Follow-up: Set it and forget it #TBT

Today's blog post was originally published last year:

Customers and clients are a lot like spouses...you may love them but if you don't let them know from time to time, they may leave you!

You work hard to get that new client, but unless you work hard to keep them, somebody will work just as hard to take them away.

There are all kinds of statistics out there, such as 70% of customers leave because of perceived indifference; it costs 10 times as much to get a new customer as it costs to keep an existing customer; etc. The most important thing to remember is that the most difficult person to sell to is someone who's never bought from you before, while the easiest person to sell to is an existing customer.

A couple of more statistics: you lose 10% of your influence for every month that you don't have contact with someone, and it takes 90% of people four or more contacts before they make a buying decision, but only 10% of salespeople or marketers follow up that many times; which means that 90% of salespeople are fighting over 10% of the market. What's even worse is that 50% don't follow up at all, but only 2% of people make a buying decision right away.

Yes or no?

Let's talk now about how to set and forget your follow-up. If you have a client's (or prospect's) mailing address and birthday, you can keep in touch with them 7 times over the coming year, automatically. SendOutCards will send out a birthday card, a holiday card, a Thanksgiving card, plus another card for each of the 4 seasons and you don't have to do anything after you input their contact information. And all for about $18.25 per year, including sales tax and postage (the total may be a little more or less depending on your sales tax rate), which comes out to a nickel a day.

According to the Master Relationship Marketing training offered by SendOutCards, 80% of contacts with a customer or prospect should be about building the relationship, while 20% can be marketing. The 7 cards in the campaign mentioned above are all geared to building the relationship. You can add one or two other cards to maybe offer a promotion or to ask for the business (from a prospect) or ask for a referral (from a customer). DO NOT do any marketing with the 7 cards in the campaign! You can put some marketing on the back panel, but to be even more effective you can add a tip or quote on the back of each card. As a relationship marketing specialist, I can add a relationship marketing tip to the back of each card. No matter what business you're in, you can do the same thing, Your clients and prospects will be more willing to buy or refer because you've added value to your relationship before asking for something in return.

So, reach out to me and I can get you set up whether you're an existing customer or not.

The numbers are actually a bit better now...you can send the same 7 cards for about $16 now if you sign up for the right subscriptions and add-ons.

Interesting days

Today - Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day, Spicy Hermit Cookie Day, America Recycles Day, Use Less Stuff Day, Beaujolais Nouveau Day, Philanthropy Day, Human-Animal Relationship Awareness Week, Bundt Cake Day, Social Enterprise Day and I Love to Write Day

Tomorrow - Have a Party with Your Bear Day, Fast Food Day, Human-Animal Relationship Awareness Week, Button Day and International Day for Tolerance

Next Thursday -  Go For A Ride Day, Cranberry Relish Day, Day of Mourning, Turkey Free Thanksgiving, Beaujolais Nouveau Day and  Blue Christmas

December 15 - Lemon Cupcake Day, Cat Herders Day, International Tea Day, Cupcake Day nd A Blue Christmas