Recently I was in south Florida seeing a one of my mentors. Jack Walsh, founder of Money Concepts International, is a pioneer in the financial planning business. Jack gve me some of my first opportunities as a speaker and he and his colleague Keith Dayley were masters of sales training. He did a lot in the 80’s and 90’s to help me (and many others) grow my business, and I flew down and spent the better part of a wonderful day with him. But a trip to south Florida demands you also head to the beach!

As I enjoyed the late afternoon sea breezes, I watched a seeming endless parade of airplanes towing advertising banners. Most involved local bars and restaurants. All of a sudden, a little girl who could not have been more than SIX YEARS OLD looked up and yelled, “Look Mom…It’s GEICO!” Sure enough, there was the GEICO gecko! What does a little girl know about insurance? Nothing… but she knows GEICO. There may be a slight possibility that she calls GEICO some day. The bigger possibility is that her mom, who has seen the same commercials all over the media, might just remember GEICO the next time she gets a premium increase. This is a company that has mastered marketing.

What do YOU do to make sure your customers never forget you; that they think about you often, especially when making a buying decision? I suggest a system that helps you manage the activity of staying in touch and building relationships. For example, my best customers and prospects usually get one phone call, one email, and one envelope from me every month. The call is usually business AND personal. The email might have a helpful tip or website link, and the envelope will contain articles or resources selected just for them. In addition, many of them bookmark or get an RSS feed for my blog on their web browser dashboard (if you haven’t, please do so!). I reach out with appropriate gifts and expressions of appreciation, usually when least expected.

What do YOU do make certain you have top-of-mind presence with YOUR best customers? Are your competitors one step below or one step above you in the hierarchy of customer buying decisions? Let me know if I can help.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: financial planning, speaker, sales training

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 4:56 am and is filed under Marketing Ideas, Practice Management. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.