As I write and post this week's blog we are about to enter the last quarter of 2012. It also ushers in the busy time of the year with Halloween, Thanksgiving and then the Christmas and New Year holidays. Lots to think about and lots to do. It can have your head spinning in several directions.
Most of us begin to think of the new calendar year and make plans on how we will attack the market so we can grow our sales and profits and this is certainly a very important aspect of planning the new year. Some of you may even pull out your business plan, blow off the dust and see what it says and review how you have done (or haven't done). You may even find some things in your business plan you forgot were there.
Talking about forgetting, there is one thing I want to remind you to not forget---YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS. So often we get so busy trying to add new customers we forget about the ones feeding our families at the present time. The month of November in the United States brings us the Thanksgiving holiday when we are to pause and give thanks for all the wonderful blessings we have. Let me offer a couple of suggestions that may just help you keep those valuable customers you already have. Remember, it costs much more to bring on new customers than it does to retain the existing ones. We so often forget that in our fast paced, get new business environment.
1. Why not send a letter to each of your customers, PERSONALLY SIGNED, thanking them for their support and business this past year and telling them how much you look forward to serving them in the future. It is common practice to send holiday greetings at Christmas time wishing everybody a happy holiday season but sending a letter to our customers at Thanksgiving time can be much more effective because they don't get that type of correspondence often, if at all. How many Christmas cards do you get? 100? 200? more? How many Thanksgiving letters do you receive? 5? 10? NONE? Exactly.
We started this process several years ago and many of our customers called to thank US for thinking of them. I thanked them but the personal phone call gave me a chance to reiterate what we said in the letter that they were greatly appreciated. Almost of all them said they got hundreds of Christmas cards each year that they didn't read but a Thanksgiving letter caught their attention and was greatly appreciated. I almost always would add a personal note as I signed the letters I was responsible for, offering a special thank you.
If you choose to do this, let me suggest you have the letter signed by the person most familiar with the customer. I think it makes it much more personal to do it this way but the important thing is to let the customer know how much they mean to us.
2. A procedure that may even be more effective than the letter might be having you and your staff visit EVERY customer in person during the month of November to do nothing but say "THANK YOU" for the business. Some of your customers may be shocked to see you visiting them for something other than requesting a price increase (hopefully I am just kidding). A sincere thank you can go a long way in solidifying a customer relationship. You never know, you may even be able to get some new business while you are there but always remember the purpose of the visit is to let the customer know how much you appreciate them.
A few years ago, there was a commercial on television where the owner of the company called all of his managers into a meeting and gave them each a plane ticket to go and visit their customers. It was a commercial for an airline but it was powerful in that his comments were that we have all of these wonderful electronic things like internet, cell phones, go to meetings.com, etc. etc. but we should not forget the importance of making visits in person to thank our customers. Your competitors are visiting your customers, don't you think you should as well? Thanksgiving time is a perfect time to visit them eye to eye. Try it, you'll like it.
Hundreds of people in 14 countries read this blog each week and many thousands more listen to our tripodcasts every week so I can't personally visit each of you but I can say THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all the support you have given us. This year of 2012 is BY FAR the best year we have had. Our DVD's, CD's and books all have set records for sales made and our business to business consulting service has more than doubled this year over last year. Again let me say THANK YOU. We look forward to 2013 with great anticipation.
Till next time.
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