For any business, client relationships are its most precious asset. They are surely more precious than the revenues you’ll receive from the current product you’re marketing through an infomercial or some other pricey market launch.
How dare I say that? Doesn’t everyone know that an aggressive, strategically targeted marketing campaign is the speediest way to get exponential sales?
Call me a tortoise.
Maybe, yes… for your first millions. You might hear the ching-ching-a-ching ring faster into your bank account from that state of the art infomercial aired at the Super Bowl, but at the end of the day, your customers are still a data base of statistics to be used for that next sales campaign.
So what’s wrong with a powerful database of returning customers?
Nothing… it’s great, as long as you keep feeding them more targeted products and services (more variations on the same Chicken Soup theme).Isn’t that the way you’re supposed to grow your business?
Yes, and no.
In a highly competitive marketplace with everyone jumping on everyone else’s bandwagon and paying thousands of dollars for the latest how-to ebook/seminar/workshop/retreat, suddenly you may start to realize that the water in the fishbowl is getting cloudy; the air is starting to smell stale around these used, over-used and often abused marketing strategies.
One of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received came the other day during a teleconference with a prospective client. We were reviewing costs for a publishing and marketing package I’d put together for them to review.
At a break in the conversation, the author exclaimed, “I’ll tell you what I like most about you, Carol. You’re honest. I discussed everything you said to me the other day with my husband and then we spent a long time browsing on your websites. We both agreed that you not only know your business well; you also love what you do and you’re absolutely honest and up front with us about what you can and can’t do for me.”
Wow! Did I deserve all that praise? Well… yes, I did, I told myself. I hadn’t quoted sales projections to this author; I hadn’t told her I could pull rabbits out of hats. I did tell her I loved her book because I did. I also told her it was the best book on that subject that I’d come across in a long time.
Based on those two factors, I said she had a chance to get some good sales for her book and build a loyal readership. She had a chance, an opportunity. By that time in my conversation she knew I meant she could create her own reality of top sales and a loyal, personable customer base by seizing that opportunity I had outlined for her and transforming it into her success story.
That statement was all this author needed to hear. She was ready to dig in.
She also realized that although my company may charge more than one of the many online “fast food self-publishers” for our services, we not only deliver a carefully customized package that surrounds the product with sensible, economic ways; we also work personally with each client to give them our knowledge, experience and support whenever possible. And if we can’t do it ourselves, we contact someone who can.
We build a solid foundation for each of our clients and then offer them a diverse marketing and promotion menu. Based on their budgets, time constraints and goals, our clients know we’re introducing them to the latest production and delivery trends from which they can choose their own add-ons.
Be honest, first with yourself and then with your clients. The intangible rewards will probably far outweigh the tangible ones… and you may still end up owning six houses and a stable of horses, if those are your goals.
My online publishing business is growing almost faster than I can keep up with it; I just finished developing a new hard copy/ebook/marketing package for prospective clients, and I’m discovering I don’t need any sales hype to convince people it will work. Why? Because they know I’m up front about telling them I only give them the kit; they have to construct it themselves.
Client relationships start with honesty - To learn more about this author, visit Carol Adler's Website.
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Carol Adler
(Visit Carol's Website)
Carol Adler, MFA is an entrepreneur,
professional writer, editor and teacher of
English and creative writing. She is
President of Dand
elion Books, LLC, a full service
publishing company that markets its
“uncensored nonfiction, conscious
solutions and unfettered fiction” using
the latest production and delivery
technologies, including on-demand dot.com
networking. She is also President and CEO
of Dandelion Enterprises, Inc.
Adler’s business experience also includes
co-ownership of a Palm Beach, FL public
relations company and executive management
positions in two U.S. rejuvenation and
mind/body wellness corporations for which
she founded publishing divisions.
Her publications include 3 books of
published poetry (3 more soon to be
published), well over two hundred poems in
poetry journals, and several fiction and
non-fiction works.
As a ghost writer, Adler has developed and
written manuscripts for a number of
professionals in the health care and human
potential industries.
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