HOW TO HOLD ONTO YOUR CURRENT AND PAST CLIENTS

Existing Clients

Your existing clients are your best source of work. Everyone knows that! So why do firms constantly find themselves having to look for new clients? If you are able to retain your clients they will provide you with a solid foundation to build on. Client retention is paramount!

Why? Because its cheaper to hold onto existing clients than it is to win new ones and it provides the firm will a continuous supply of work.

So why not ask your clients what it is that they like and what they dislike about your firm, the way it operates and performs, how responsive and innovative it is and how user friendly are your staff and associates. Honest feedback from clients (and your supply chain) will help you to deliver the results they want and need i.e. how we can help to improve their lives and business performance. Such information will give you an opportunity to make any necessary changes and improvements which will in turn provide you with a fighting chance to retain their goodwill and friendship, and that will give you the business continuity you desire.

Ensure you are in sufficient contact with your clients i.e. be on their minds not on their nerves, so that they cannot forget you and are always abreast of the progress and improvements you are making.

Past Clients

With regard to your lost or ‘orphaned’ clients you should make a definite decision to go back to them to reactivate your business relationship. After all these people once knew you, liked and trusted you, that is why they entrusted you to do work for them in the first place. This can be done in many ways. Perhaps the easiest is just to pick up the phone and ring someone. You will find out if they are still buying what you provide and whether or not someone else has taken over from where you left off.

It’s unlikely that you will be able to get back into their good books easily and quickly. But if you make that first call and keep in touch you are likely to be given another opportunity at some point in time. So keep knocking on their doors. May be you should do some of the following:

• Send them valuable pieces of information that will help them, this will make them realise that you consider them to be important and worthy of the extra effort.
• Invite them to attend business seminars and events that are likely to be of interest to them
• Keep track of the communications you and your colleagues are having with your past client. Use some form of Customer Relationship Management system to track the evolving extent of the progress you are making.
• In a planned and coordinated way produce information that will help to build knowledge and trust.
• When an enquiry or opportunity to tender is received ensure that it is given the appropriate level of consideration and attention. You don’t want anything to spoil all your hard work do you!

  

Summary

You should at all times strive to:

• Deliver excellent service that exceeds the clients expectations
• Keep in touch at all times by using a variety of methods
• Actively speak to clients to keep abreast of their progress and any changes that are likely to come about. This will give you an insight into their changing nature of their various landscapes i.e. the industry they are in or are serving, and the challenges they are facing.
• Send them useful information about their industry and about their competitors.
• Provide them with copies of all your promotional and technical literature
• Treat them as human beings, be personal and always be helpful and responsive.
• Keep your promises at all times, never let them down but if you do immediately be open, honest and constructive. Put things right, don’t argue who is right!
• Record all communications and transactions between you and your client.

  

If you are having any problems in these areas you know a man who can help you.

FIVE MARKETING TACTICS & TIPS

1. All the factors being equal, launching radio advertisements is a brilliant business idea. Tons of web site owners increase their number of hits using free content.

2. For some, trying display ads is a killer advertising formula. A number of stores create their ad traffic using free videos and free recorded audio messages.

3. Others insist that the use of telemarketing campaigns is a captivating promotional idea. Heaps of service based companies boost their ad ratio using product reviews.

4. For the most part, employing web site ads is a compelling publicity loophole. Most product venders build up their ad investment using bulleted benefits.

5. In particular investing in banner ads is a stunning marketing method. Scores of product retailers grow their ad views using highlighted keywords.

HEADLINES SELL (if you get it right)

If you’re a proficient copy writer words just come to you, it’s so easy!

You think!

I know for a fact that they take hours, days and weeks to come up with something that will really grab a person’s attention. So it’s not easy!

For instance, what do you make of the following headlines?

 ‘JUST RELEASED! (then state the product type, name or benefit)! '

‘EXPOSED!

‘INTRODUCTORY OFFER!

‘IMAGINE!

‘GET EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO!

‘YOUR JUST ONE CLICK AWAY FROM!

‘SAY HI TO!

‘SAY GOODBYE TO!

‘JUST LAUNCHED!

‘FIRE SALE!

‘YOU’RE WORTH IT, TREAT YOURSELF TO!

Did any of the work for you?

Well I suppose you have to know the product or the service and the context within which it is being sold.

Sometimes it helps to reinforce the headline with benefit phrases or bullet points. E.g.:

'An abundant/hypnotic/progressive way... ‘

‘How to use/ward off... '.

'The alternative/ideal/prominent way....’

‘How to upgrade/weaken... '.

‘Amazing/immense/promising ways...’

