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Follow-Up Or Fall On Your Face - Jay Levinson
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Jim Moore
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Dec 22, 2002 21:47 PST
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Follow-Up Or Fall On Your Face
by Jay Conrad Levinson 1-11-01
Why do most businesses lose customers? Poor service? Nope. Poor
quality? Nope. Well, then why? Apathy after the sale. Most businesses
lose customers by ignoring them to death. A numbing 68% of all business
lost in America is lost due to apathy after the sale. iOfficeDaily:
Archive
Misguided business owners think that marketing is over once they've made
the sale. WRONG WRONG WRONG. Marketing begins once you've made the sale.
It's of momentous importance to you and your company that you understand
this. I'm sure you will by the time you've come to the end of this
online column.
First of all, understand how guerrilla marketers view follow up. They
make it part of their DNA because they know it now costs six times more
to sell something to a new customer than to an existing customer. When a
guerrilla makes a sale, the customer receives a follow-up thank-you note
within 48 hours. When's the last time a business sent you a thank-you
note within 48 hours? Maybe once? Maybe never? Probably never.
The guerrilla sends another note or perhaps makes a phone call 30 days
after the sale. This contact is to see if everything is going all right
with the purchase and if the customer has any questions. It is also to
help solidify the relationship. The what? The relationship. Guerrillas
know that the way to develop relationships, the key to survival in an
increasingly entrepreneurial society, is through assiduous customer
follow-up and prospect follow-up. And we haven't even talked yet about
prospect follow-up.
Back to the customer. Guerrillas send their customers another note
within 90 days, this time informing them of a new and related product or
service. Possibly it's a new offering that the guerrilla business now
provides. And maybe it's a product or service offered by one of the
guerrilla's fusion marketing partners. Guerrillas are very big on
forging marketing alliances with businesses throughout the community --
and using the Internet, throughout the world. These tie-ins enable them
to increase their marketing exposure while reducing their marketing
costs, a noble goal.
After six months, the customer hears from the guerrilla again, this time
with the preview announcement of an upcoming sale. Nine months after
the sale, the guerrilla sends a note asking the customer for the names
of three people who might benefit from being included on the guerrilla's
mailing list. A simple form and postpaid envelope is provided. Because
the guerrilla has been keeping in touch with the customer -- and because
only three names are requested -- the customer often supplies the names.
After one year, the customer receives an anniversary card celebrating
the one-year anniversary of the first sale. Perhaps a coupon for a
discount is snuggled in the envelope.
Fifteen months after the sale, the customer receives a questionnaire,
filled with questions designed to give the guerrilla insights into the
customer. The questionnaire has a paragraph at the start that says, "We
know your time is valuable, but the reason we're asking so many
questions is because the more we know about you, the better service we
can be to you." This makes sense. The customer completes and mails the
questionnaire.
Perhaps after eighteen months, the customer receives an announcement of
still more new products and services that tie in with the original
purchase. And the beat goes on. The customer, rather than being a
one-time buyer, becomes a repeat buyer, becomes the kind of person who
refers others to the guerrilla's business. A bond is formed. The bond
intensifies with time and follow-up.
Let me put this on numeric terms to burn it into your mind. Suppose you
are not a guerrilla and do not understand follow-up. Let's say you earn
a $200 profit every time you make a sale. Okay, a customer walks in,
makes a purchase, pays, and leaves. You pocket $200 in profits and that
one customer was worth $200 to you. Hey, $200 isn't all bad. But let's
say you were a guerrilla.
That means you send the customer the thank-you note, the one-month note,
the three-month note, the six-month note, the nine-month note, the
anniversary card, the questionnaire, the constant alerting of new
offerings. The customer, instead of making one purchase during the
course of a year, makes three purchases. That same customer refers your
business to four other people. Your bond is not merely for the length of
the transaction but for as long as say, twenty years.
Because of your follow-up, that one customer is worth $400,000 to you.
So that's your choice: $200 with no follow-up or $400,000 with
follow-up. And the cost of follow-up is not high because you already
have the name of the person.
The cost of prospect follow-up is also not high. Email makes it even
lower. Prospect follow-up is different from customer follow-up. For one
thing, you can't send a thank-you note -- yet. But you can consistently
follow up, never giving up and realizing that if you're second in line,
you'll get the business when the business that's first in line messes
up. And they will foul up. You know how? Of course you do. They'll fail
to follow up enough.
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Jay Conrad Levinson is probably the most respected marketer in
the world. He is the inventor of "Guerrilla Marketing" and is
responsible for some of the most outrageous marketing campaigns
in history -- including the "Marlboro Man" -- the most successful ad
campaign in history. In his latest book, "Put Your Internet Marketing on
Steroids" Jay reveals how you can use marketing steroids legally to make
your business insanely profitable.
Hundreds of time-saving, money-generating tips and stories from
AMerica's largest online newspaper - TennTimes-the News.
<p align="center"><a
href="http://westviewnews.virtualave.net/sitemap.html">TennTimes - the
News</a>
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