Find Em' Keep Em'

Some of you may remember in the late 1990’s New Zealand Post launched a program called Find em’ Keep em’. This was a program they set up to encourage businesses to use a direct marketing campaign which they were promoting for businesses to utilise as a way of staying in touch with  both prospects and customers. Their marketing approach was all about using direct mail (funnily enough) and managing your data base in a way that you constantly stayed in touch with your data base.
Of course I am in very much in favour of this as a form of marketing however the difference between now and the late 1990’s is that we have more effective ways of keeping in touch with clients/potential clients through e-marketing etc. Direct mail today needs to be very defined and targeted.

The message of Find em’ Keep em’ though is still just as relevant today as it was then. Perhaps even more so. I am continually reminding businesses to go back over their data base and calling customers who have not used them for over say the past year or more. In today’s market you need to be consistently keeping in touch with your customers and prospects other wise the next time they notice another supplier they will look at the possibility of finding better service elsewhere (notice I didn’t say price).

There is enormous potential to generate more business from people who have previously used your service. You will have all heard the saying “it’s easier to maintain a customer than to find a new one”. So when you find a new customer make sure you do everything you can to keep them!

How regularly do you call back to your customers/prospects? Let me tell you about a promotions business I have previously used. To be honest I didn’t like the rep. She use call (in person) three times a year, and phone in between to see if I needed anymore uniforms (being a retail business we had a constant turnover of staff).

On the visits when she would call I would always get a promotional product as a gift (3 times a year). This I believe made it harder for me to look around for another supplier in the near future. By the time I was ready to consider finding another supplier I would get another call in person (and another gift).

I recently followed up with a lead I gave to one of our team. It was great to know they had approached the key contact I put them onto. Although the job had been organised prior to enquiring, their current supplier nearly lost the job because they took so long to complete the order.

My contact said he will keep us in mind for any future work. However the next time could be 3, 4, 6 months from now. I can tell you he will forget about us or even get our name wrong unless our local sales person keeps in touch 3 -4 times a year.

Show them you value their ongoing business and don’t give them a reason to change suppliers. Keep in touch regularly!

Business Growth Tip - Open door vs. closed door policy

It’s almost a cliché in business. Managers saying, “I have an open door policy.” But what does this really mean and what are the implications of this?

In my first management role I took this advice at face value and quickly became frustrated with the number of interruptions I experienced with my team constantly asking me questions. I started arriving at work earlier and/or leaving later to take advantage of the quiet times when everyone was gone, when I could be more productive. This conundrum is known by another management cliché called “working longer, not smarter.”

Some years later I attended a presentation by Kinkos founder Paul Orfalea. “What’s all this c… about open door policies?” he said using language that got everyone’s attention, “Close the f….. door, or you’ll never get anything done!” Swearing aside, I deduced that he is a billionaire and I am not – and he clearly knows something I don’t.

Actually, I came to realize that open door vs. closed door is not an either / or choice. To succeed as a manager you need to do both.

As Peter Drucker advised, effective executives know how to reduce interruptions. Little bits of time - 15 minutes here and there spent working on a project are not effective. Effective leaders carve out 2 hours of uninterrupted time every day. This is usually enough time for you to get the important things done. Set a specific “closed door” time window; when you will not take any meetings, phone calls, or Instant Messages and train your team to adhere to this.

And make sure you use this 2 hour block of time to work on your strategic priorities – not checking and answering emails. Pick the most important item on your to-do list and stick with it until it is done. Get in the flow and stay focused!

You need to balance this by setting aside “open door” time windows. Times when your team members know they can contact you between these hours and discuss their key issues with you. Chances are, because you weren’t immediately available, they have taken the time to think through things and already resolved the issue they had.

Tip: beware the phenomena known as “reverse delegation.” This is where a team member comes to you with a problem or idea and asks, “What do you think?” Your subconscious urge will be to make a decision, yet by doing so, you unwittingly make your team dependent on you for decision making, and miss a vital opportunity to coach and grow your people. Carving out uninterrupted time requires discipline – and as with most endeavors, discipline is a prerequisite for business execution success.

Article Source:  gotomarketshow.com