Relationship marketing is a powerful tool that you must use to grow your computer consulting business. Relationship marketing is how I turned a simple website demo into $175,000 in service revenue over a period of a few years. When you use relationship marketing you don't waste your money on risky display advertisements, you don't have to cold call, you don't have to do any door to door selling, and best of all you don't even feel like you are selling.
Relationship marketing centers on conveying the right kind of professional image all of the time. It is crucial that in every situation you find yourself in, you remember that you are marketing your business. You are your business so what people think of you they will also think of your business.
Another important key to remember with relationship marketing is that every person you meet presents an opportunity to forge a relationship. Obviously networking opportunities are important to remember. But the area of relationship marketing that many people forget about is developing relationships within the businesses you serve.
You may have gotten a lead from one person at a company. Or you may have one key contact at a business you currently service. Those who are savvy at relationship marketing know that one contact is never enough. People change jobs and companies all the time. You don't want to lose a potential client or service contract because your key contact is no longer around.
When you use relationship marketing correctly you will develop relationships with more than one person at any business you enter. Think of every person as a potential source of business. Make sure you expand the scope of your accounts to at least a couple of people with whom you have a solid relationship.
The Bottom Line on Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is a critical element in your overall marketing strategy. You must always be aware of how you are presenting yourself. You never know when or where you will meet the next person with whom your relationship flourishes into a whole lot of business. The beauty of relationship marketing is that it seems like effortless selling but it is really the most powerful and effective marketing tool you can use.
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Relationship Marketing and Your Computer Consulting Business
Building A Strong Downline Relationship In Your Direct Sales Business
Congratulations! You've got a strong direct sales downline or are beginning to build one! This is one of the best parts of being a direct sales consultant, - the fact that you can share your passion for your business with others, help them to earn a little extra money and get paid for helping grow your company as well.
Now that you are a leader of a team, you'll need to build a strong relationship with downline members to not only help them stay strong in their business, but to help your business grow stronger as well. A strong downline relationship will be one that's mutually helpful and everyone benefits.
But you may be wondering how to insure that downline members feel cared for while still maintaining some type of balance with the rest of your life. Here are 5 easy tips for maintaining a great upline/downline relationship.
1. Start off with a bang. When a new recruit first signs up, it's vitally important that you communicate often with her. One thing that I have found very helpful here is to develop a series of emails to send to new downline that talks them through those first days "on the job".
It will help them feel like they are connected to the company and to you. Each day while your new recruit is waiting for her kit she should hear from you. This is very easy to do with an autoresponder system, but can also be done by just copying and pasting into an email message every morning.
2. 15 minutes a day. Set aside fifteen minutes of each workday for downline phone calls. Use those minutes to call one to five members of your group for a quick "just checking in" call. Leave a message if you get voicemail. The idea is to let them know that you're thinking of them and giving them a chance to hear your voice. This is a great time to ask how they're doing with their non-business life as well and get beyond your direct sales company to show you care about them.
3. A downline website. Creating a simple website for my group has been the best thing, by far that I did to keep communication open and strong with my group. We have weekly topic discussions, contests, upload important files and just have fun with the whole group. Through this many relationships between members of my group have blossomed just because the website allowed them to "break the ice".
4. Meetings and/or conference calls. This is another great way to foster unity and strong relationships within your group. Many of you probably have downline that are out your area, so have a quarterly conference call with everyone just to touch base. There are many free teleconference services via the internet that make it very easy to do. And if you can, have a face-to-face meeting once in a while as well. Some group leaders have meetings monthly or quarterly. Others do a once a year get together with everyone.
5. Ecards. I love ecards for celebrating birthdays, achievements etc. First of all it's FREE, which is great, but it's so convenient and just plain fun. Use one of those Internet calendar functions to keep track of birthdays. Once a month go through the upcoming month and set up the ecard deliveries for the birthdays and company anniversary dates for the next month or more. You can set these up to deliver up to a year in advance! It's a wonderful thing. There are hundreds of sites for free ecards on the Internet.
The key? Communicate in any and every way that you can. You will find that your direct sales team members will stay with your company much longer when you've fostered a strong relationship by keeping in touch! Have fun and happy team building!
Building a Strong Business Relationship
When it comes to business and sales, building a strong relationship is critical. The stronger your relationship is with your customer, the more likely they will be to refer you business.
Every day, make an attempt to build on the relationships you have with your customer. Don’t just say hi as they walk in and goodbye as they leave.
The last thing you want to do is make your customer feel like a statistic.
Let them know that their business with you is appreciated. Talk to them, strike up a non-business conversation with them. It could involve just about anything, such as the weather, sports, a movie, pets, etc.
Non-business conversation puts your customer at ease and gets them talking. The more they talk to you, the more they will open up to you, opening the door for more sales opportunities.
Or, you can keep it simple. For starters, get to know you customers by name, than address them by name. Say things such as, “how’s it going today?” Or “how was your weekend?” Or “is there anything I can help you with today?” Make your presence known and felt.
Your customer wants to be appreciated, so take a few minutes of your time to show them that you care about them as a customer.
Another way to strengthen your relationship with your customer is to keep a Rolodex handy with a list of all of your customers birthday’s, anniversaries, and special events. Keep your eyes and ears open for when customers talk about up coming events in their lives. Such as children’s birthdays and graduations.
When the appropriate date approaches, send your customer a card, wether it is a holiday card, a birthday card, a graduation card, or a congratulatory card. Just send it.
Your customers will appreciate the fact that you remembered them on their special day. This will only strengthen the relationship you already have with them.
There are many reasons to build a strong relationship with your customer, but two of the reasons remain to be key.
One main reason is that customers value and appreciate good customer service. They want the piece of mind of knowing that if something ever happened with their product or service, that they would have you to turn to as their go to person.
This is extremely important because your customer will have this in mind when your competition moves in to take them away.
And believe me, your competition will try to take them away. As long as you provide excellent customer service, your customer will stick with you.
There is no substitute for excellent customer service.
Customer service is the most important thing to a customer, even more important than fees’.
The second reason building relationships are so important is because of the referral process.
A customer that is treated with respect and provided excellent customer service will most assuredly refer their family and friends to you. Why wouldn’t they?
Your most important asset is your customer, so build and strengthen the foundations you have with them. Buy building strong relationships, you will be building your sales. Good luck.
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