When we attend networking events, we hear the self-promotion
of those who want to develop us as their customers. We also hear the same
messages in the literature of other business people. Everyone wants to tell us
how great they are, how wonderful their products or services are, or how we
cannot live another minute without becoming their customers.
We are told that our lives will be better, we will live
longer, run faster, jump higher, we will be happier, healthier, smarter, wiser,
or richer, or we will have better relations with the opposite sex. This
self-promotion tells us that these business people are the saviors of our lives
and we are so lucky to be able to become their customers.
These networkers have always been taught that the way to
building their businesses was to proclaim to the world how great they were and
how wonderful their products or services were. All our business lives others
have told us that this was the way to woo prospects to become customers and those
customers would buy from us and make us successful. What if there was another,
better, and easier way?
How do we feel about someone who constantly tells us how
great they are, how much better they are than everyone else, and how they are
the end-all to all the problems that everyone has? Don’t we get tired of all
the self-promotion? Don’t we see through the hype and the ravings? What if
business owners showed us how much they value our business and let us judge
their products and services for ourselves?
What if business owners showed us how much they appreciated
our business, and our input to them, and actually thanked us for being their
customers? Would we believe that they were people with whom we actually wanted
to do business, and wouldn’t we want to recommend them to others who might also
enjoy being their customers? Would we become clients instead of customers, clients
who buy repeatedly from them?
We all like to be noticed and appreciated. We all like to be
thanked for whatever we do for others. Customers who stop engaging in business
with us do so because they believe that we take them for granted. They believe
that they have been abandoned and ignored. There is always someone who will
speak with them and attempt to gain their business. We need to make them
remember us as being grateful for their business.
We must continue to engage our partners and pay attention to
their needs. If we don’t have whatever they need, we may be able to refer them
to someone who does have the solutions to their problems. When we helped them,
we paid attention to them, assisting them in discovering the solutions to their
needs.
It costs us 10 times the time, money, and effort to get a
new customer than it costs to keep one. If a customer considers themselves
valued, they will refer business to us and make us successful. Gratitude Marketing,
making customers know that we are grateful for them, will bring us so much more
success than our own self-promotion can.
How do we show our gratitude and appreciation for our
customers? How do we make them know how much we appreciate and value their
business and referrals? What does Gratitude Marketing really mean to you? Please
leave me your comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com,
or call me at 360-314-8691.