In marketing, we’re always on the move. Always on the hunt or a new lead, a new prospect, a new buyer. We celebrate brand awareness and champion a bolstered bottom-line. But today, we’re going to throw all of that out the window for a moment and talk about focusing on the now. Sure, it’s important to have three vantage points:
- An understanding of the past
- Two eyes on the now
- And a pulse on looking for ways to fuel the future
That said, fueling the future might be to the detriment of not looking at what you have now and servicing it as best you can.
As it stands, we’re in the midst of a very strange time as marketers, and as general service providers across the board. With the unknown of a looming financial crisis, people aren’t spending like they normally would. Some are keeping expenditures to a minimum in the event a recession takes deeper hold. So, it’s hard to bank on net new business when people aren’t confident about their own returns.It’s a fair question. Many will tell you that not looking ahead is imminent death in the world of business. And I understand that. You have to be mining for new opportunities. It’s imperative. With that said, new opportunities are often best served by the most organic version of marketing that exists – word of mouth. Word of mouth, a recommendation from a satisfied customer, is marketing, and new business GOLD. That said, word of mouth can, on the flipside, also be of great detriment – it can be a cancer to a business.
What I’m getting at here is, a large percentage of today’s businesses are driven by a small, core team. That core team wears many hats, and, one of them is the sales hat. You put your hat on in the morning, you head to the office (which may double as the kitchen table these days…) and you’re excited to check your email and get busy on harvesting new sales. You’ve got a goal to hit, and you’re going to hit it, no matter what…
But, what about the services you owe to those you’ve already closed the deal on? We live in a culture that thrives on selling. Sell, sell, sell… But once the sale has gone through, services rendered may wane. And that is bad for business.
Focus on your current pool of clients. Focus on delivering the promises you’ve made with them, and, go beyond. Be sure that the words that come out of their mouth are solid words of praise. Because if they’re happy, they’re going to want to let the world to know. And guess what? From solid praise, comes new business.If you lose sight of that, and focus on production second and new business first, you’re doing it backwards. You’re upsetting your pool of customers, and, on the flipside of letting the world know about the good they’ve experienced, they’re even MORE likely to share what isn’t working for them. And once word gets around, a reputation has been forged, for better or worse. Where a negative light is cast, so heightens the challenge of getting new clients to walk through the door.
Don’t forget the people that made your business what it is. That bottom-line thought is, in fact, your bottom-line. Deliver on your sale, and let the work you owe from that sale do the talking. When you find the time in the midst of that good work to foster new relationships, do it. There comes a rewarding lack of sleep when you’re driving a small to medium sized business. We get it. If you need help with the marketing process while you’re busy knocking the socks off of your client pool, we can help…
Invest in your loyal customer base. Digest what they’re looking for. Deliver the results they crave. The rest will take care of itself…
