Most Read
Most E-mailed
E-mail Article
Print Article
Don Farrell is the author of “Ethical Theft...How To Steal Business.” He is a speaker who conducts training workshops and consults select clients on how to create a unique sales and service culture. His clients thrive in recessions or good times alike because they have adopted his philosophy of liberating from the competition. To find out more about Don’s company or to buy his book, you can go to www.FreshRevenues.com. or call (731) 514-1589.
Loyalty, vs. any other adjective or adverb you can come up with, is the best way to approach selling your potential clients for immediate and long term results. Here is the first example of loyalty in a known commodity, selling gas at a gas station.
You own a gas station and you know that the net profit margin is very slim, so you can’t afford to lower prices, or offer freebies as an incentive to picking up and retaining new customers. So how can you create a more loyal customer?
Most gas station customers are probably looking at price and location as the two greatest features. If your price is comparable to the next guy and you are on their way to and from work, then people will more than likely call your gas station theirs. However, this is not much of a loyalty-driving proposition. What if the lighting at your gas station is weak, the window cleaning solution habitually dry, the pumps dirty, or the receipt doesn’t come out? Enough reason(s) to chase customers to the next station? Probably.
What if you, as the owner or manager, not only had these lighting and other operational fundamentals in place, but in addition you also made it a habit of walking the pump area, picking up trash and talking to your customers. What would happen if you said “Hi, my name is _____ and I own/manage this station. If you need anything I will be out here or just inside. Thanks for using us for your gas needs.” When is the last time you received this kind of a free benefit at a gas station?
Customers would probably be blown away they wouldn’t expect it. This is the first step in driving loyalty … exceeding expectations.
Marriage minded?
Let’s try another example, one that has repeated hundreds of times. You are a 25-year-old woman who is planning her wedding.
Like all women and men you want this day to be perfect, one of the very best of your entire life. You are getting ready to make the most important phone calls that will determine how your special day will go and the area that more things can go wrong or right. That’s right, we are talking about the reception facility. How many places will the bride-to-be call to set up an appointment to meet with the catering staff to then determine which facility wins her trust? Three, four, five?
Regardless of how many, she will more than likely have a conversation with an experienced wedding planner who focuses on 3 things, three very selfish things: rates, dates and space.
Those will be the three things the catering veteran will want to know in determining whether they even wants this bride’s business.
She may be a veteran wedding planner, but has learned how not to have a customer centric approach to selling or driving loyalty with that soon to be bride. So rule # 2 in driving loyalty with your potential and existing customers/clients is to make an emotional connection.
Loyal lessons
If you go into your wallet you will see that you have a fair amount of frequency or loyalty program cards, some from competing brands of each other.
