Priorities, Priorities

How many of you reading or listening to this regularly attend trade shows in an attempt to get new business?  Right. That’s what I thought. Just about everyone. It makes sense. That’s where plenty of good prospective customers are gathering – at an industry trade show. I know several companies that use industry trade show as their primary means of attracting new business. They prepare for the show all year and NOTHING gets in the way of attending that event. In fact I heard a story recently that you might find entertaining (hopefully not too familiar though).

A company that specializes in logistics for importing perishable products was planning to attend the big industry trade show in Boston. This outfit packed up all their most talented sales pros, not to mention all their key executives and decision makers for what they hoped was their most profitable trade show ever. Hopefully they’d return to headquarters with a stack of new leads to follow-up on. Back at the ranch (their corporate headquarters) they received a telephone call from one of the largest packers of perishable products in the world (you’d know their name if I told you – but my liability insurance carrier wouldn’t appreciate it). This prospect was referred by one of their current clients and needed some assistance and fast. Apparently their current logistics provider was unable to deliver the service they needed at this most critical time. Now what do you suppose they were told? Were they welcomed with open arms? Did headquarters think to track down the CEO or VP of Sales to take care of this most-in-demand prospect? After all they were on their way to a trade show with the EXPRESS purpose of finding a customer JUST LIKE THE ONE CALLING FOR HELP. No, not at all. As unbelievable as it might sound they were told, “sorry but all of our executives and sales staff are on their way to Boston and there’s no one here to help you.” And that’s not the best part. When the prospect asked who could help them, headquarters in their omnipotent genius recommended that they call their best competitor.  Why is it businesses spend 80% of their marketing dollars going after new customers and clients rather than nurturing, retaining, and maintaining the customer relationships they already have? Repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers.  Few companies spend ANY time on creating referrals let alone have a strategy and plan for developing a steady stream of referrals.  Sales among repeat customers are 107% greater than non-customers. It costs six times more to sell something to a prospect than to sell that same thing to an existing customer. While a growing business needs to constantly capture new customers, the focus and priority should be on pleasing your existing customer base. Companies that fail to nurture and develop referrals from their customer base ultimately fail. They also end up spending twice as much to get new clients as they do in maintaining existing customers.  The bottom line is that one of the key components in marketing and business growth is to spend the majority of your time and effort nurturing customer relationships and generating referrals so that you get business from existing clients and customers. In our Attract More Business Program we teach a method of gaining referrals as part of your marketing strategy. If you are interested in finding out more about this strategy please feel free to contact me at mark@markdeo.com or visit www.attractmorebusiness.com Have a great week! I hope that this “Business Update” has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com  Mark Deo