Your customers are never just “yours.”
When I started blogging, I finished several blogging courses to learn everything about SEO. After that, I bought books, subscribed to various newsletters.
When I started my self-improvement, I did the same with one difference. This time, I didn’t finish only courses, but I paid for weekly motivational meetings from Robert Hollis and Mark S and bought many books from Tony Robbins, Eben Pagan, T Harv Eker, etc…
When I started with my business, I finished a lot of marketing and copywriting courses from Russel Brunson, Todd Brown, Traffic and Funnels, Jim Edwards, AWAI, Sean Ogle, and much more.
Did you notice the scheme?
When you want to master something, you don’t buy from one place. Instead, you buy from all experts in that field. You subscribe to their newsletters, purchase additional books…
The same is with your customers.
- They buy from you but also buy from your competition. And that’s important to remember.
- You never really “own” a customer.
- If you want to keep your customers, offer them always something new. Offer them new products with a significant perceived value for them.
- Send them emails regularly and inform them about your progress.
- Offer them discounts and make them feel important to you.
- People buy from you if you know, like, and trust you.
Please don’t treat them as short term relationship
Treat them as something valuable, and they will treat you the same way
Make an effort to reach out and reward your partners
As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we are often painted as loners; either we’ve started something for ourselves, or we’re at the head of a business, and that -in itself- can be a lonely place.
One example is Steve Jobs– without doubt a visionary- he built Apple up not once but twice. However, his management style was very much his way or the highway. He had a singular vision that, in some ways, made him a prickly man to work for and with.
He generally kept quite a tight hand on the ship that was Apple, and under his reign, no product or concept launched unless he was entirely behind it.
But as with all things, looks can be deceiving. In many ways, even the most consummate entrepreneurial loner does have partners.
There are suppliers and contacts that we prefer to deal with. Invariably we will have one or two people we lean on for support heavier than others. They may be employees, or they may be family members. But naturally, those people that we trust are partners in our business, as an integral and essential part of whether they are on the payroll or not.
No venture is succeeded solely by one person. No matter how good they are, there are always other people involved as well. So we as entrepreneurs and business leaders need to recognize and respect the efforts of those people on whom we choose to rely.
Look around yourself and your business. Who are the unsung heroes that helped you get to where you are? It could be your family, that loyal employee who always puts in the extra time when needed, or it could be that supplier on the end of a phone that always goes the extra mile to make sure you have what you need when you need it.
Would you please make an effort to reach out and reward these partners for the faith they’ve had in you?
