Your Current Customers Are Your Greatest Asset

Over the course of my 17+ year business career, I have had the opportunity to work with – and learn from – literally hundreds of small business owners. I’ve asked lots of questions during that time and have learned a good deal about a number of different types of businesses in the process.

However, regardless of the type of business  I am working with – or where they happen to be located – there is always one question I pretty much always know the answer to before I ask:

Where does the majority of your business come from?

Provided they have been in business any length of time – the answer is almost always be the same:

Repeat customers and referrals.

In fact, the majority of these small business owners go on to say that as much as 75 – 95% of their current business comes from either happy customers – or referrals from them.

This may or may not surprise you.  However, the response I most often get to the follow-up question to this probably will:

What are you doing to market to/stay in front of those customers?

The most common response?

NOTHING.

More often than not, many of these businesses don’t have any system in place to keep in touch with their customer base.  Or if they do, their efforts to do so are inconsistent, at best.

Yet, they’ll spend a fortune to market to and reach potential first-time customers.

Let me clarify – there is nothing wrong with having a plan to drive new traffic through the doors (or to your website) – in fact, it is absolutely necessary.  However, it is doubly important to have a plan to convert those first-time visitors into long-term clients – whether your business operates online or off (or a bit of both).

Over the course of the next several days, let’s talk about not only how to accomplish this – but also how to identify your ideal customer based on both your primary business purpose and the value you have to offer.

Til Next Time,

PS  Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and build solid relationships with them. If you haven’t gotten around to setting one up yet – go ahead and sign up for aWeber’s free test drive right now.  The sign up box is in the far right hand sidebar – it’s quick and easy to get started.  There is no obligation and this test drive offers a great way to get your own email marketing campaigns in place.