<strong>Scenario:</strong> <em>"Dude, it's all in the pitching. It's how you present yourself. Wear sexy suits. You'll keep them, forever. F-o-r-e-v-e-r. Yay!"</em> Oh-no-izzle. To keep customers forever, just do this: <span class="highlight"><strong>Provide them value.</strong></span> That's it. Sweet, simple, and much sexier. <h2>How Most Companies Go Wrong with Customers</h2> Yes, customer retention rocks because it <a href="http://www.trizle.com/how-to-grow-your-business/">provides a much greater bang for your buck</a>. Yet, when companies from sea-to-shining-sea try to retain their customers, what do they do? <ul> <li><em>"Let's pitch this product!"</em></li> <li><em>"Dude, you gotta buy this shizzle!"</em></li> <li><em>"You cannot live properly without purchasing!"</em></li> <li><em>"Even your mama wants it!"</em></li></ul> Look well-intentioned-but-misguided-freaks: <span class="highlight"><strong>People don't care about you, your business, or your mama.</strong></span> <span class="highlight">The #1 person in Johnny's world is Johnny.</span> He'd much prefer a story about his high-school-football-playing glory years than your billion-dollar invention. He'd much rather you fetch him his coat than picking up your million-dollar check. With every interaction with you, he's thinking: <span class="highlight"><em>"Why should my badass talk to you? How are you helping me, sucka?"</em></span> So if you're trying to keep him as a customer for life, know how to influence him -- personally. <span class="highlight"><strong>That is, provide him value -- repeatedly.</strong></span> <h2>How to Provide Johnny Value</h2> Say Johnny runs a potato warehouse. You're selling his company your sweet-mutha-good-gosh tea. Your company's purpose: <em>to make the world freakishly healthy</em>. <h3>So, if some incompetent CEO ran your business, what would he/she do?</h3> <ol> <li>Sell tea.</li> <li>End transaction.</li> </ol> <h3>But since you're the bigger badass who's driven to make the world healthy, what do you do?</h3> <ol> <li>Sell tea.</li> <li>Give him yoga/meditation/health books.</li> <li>Provide him deliciously healthy recipes.</li> <li>Send articles about keeping his employees healthy.</li> <li>Look for other ways to provide more value.</li> </ol> <span class="highlight"><strong>Remember: if you're providing real value that helps Johnny's business or his personal life in some way, he'll want you to stick around.</strong></span> You're tapping Johnny's #1 interest: Johnny. <h2>How Providing Value Rocks</h2> Give first. Receive second. That's how the human interaction cycle fundamentally works -- and according to famed psychologist Robert Cialdini, makes relationships beneficial. Cialdini calls it the "reciprocity" factor. Unless your mama dropped you on your head when you were a baby: <span class="highlight">We as freakishly awesome humans want to repay acts of kindness.</span> <span class="highlight"><strong>So, if you're providing amazingly awesome value to their lives, they'll provide amazingly awesome value to yours.</strong></span> <h2>"It seems time-consuming! So, I just provide value to every single customer?!"</h2> Not quite. Here's what we'd do: Take your top 20% most profitable customers, then focus squarely on them. Now, "profitable" could mean past transactions -- but, we'd rather focus on <strong>future profit potential</strong>. Now, "profit potential" could mean: <ol> <li>They have a vast network of personal/business connections.</li> <li>They're aiming for freakishly gigantic goals.</li> <li>They have a filthy big budget.</li> <li><span class="highlight">They're around people who absolutely, irresistibly love them.</span></li> </ol> Of course, the other 80% could provide tremendous value to your business as well. Biggest secret tip we could offer you: Send them your email newsletter that's filled with weekly juicy-good tips. The next time you're looking for a sweet, simple, and sexy way to keep your customers, remember: <h2>Provide freakishly good-and-juicy value.</h2><br /> 2006-12-13T12:38:43+10:00 false 426 how-to-keep-customers-forever 0 2009-11-04T12:00:52+10:00