But with a little work you can usually find an address, even if only a work address. Again, asking for an address personally usually works as well.

Plaxo is great. It's purpose is to automatically update your contact record when you change it. Change your job or email address and it automatically alerts your Plaxo friends that something has changed. My Plaxo account is open to just about anyone who has access to my email address and wants to be included.

In the last 24 hours, I was alerted by both Facebook and Plaxo that 2 different Realtors I know are having birthday's this week. I entered their information into SendOutCards for their work addresses, downloaded their pictures off the Internet and made custom Birthday cards with their picture on the front. I sent a gift to one of them since I know him better.

It took about 15 minutes from start to finish and cost less then $2 for the card and postage. AND, I'm home sick. I did this in my PJ's.

Did I need to send the cards? No. Will I get anything out of it? Probably not. But, and this is the important part. I made their day a little bit better. Just part of loving my neighbor as myself.