‘How to understand/ avoid... '.

'One astonishing/important/prosperous way...’

‘How to treat/vanish...’

'An astounding/impressive/proven way...’

‘How to transform/learn....’

‘The attractive/incomparable/pure way...’

‘How to trade/ triumph over... '.

‘Authentic/incredible/qualified ways...’

‘How to study/trim... '.

'One awesome/indestructible/quick way...’

‘How to stretch/terminate... '.

‘A beneficial/indispensable/radical way....’

‘How to strengthen/take away...’

'One advanced/huge/best way...’

If used properly they can help cement the key idea or concept into the readers mind. Try it!

If you need some help you know a man who can

Six Marketing Imperatives

The following are arguably the six most important issues to focus on:

1. Marketing’s Most Important Job is to:

-Retain existing clients

-Reactivate lost clients

-Generate new sales leads

-Position the business and its products and services as the preferred supplier

2. If your Marketing and Sales Team aren’t fully effective, you won’t succeed.

3. Test, in order to know what works and why, thus avoiding expensive marketing initiatives.

4. Differentiate and position yourself, in order to be number one in your field.

5. Sales conversion makes marketing investments pay off

6. Once you have sold something always provide excellent service

Specialist Construction Marketing Strategy & Sales Planning

As a specialist marketing and sales consultancy within the construction industry, we assist clients to market their services and products, help to train their sales professionals and provide business improvement advice. We often receive requests from  SME’s to provide them with marketing strategies, tactics and lead generation tools to help power their business expansion.

Research and planning activities help us to produce marketing strategies, sector plans and even simple ‘I must do lists’ that help businesses to improve their bottom lines.

Specific and thorough research help us to recommend the most appropriate ways forward, taking into account all the relevant issues e.g. viability, positioning, cost and speed and volume of response etc.

Cost effective marketing not only influences prospective clients, it also motivates them to take action i.e. get in touch. We are able to advise on a wide range of alternative solutions to clients various marketing challenges.

If you are considering how to best retain your existing clients, reactive lost clients, enter new markets or sectors, launch a new product, increase lead generation and sales conversion, you know a man who can help you.

In the current extremely hard business climate, we believe that marketing is one of the most important and valuable business investment any firm can make. It is the ultimate way to create a return and leverage your assets!

So what are you waiting for, just do it!

Our Marketing is working...isn’t it?

How do you know if your marketing is working?

Well the answer is in your records.

Why invest in marketing and not be interested in whether or not it is working.

Progress always comes at a price i.e. you get nothing for free!

Tracking can be done relatively simply and cheaply for SME’s.

Try the following:

1.     Make a list of all of your existing clients. 

Choose 20 of your top clients.

2.     Write down how and when they became a client.

Write the details down as accurately as possible.

3.     Make a record of how much they have spent with you.

Don’t miss anything.

4.     List what services you offered them and which they actually bought from you.

Also note if any repeat business was involved.

            

5.     Note how they became a client.  

This can be difficult to determine but be as accurate as possible.

6.     List how much you spent on the marketing activity(s) to get them.

             To the nearest £100 if possible

From the above ‘analysis’ you should be able to see some trends, patterns or common features.

In other words you should be able to see exactly how you're marketing is working and more particularly how cost effective it is in terms of getting new clients.

If you need any help, you know a man who can.

STEVE JOBS

I am currently in process of finalising a presentation entitled “Routes to Market” that I have to deliver next month in Nottingham.

The audience will consist of approximately 150 people from all corners of the construction

Industry with all kinds of different interests, requirements and levels of expertise.

One of the thoughts I was having was associated with Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple and a man who enjoys a reputation for being a master presenter.

Then I receive the news that Steve has died. How utterly sad.

Shortly after I receive an email from John Carlton, who is an expert in copy writing, saying basically how hard the news has hit him personally, i.e.:

“…whilst I never met Steve I feel our lives are intertwined.  I’m writing this on an iMac, using the friendly interface he championed (and forced the “who cares about fonts” geek-dominated virtual world to adopt), while my iPhone sits nearby (buzzing with incoming texts).


There will be plenty written about Steve Jobs and his effect on how we live today
For me, he was the Uber-Entrepreneur.       
     
Dropped out of college because his energy and ideas bristled at the shackles of staid academia.  Aimlessly sought out ways to engage with life on a more grand scale, correctly sensing that the world was about to change fundamentally and forever.


And once that aimless energy locked onto a vision of what could be… he never stopped driving forward

So the passing of Steve Jobs has hit me harder than I thought
it would...

... and I've been thinking about life, and the world
we live in, all day.

