Secrets to Success
Secrets to Success
Triple your net
profits with loyaltyPart two of a three-part series
You've worked long and hard to acquire your clients, and now you want to keep them, right? With loyalty comes an increase in the lifetime of a patron, the frequency of their purchases from you, and the amount they spend per sale. All of these benefits of loyalty come to your company without you having to increase your overhead one cent. The increased business revenues go directly to the bottom line.
Last week in part one of this three-part "action series" we laid the foundation for boosting your net profits through client loyalty. You learned how just by making some simple shifts in the words you use to identify patrons of your business, the way your clients are treated and their resulting loyalty would change as well. If you started implementing these principles over the past week, I'm sure you've already started to recognize some noticeable improvements in the way you and your team respond to your clients.
As promised, this week in part two you will learn one simple principle with five key points and how mastering these points can unlock an exponential, positive impact on your net profits.
Principle No. 1: Focus on the client, not on your product or service.
I assume that you are continuously proving yourself valuable to current clients and re-selling them on a regular basis. That's part of business. How easy or difficult the re-selling process is will depend on your focus. If your business is to survive, it is critical that you constantly seek to understand what the client needs, demands and/or wants. This must be your primary focus.
Discovering what the client wants is easier than you think. It starts with the fundamental basics that all clients want, regardless of the service or product they are looking to invest in. They call out in unison for five key needs to be met, or exceeded.
>> Benefits: Clients only care about the benefits you are bringing to them today. Continuously provide new benefits and gently remind your clients of current/past benefits. This can be done through reminder notices, special promotions only for current clients, or introductions of new products/services being offered to current clients first.
>> Quality and convenience: Today's client doesn't just want -- he expects -- a high quality product/service. "Quality" as so many businesses advertise, has no real meaning any more. You must clearly define why your product or service is the best in specific terms that your client can easily understand. And, your product/service must be delivered in a convenient manner or clients will look elsewhere. Today's client expects you and your team to have an urgency about how "doing business with you" is a convenience. If you give your clients what they want and how they want it -- that is quality.
>> Dependability and consistency: In order for a quality-oriented business to build client loyalty it must also be backed up with dependability and consistency. Systems within your company have everything to do with dependability and consistency. You need solid, proven systems to ensure that dependability and consistency are optimized within your business every day.
>> Prompt response to "issues": Even in the best-run business, things sometimes go awry. That is understandable to most clients, but you must respond quickly when something does go wrong. Your response will set you apart from your competition.
>> Price: This is the last and the least important when it comes to loyalty for most clients. Once you have the confidence of your clients you will rarely have your costs questioned. Especially when you're adhering to the above guidelines and your service is par none.
By taking these simple steps, you will create partners out of your clients. These methods work. I've personally used these principles to attract clients who invested $13 million in services from a previous company.
Check next week for part three of this action series; where you will learn two more principles you can apply to unlock client loyalty and its resulting exponential positive impact on your net profits.
If you would like to read the action report version of this article, examples and action steps, send me an e-mail and I'll make sure you get a copy.
John-Paul Micek is the lead business coach
and chief operating officer of RPM Success Group. Reach
him at JPM@RPMsuccess.com or (888) 334-8151.