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It’s Not What is Your Most Valuable Asset, but Who!

Written by: Elizabeth Ruiz

Article Overview: Your relationship with your customers is the only asset you have that can be kept safe from every threat to your profits and made to appreciate every year. It’s more than a list of customer names and information. It’s the relationship you cultivate with your customers. Are you letting your largest asset shrivel up? If you do you’re losing money.

It’s Not What is Your Most Valuable Asset, but Who!

Your relationship with your customers is the only asset you have that can be kept safe from every threat to your profits and made to appreciate every year. It’s more than a list of customer names and information. It’s the relationship you cultivate with your customers. Are you letting your largest asset shrivel up? If you do you’re losing money.

A customer or prospect list loses about 10% of its value each month that it’s neglected. Your list will be worth less than random names pulled from the phone book in 11 months.

Get a jump on your competitors by doing a better job than most about managing this asset. Nearly every business owner does a horrible job of maintaining customer relationships. They take this valuable asset for granted and refuse to invest in it.

And they abuse this asset by communicating with their customers only when asking for money. You can’t maintain customer relationships with an occasional, random sales flyer sent out once or twice a year.

Do you like your so called friends that only call when they need money? No of course not, so how can you expect your customers to appreciate you if they only hear from you when you want them to buy something?

Part of maintaining the relationship involves communicating interesting, entertaining, informative, personal and commercial information. One way to do this is by becoming an expert in your field.

Become the expert!

Don’t wait for someone to anoint you as an expert. Declare yourself the expert. Your target market will want to know who you are and why they should listen to you, believe you and trust you. Incorporate authority, credibility, celebrity and an overwhelming amount of proof in your communications.

Give the customer what they want. Tell them what your business is about. Explain why they should choose you vs. every other option. Show them what you are like (so they can understand you) but also how are you unique. Subway is like fast food but healthier.

Send out tip sheets, articles, latest industry news, little known facts, recipes, testimonials, how to better use your products and services. You can also use teleseminars which you can record and give away as freemium (a no charge premium gift). Create Podcasts, write a Blog, do public speaking with local interest groups all to build your credibility as an expert in your field.

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Article Tags: client list, customers, profits, relationship



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