… he was so important
to business folk  like you and me...

... and why he'll be uniquely missed (and maybe
never replaced)

…for all the awesome things Steve left us with, his
final gift may be the simple realization to never
take anything for granted...

... and to never let your vision get blunted by
nay-sayers. So seize the day my friend”

I’m sure John’s fine words about Steve will be echoed around the world over the next few days, weeks and months.

Strangely, however, my thoughts have turned to why we in the construction industry seem unable to create people of similar stature. I can’t think of one person that gets close to emulating Steve Jobs achievements, not even say by just 10%!

If any body knows of someone working in or even loosely associated with the construction industry that has similar qualities of vision, passion and knowing what customers and clients want even before they do, then please let me have their contact details. I would like to meet them and I would even be willing to provide free support in order to help them improve the health and welfare of our industry. An industry that brings massive benefits and efficiencies to business, commerce and society as a whole.

Marketing Collateral or an Ego Trip?

I have recently updated some of our pieces of marketing collateral.

One of the pieces I had to review gives the reader an introduction to how I came to found Larchwood and what benefits our wide range of services provide.

 I didn’t find the exercise easy.

How do you think it turned out?

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Introduction

My name is Terry O’Mahony, I specialise in Business – to- Business marketing and sales, and I am founder and CEO of Larchwood Construction Marketing Limited, which is my full service consultancy  dedicated to supporting organisations associated with the construction industry.

During the past twenty years I have been engaged with the marketing and selling of goods and services within the construction industry, for both large and small businesses.

During that time I have worked alongside or on behalf of some of the smartest and successful people in the construction industry.

Research

As a consequence and because I have actively researched what has successfully generated more business  and why, I have been able to developed processes, tactics and tools that will help any size of organisation to retain or generate new clients.

This combination of working with smart people, working on challenging projects and carrying out research over twenty years,  has provided me with the knowledge of what works and why for any product or service to any other form of business.

Systems that bring results

I and my colleagues have thus been able to develop a systematic and practical approach to marketing and sales which will, if applied properly, bring giant returns on investment.

We believe that in the past, currently and probably forevermore, that at a fundamental level, throughout the business world ‘People Buy from People’

Therefore, our approach focuses on how we can help ‘Business People’ to:

·         Plan their ‘Business Development’ activities effectively

·         Create robust marketing and sales systems

·         Reduce client churn

·         Get clients to increase their average spend

·         Deliver higher customer retention

·         Minimise exposure to price driven sales

·         Generate higher quality leads to clients who will spend more , more often, and for longer

·         Increase sales conversion

·         Avoid clients that aren’t profitable or increase risk etc

Since our firms inception we have helped a wide range of organisations improve their abilities to understand the markets and clients they serve, systematise their marketing and sales activities and ultimately generate higher profits.

So is it a bit of ego, vanity or an essential piece of marketing collateral?

If you need any help with a similar challenge you know a man who can help.

BY WHEN? AND WHY?

I have a client, who’s  a self  taught Project Manager

He started out in the construction industry as a ‘Joiner’ and then worked hard to become a very experienced and effective Project Manager. During that time he has developed two favourite questions, by when? And, why?

These two questions put the people he is managing under real pressure because they have to tell him what he needs to know, now!

He insists on full answers that are simple, straightforward and honest.  He uses the information gathered to get the whole team pointing in the right direction, to take sensible steps forward and to do so as economically as possible.

When variations to the plan take place he always implements his favourite questions, because they get him reams of information i.e. they both help to expose and solve problems.

Well, he might be a good PM but he’s not very good at marketing his services! He tends to rely on merely doing a good job in the hope that his efforts are appreciated by someone. Sadly it doesn’t always work out that way for him.

So we put a few alternative suggestions to him that would generate new leads for his services.  He quite liked the sound of our direct mail methodology. I think he liked it because we based it on one of his favourite words, why!

We produced a mailing piece that had the title:

 ‘10 Things You Must knows Before You Employ a Project Manager’.

It contained ten key questions that any potential client needs to know the answers to before he appoints a PM. Of course, and not by coincidence, our client had the necessary combination of qualifications, relevant work experience and knowledge of the particular sector the campaign was aimed at.

Within days of having sent it out, and without any form of follow up, he received four invitations to attend exploratory talks with potential clients. We actually followed up his original mailing with six follow on postcards. The final results ended up with his having received ten requests for discussion and he eventually secured two full fee paying commissions!

So, sometimes it’s important to find out ‘WHY’ something is important and by ‘WHEN’ it needs to be done!

If you need some help with this sort of thing you know a man who can help.