Five easy-to-use tips to help you keep clients

I know a thing or two about marketing and sales, despite how entertainment media may portray marketing professionals, especially females. My career is a bit more complex than an event planner screaming at subordinates, as E!’s “The Spin Crowd” and the character Shauna Roberts from “Entourage” love to do. It’s scripted for television and the more tension the more it sells.

In the real world, I approach marketing in a holistic way, with attention to detail. My clients expect it as do I. In fact, I consider it my duty to ensure I constantly provide them with big picture marketing insight and action while never forgetting about the details that matter.

Speaking of details, below are a handful of tactics business owners/executives can easily use to enhance their current client relationships while staying sensitive to our current economic budget crunch. And, as we all know, it takes less energy and money to keep and grow a client than it does to find new ones.

Thank your clients for their business – Mail a simple letter to your clients to thank them for their continued business at least once per year. Meanwhile, make certain you periodically thank them via email if you correspond regularly. For instance, write your email as you normally would and simply add: “Thank you for your business.” It’s easy. It’s simple. It makes an impact on your clients. Every time I send letters to clients, they make it a point to tell me how nice it was to receive it and that they’re happy with my services.

Introduce your clients to your contacts – If you’re in the professional services sector, this can be especially helpful to you. One great big happy family is the idea on this one. Clients appreciate feeling valuable, want to meet other people who are valuable and will see you (and your ability to serve as the “go to” connection guy/gal) in an entirely new light. Clients can seek the services you offer elsewhere, but they cannot replace the relationships you help them build with others.

Deliver your clients a treat – A fruit bouquet, a dozen doughnuts, two movie tickets …all are affordable options that will help remind your clients that you are thinking about them and appreciate their business. (I’ve even gifted boxes of Cheez-Its crackers, cupcakes to flower adorned children’s hair clips to clients – whom I consider more as friends over the years.) It doesn’t matter the price tag associated with the gift. Instead, think of it like a typical dating ritual… it’s the thought that counts.

Instead of an expensive client gala, organize small meet-and-greets – Don’t get me wrong. High-end galas have their place with some folks in the B2B industry, but for most, small meet-and-greets can accomplish just as much with less money and time. I have a small group I organize every other month and a 20-person private wine making group I’m a part of that meets six times per year as well. Six months ago my “A-team” coffee group were all strangers, now we invite one another to birthday parties, holiday BBQs and more. Did I mention they all do business together now too?

Share a cause with your clients – Invite your clients to participate in a walk-a-thon or another cause you believe in. I have a coworker that shaves his head every year to raise money in the name of childhood cancer research. (Clients LOVE it.) People naturally want to help and want to be involved – so long as it does not cut into their family and “down” time. Involving them in this way allows them to see a personal side of you, your business and gives them an easy way to participate and build a relationship with you.

No matter your business, we’re all in the business of sales

I don’t know about you, but I have a love-hate relationship with professionals whose sole purpose is to sell me something – television, print and radio advertising representatives, online digital video sales people, photographers telling me I need to use their services, trade organizations saying I need to “belong.”

No matter the source, we’re all selling one another something. I spend a great deal of my time wading through sales opportunities as the “gatekeeper” for my clients. It’s an undertaking all its own, but it’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly and the due diligence my clients expect of me and our firm.

Have you ever noticed that good sales people often aren’t thought of as sales people at all? Instead, they’re “friends.” Being a trusted “friend” can be key in successful sales. And, in today’s tough environment, more sales people should become “friends” with prospective clients.

More often than not, I come into contact with some of the most unlikeable sales characters. What makes them un-“friendly” sales people? I’ll let you be the judge.

(All actual incidents took place just this last month.)

Placing an initial sales call on any given Friday afternoon. Unless it’s necessary, I do my best NOT to contact clients on Fridays. No matter how nice of a person I think I may be, I’m likely the last person (i.e. their vendor) my clients want to speak with as they’re wrapping up their week and business at hand.

Placing a sales call to their cell phone, when they’re not immediately available on their office line. I realize our world is more mobile than ever before. However, there is still a professional code of conduct that exists; you must respect the privacy of someone’s cell phone number until you get the “okay” to regularly call it.

Not doing ANY homework. I always try to do homework so I can better recommend to my clients why they should do “this” or “that.” Just like my clients, I’m not receptive to people who call and ask me for money without telling me, specifically, how I (or my clients) may stand to benefit from the investment.

Tardiness. I don’t mind waiting an extra 10-15 minutes for a phone call or for a sales person to arrive at my office – if I know you. It’s an entirely different situation if you called me and are soliciting me for thousands of dollars, and then either no call, no show or stop by 30 minutes later than our scheduled meeting time.

Randomly showing up at the office – and staying for 30 minutes. I get it. Face time is good. I periodically stop by our clients’ offices as well, but a good sales person knows how to strike that delicate balance between quality “face time” and interfering with day-to-day business operations.

Responding to specific questions with rhetoric. All businesses have a specific, strategic message – key phrases and statistics – they want to communicate with clients, vendors and the community. As a marketing professional, I understand that. But if I ask you a specific question about your product or service, please answer it directly. My day-to-day business endeavors are based largely on trust, and if I don’t feel you’re going to give it to me straight, I’ll look for someone who will.

Regardless of my rant, there are still a number of sales “rock stars” out there. People I have thoroughly enjoyed doing business with for more than a decade, although I don’t think of them as sales people at all. Instead, they’re my “friends.” They’re there to lend a helping hand, provide insight when sought after, and keep me in the loop when it concerns their business and industry.

They’re resources I use time and again, and as a result, do business with. They’re “friends” – the best kind of business people who also happen to be great sales people.

*Blog originally posted at: Imagine Marketing: Creative Solutions for the New Economy.