“You don’t bring me flowers
You don’t sing me love songs
You hardly talk to me anymore
When you come through the door
At the end of the day!”

Most people over the age of 40 will recognize the opening stanza of the 1978 duet sung by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.  It’s a song about two lovers who have drifted apart.

What does a song from the 70’s have to do with today’s sales and marketing?

Lately and all too often in this economic environment, I see the same attitude of a business toward its loyal customers.  Businesses tend to pursue new customers with more enthusiasm than they prize existing ones.  Most businesses have a very expansive and expensive acquisition strategy…a specific plan for attracting new customers.  However, few companies or professionals have a retention strategy, a precise, formalized program that outlines specific steps to keep current customers and grow the business.

The example in our personal lives is the perfect metaphor for customer retention and growth.  My buddy, who is a marriage counselor, always tells me that one way to grow a relationship is to continue to romance the person who has committed his or her life to you.  When we are dating, we do all the steps necessary to grow the relationship.  We make phone calls; send flowers, cards and text messages.  We try to surprise our loved one with little efforts that are out of the ordinary and above and beyond the normal call of duty.  Unfortunately, it all ends at “I do” for many couples.

Let me give you a business example that hits close to home.  We have a great neighborhood Greek restaurant in my neighborhood that’s been in business for 2 years.  My family dines regularly at least twice a month, usually after Sunday mass with the rest of the parish! Last week, while picking up my daughter at volleyball practice, I met one of the new school parents who had just moved into the area.  They asked me what I thought of the Greek restaurant.  They received a “two for one” offer in the mail welcoming them to the neighborhood. When I got home I did some quick math.  We’ve spent about a $100 per month there for the past two years.  That totals about $2,500 since they’ve been open.  All I’ve gotten is a 10% off coupon from their website!  Not a very good way to treat a loyal customer.  Guess what I’m going to ask for the next time I patronize the place?

Retention strategies don’t take much to set up and don’t have to be expensive.  Remember, it costs 3 to 5 times as much to acquire new customers as it does to keep the ones you already have in the fold.  Send your clients a hand-written thank you card with a Starbucks gift certificate.  Take them out to lunch.  Take them to a ball game or out golfing.  I send my clients a Danish kringle from my hometown in Racine, WI.  Your small gesture will pay off quite handsomely.

Excuse me, all this talk about retention and gratitude reminds me…I better go buy my wife of 18 years some flowers!

Rob Trecek
Director of Business Development
rob.trecek@johnsondirect.com

It was a small gesture…yet it made all the difference in the world.

My wife and I decided to take our two kids, age 13 and 11 to Noah’s Ark in Wisconsin Dells a couple weeks ago.  It’s advertised as “America’s Largest Waterpark”. It has 49 thrilling water rides, two giant wave pools, two endless rivers, four children’s water play areas, miniature golf, a 4D theater and live shows. It truly is fun for the entire family.

Even though the weather was gorgeous and we were visiting in the middle of peak season, we didn’t find the crowd unbearable at all.  Even the line on the newest attraction, the Scorpions Tail, took less than 20 minutes.  The parking is free, they have plenty of lounge chairs to rest on and they even let you bring a cooler of food to eat at designated picnic areas close to the parking lot. The park itself was well maintained and spotless!

The only complaint I could come up with were the attitudes of the life guards.  They seemed rather robotic and excuse the term…”guarded”.  They are mostly high school and college kids, working for minimum wage, and working 7 days a week, 10 hours a day.  It can get rather monotonous and they are obviously more worried about getting people in and out of the rides safely than by creating small talk. You also have to consider that the majority of the lifeguards were from foreign countries and probably weren’t confident with their English.

Things changed drastically when the family headed to the Bahama Falls rafting ride in the late afternoon.  When we got to the front of the line we were greeted by a young man who was smiling ear to ear.  He was a Russian college student by the name of Vladislav Fedorov.  He was quite engaging in his broken accent asking us if we were enjoying our time at the park and asking the kids what their favorite ride so far was.  He then warned us to hold on tight as he gave us a big push.  My kids couldn’t stop talking about him for 15 minutes!  I went to one of the managers to let him know how much my family appreciated Vladislav’s friendliness.  “Oh yeah”, said the manager, “that’s good old Vlady.  He’s a keeper!  We get positive comments about him at least twice a day.”

Vlady’s customer service attitude reminded me of what Scott McKain calls the “Ultimate Customer Experience” in his book Collapse of Distinction.

McKain goes into detail on how they treat you on a Singapore Airlines flight.  On every first class flight, they will take your suit jacket and hang it up. The flight attendant doesn’t return your jacket until immediately after the flight has landed. She waits until he had stood up from his seat, then helped him put the jacket on. Other flight attendants did the same with every other passenger with a jacket.

It was a small, tiny gesture — that made a big impact. It was personal…not corporate. It was intimate…not mass appeal.

McKain also writes about the practice at Les Schwab Tires. When you pull in their parking lot, they RUN to your car to serve you. It’s created an amazingly successful business — even though the tires they sell are IDENTICAL to their competition — because of their “sudden service.”

