"The Most INSANE and EXPENSIVE  Marketing MISTAKE Most Business Owners Make and How To AVOID IT."

From the desk of Frank Prieto:

Today I want to share with you one of the biggest mistakes we make in business. That is to focus most of our efforts on chasing new customers, while failing to nurture and build lasting relationships with our existing clients.

It is crucial for your business or professional practice to have a continuous flow of new clients, but taking for granted your existing loyal customers or patients is like pouring fresh water into a leaky bucket. If you don’t plug up the holes in the bucket you’ll continuously lose loyal customers that feel neglected or taken for granted.

You might say that you’re always going to lose a percentage of customers. This is true, but going back to the bucket analogy; loosing water by evaporation is not the same as losing it by allowing it to leak through the holes you can plug up. You can’t control evaporation (clients that move away, go out of business or die,) but you can surely plug up the holes in your leaky bucket so you stop losing clients that feel neglected or unappreciated.

This is an ongoing problem you find with most businesses, and the larger the business the bigger the holes in the bucket.

Do you penalize your loyal existing clients in an attempt to attract new ones?

I always find it amusing but sad, when I see a coupon or promotional offer limited to “New Customers ONLY.” Think about this for a minute... What this coupon is really saying is this;

“Offer good for new customers only. If you’re a current loyal customer we’ve already gotcha! We really don’t need to give you a discount. We can just take you for granted because we’ve already got your business.”

Do you think I’m kidding?

I’m not... Just think about these statistics for a minute;

Why do you lose customers?

• 1% die 
• 3% move away 
• 5% follow a friends or relatives advice and change 
• 9% change because they perceive a better value is available elsewhere 
• 14% change because of product or service dissatisfaction 
• 68% leave because they don’t feel “wanted” or “valued”  

Next time you run a promotion, you could segment your list properly so you have two different messages-- one for prospects and another for customers. If you run an ad in a newspaper, magazine or any other medium that can be accessed by both segments, wouldn’t it be much smarter to have the coupon read something like this instead...

“10% discount for new customers only. If you’re a current customer, mention this ad when you come in and receive a special customer appreciation gift.”

If you were an existing patron of this business and saw that coupon, would it make you feel appreciated? I think you get the point.

In my early twenties when I was a “hot-dog”, I listened to motivational audio cassette tapes by the legendary Earl Nightingale. Mr. Nightingale was a master at motivation with both logical and emotional triggers that would make a dramatic impact in your thinking.

To this day, I still remember the story he told of “Acres of Diamonds.” It’s a true story about an African farmer who sells his farm and goes in search of diamond mines throughout the African continent. I’d tell you the rest of the story, but nobody tells it better than Earl Nightingale himself.

Side Note: You can get plenty of information on Earl Nightingale by clicking the Nightingale-Conant link in the Resource Directory of this website.

I refer to this story in this article because it is very relevant to the numbers that follow   below. These are ratios according to the “father or modern management” the late Peter Drucker.   

• Your business has a 1:14 chance of doing business with someone you’ve never done business with before.
  
  
• You have a 1:4 chance of doing business with someone you’ve had a relationship but have stopped.
  
  
• AND you have a 1:2 chance of doing business with an existing customer.
  
  

So what does this mean? It means you should stay in constant contact with your customers. Communicate with them through a newsletter. Send them birthday cards. Offer them special promotions designed only for loyal existing customers. Have customer appreciation week promotions. Send them thank you cards, etc., etc.

They will reward you with their continued loyalty and trust, and refer you to their friends and family

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Discover how to plug up the holes in your leaky bucket and get all the referrals you can handle WITHOUT EVER having to ask... Click here now.