Being personable before heading off on a water slide, helping you with your jacket…running to your car…are essential elements of the Ultimate Customer Experience®…yet, they do not cost the company anything in terms of execution.

Yet, as McKain points out, most organizations will seek to buy more ads, invest in more intensive marketing, or some other scheme to persuade people to come back and do more business.

What little, no cost, step could YOU and your organization take that would cost you practically no money… make a big difference with customers…and ultimately help you stand out from your competition.

Rob Trecek
Director of Business Development
rob.trecek@johnsondirect.com

My daughter has been a part of her grade school Forensics team for a couple years. This year I decided to volunteer my time as a Forensics judge. The requirements are minimal….believe me!

A couple of weekends ago we both participated in the Wisconsin Middle School State Forensics Tournament in Neenah, Wisconsin. My first category I was judging was Poetry. Not typically one of my favorites. The first contestant, 23C3, (no names in forensics….you’re only a number!) got up poised and confident and proceeded to give a very enthusiastic and passionate rendering of the Dr. Suess classic, Green Eggs & Ham. It brought back great childhood memories!

Here’s a little plot review for those who may have forgotten the story. There are two main characters: The first is unnamed, the second is named Sam-I-Am, or simply Sam. Throughout the book/poem, Sam tries to encourage the first unnamed character to try green eggs and ham with little success. The unnamed character refuses to taste the dish, insisting that he would not like it. Sam then goes through an assortment of locations (house, car, tree, train, box, boat) and dining partners (fox, goat, mouse) trying to persuade the unnamed character to eat.

The conclusion of the tale occurs when the unnamed character, standing in shallow water after a boat sinks, surrounded by various people and beasts, finally gives in and tries the green eggs and ham on the condition that Sam leaves him alone. Upon doing so, he realizes that he does, in fact, like green eggs and ham, and would eat them in all places and with all dining partners suggested throughout the book. The story closes with the character thanking Sam-I-Am for his persistence.

Green Eggs and Ham is a best-selling and critically acclaimed book written by Dr. Suess and first published in 1960. As of 2001, according to Publishers Weekly, it was the fourth-bestselling English-language children’s book of all time. But as I was filling out my rubrics sheets for the first round of the forensics tournament it hit me that Suess’ children’s classic can also teach us some rather practical sales and marketing advice as well!

First, Sam is a persistent little salesman! He is so persistent that he tries to reach his customer in a boat, with a goat, in the rain, in the dark, on a train, in a car, in a tree, in a box, with a fox, in a house and with a mouse. In the end, those friendly marketing exposures worked! Sam was multi-channel before multi-channel was cool!

Second, Sam gives those of us in sales an excellent lesson on how to handle objection and rejection. He remains constantly positive and confident that the unnamed character will like green eggs and ham..if he can only get him to try them.

And there’s the third lesson, he offers the unnamed character a Free or Trial Offer. When the prospect finally agrees to the trial, Sam lets his prospect make up his own mind, and in a way makes the sale!

Last but not least, the participants of the forensics meet had some good sales lessons to impart as well. Through rehearsal and practice, they developed a poise and confidence and went up and delivered their presentation with “No Fear”!

I got a little more than I bargained for a couple weekends ago in Neenah. All well worth it!

Rob Trecek
Director of Business Development
rob.trecek@johnsondirect.com

In the recessionary economy which we all find ourselves in today, you’d think that most salespeople and businesses would be fine tuning their follow up skills with not only their existing clients but especially with their interested prospects.  Unfortunately, more often than not, this is not the case.  Regardless of the industry, product, service, big ticket item or small purchases, it’s stunning to me how little businesses follow up with prospects and even customers.  They’re missing a fortune because the follow up is rarely done or non-existent.

Here are some amazing statistics related to sales that should inspire you to crank up your follow up efforts within your business:

• 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
• Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts

Now here’s the case for following up with prospects:

• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelve contact

Ask yourself this question, how much do you follow up on referrals and prospects?  I’m certain most companies can improve on the number of contacts they make.  I’m a big believer in developing a formalized process to stay in touch with prospects that didn’t convert immediately but still have a high chance of converting down the road if you stay in touch with them.

I recommend you print off this blog post and highlight the statistics in yellow and place it near your work space as a constant visual that follow up is where the fortune is made.

To put my sales cap on, Johnson Direct and our team of professionals can assist in developing such a formalized follow up process!  There are many channels/tools to help you stand out, keep top of mind awareness and close more sales.  These tools include an e-zine or e-newletter, creating a series of touch base postcards, utilizing social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs and YouTube, and holding a special customer appreciation event.

Remember that for each month that goes by without some form of communication to existing customers and prospects, 10% of top-of-mind awareness for your company disappears.  People are buried with choices, media and aggressive competitive offers trying to lure them away from your business.  Developing a sound formalized follow up process will help you create what my friend Tony Rubleski calls “Mind Capture” and assist you in winning more business!

Rob Trecek
Director of Business Development
rob.trecek@johnsondirect.com