Make it easy for your customers to do business with you. This concept is so important to developing and building stronger customer relationships that I’m going to focus just on that for a moment.

As a customer, have you ever walked into a place and heard the phrase “That’s our policy?” Those words are like a slap in the face with a cold, dead fish. I’m certain you don’t like hearing it, and I certainly didn’t appreciate that approach to my seemingly altered check at the bank. Well, neither do your customers! Even if you fill a very unique niche with your product or service, if you stand on policy or your terms and conditions at every turn, customers will figure out how to get what they need from someone else.

Have you ever tried to glue something, only to find that the glue was actually stronger than what you applied it to, so the end result was another break?

The same thing can happen when trying to stick like glue to your customers. If your foundation isn’t very strong, the best glue in the world won’t help you.

Your foundation is the relationship you have with your customers. It is your level of customer service—the way your business treats and values customers.

In order to succeed in any business, excellent customer service is paramount. I’ve always stood on the principle that you can never go too far with customer service.

Bill Glazer, internationally recognized marketing expert and president of Glazer Kennedy Insider’s Circle^TM, uses the phrase, “Inspect what you expect.” By that, he means that you should honestly evaluate how your company is addressing your customers.

How? There are two excellent ways.

1)  You can pose as a customer, or

2)  You can have someone play that role on your behalf—this is known as mystery shopping

Keeping ’Em

It’s far easier, and much more cost-effective, to keep the customers you have rather than trying to attract new ones. It’s also much more profitable.

In other words, fix your leaky bucket rather than constantly add more water.

Selling more goods and services to customers you already know (and who know you) is far easier than constantly making first-time sales.

Think about it. Who would you rather call: a customer who you know will probably buy, or someone you’ve never met, to whom you’ll have to explain your product or service and convince them it’s got value and that you are a trustworthy and reputable business?

Ninety-nine entrepreneurs out of a hundred will pick the first choice. It’s easier, and there’s a greater likelihood for a positive outcome: a sale!

Your existing customers find value in what you offer, and they trust you. That’s why they’re your customers.

Building trust and rapport is the constant hurdle in cold-calling and prospecting. Nearly every new customer is distrusting at the beginning of a sales cycle.

Evaluate yourself as a consumer. When dealing with a new vendor, do you immediately trust the person/business? Probably not, unless they’re a referral or have a long list of rock-solid testimonials. Even then, you may not trust them until you’ve verified the information for yourself. Your prospects are no different. Why should they be?

The first four of those obstacles are difficult enough to overcome. Why burden your efforts by having to clear the trust hurdle as well? With your existing customers, you don’t have to. You’ve already established trust and rapport.

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, how do you compete? How can you get more customers so you can increase your profits? Whatever marketing method or methods you use, it takes a lot of time, energy, and resources.

Maybe you’ve got sales representatives pounding the pavement and touting your products or services. If so, you know the expenses involved: commissions, benefits, mileage reports, quotas, training, and the list goes on.

Even if you opt for networking to spread the message about your company, you’ve still got to make a time investment, and, as an entrepreneur, you know that time really is money. How can you compete? How can you get customers?

Even if you’ve got the best marketing campaign in place and the most successful sales staff, you’ve got to track every effort to determine what’s working and what’s not. Failing to measure results is one of the quickest roads to business failure. How can you possibly know where to invest your efforts and resources without knowing what’s working and what’s not? If you’re guessing, you might as well throw your hard-earned money into the wind and hope for the best.

There’s no question about it—getting new customers has always been tough business, and in this current difficult economy, it’s even more so! Getting ’em is very tough.

Is there a better way to grow your business?

I’m glad you asked. There is.

As an entrepreneur, you know just how difficult it can be to get new customers, so once you get them, you want to be sure to keep them…to be sure they “stick” around.

Marketing to Get New Customers Is Tough

Think about all the advertisements you see on any given day. If there’s a space, there’s an ad. Newspapers, magazines, billboards, the sides of buses, the roofs of taxicabs, hotel keys, and flip-down trays on airplanes all carry ads. There are even ads on the backs of bathroom stall doors.

Television and radio have long been supported by advertising, and you’ll probably agree that the amount of broadcast advertising seems like it’s surpassing actual programming content.

We’re also exposed to a constant stream of messages vying for our attention online. Search ads, flash animation, pop-up boxes. With every click, there’s another advertisement!

There’s no escaping marketing messages.

Marketing to get new customers can be expensive and time-consuming. How can you compete? How can you get customers into your business?

Despite the rise of the Internet, direct mail advertising is still not only viable, it is incredibly effective. Just look in your mailbox if you don’t agree. It’s filled with postcards and letters enticing you to open them and read them. It must be working, or businesses wouldn’t continue using this time-tested marketing method.

Unfortunately, direct mail advertising can be expensive and time-consuming. You’ve got to develop a campaign (or pay someone else to do it), design and print the ads (or pay someone else to do it), buy and/or maintain your list and mail it (or pay someone else to do it), and finally, measure the results (or pay someone else to do it).

Getting ’Em

Most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time, energy, and resources on customer acquisition, and any entrepreneur will tell you that time, energy, and resources are the three most valuable commodities. They are also three of the most expensive and difficult marketing commodities to sustain.

I am an eager and continuous student of marketing and business. If you’re like me, you’ve probably also read countless books and articles about different marketing strategies designed to help you get more new customers into your business.

With every passing week, and with the constant expansion of the Internet’s power, it seems that there’s always some new marketing strategy or tool to learn about, with each proclaiming to be the best way to get more customers. No doubt, it’s a challenge to figure out what works best for attracting new customers to your business.

When I speak around the country about newsletter marketing and effective customer retention strategies, I like to use the leaky bucket analogy.

Think of your company as a giant bucket of water. The water in your bucket represents your customers—the lifeblood of your business. Every drop of water that leaks out of your bucket is a lost customer and lost sales, including all future revenue. Ouch!

If your company is like a leaky bucket—and every business is to some degree—then it is paramount to your survival that you continuously fill your bucket with more water. After all, no water, no business!

So the question is: How leaky is your bucket? How many holes does your bucket have that are letting your customers constantly pour out?

Be honest—does your bucket simply have a few leaks around the seams that let customers occasionally seep out, or is it riddled it with holes, and customers are gushing out from every one of them?

If I can be blunt, my guess is that your bucket has more holes than you even know about. But don’t be too embarrassed; most businesses do.

There are two ways to keep the water level in your bucket full and, therefore, customers in your business:

1)     Constantly add more water, new customers, while previous customers continue to pour out.

2)     Plug the leaks in your business, and keep the water you’ve already got in your bucket.

Ten. Embrace your leadership role. Let’s face it, people look to you for guidance. You’re the head of your company, the authority, the guru, the problem-solver. People, especially in this economy, do get worried. They look to others for leadership and guidance. They look to others for wisdom and confidence. This is a very, very good reason for sending out a monthly newsletter—you keep promoting yourself as the go-to resource in your industry.

Keep in mind at least 90 percent of the world are followers and as much as 10 percent of the world are leaders. Choose to be a leader. Wake up every day and ask yourself, “What am I doing to behave like a leader?”

To wrap it up, if you can change your negative attitudes and behaviors and adapt a mindset and strategies that set yourself apart, if you can wake up every day and embrace the challenges, if you are grateful for what you have, avoid the negativity, and surround yourself with positive people, if you take action and implement on multiple fronts, then you and your business will have an awesome ride.

Eight. Be knowledgeable. You need to be knowledgeable about how and why money moves in our economy. Money moves for value. If you have followed me for any period of time, even just the Success Advantage program, you know that since it started, I have consistently found ways to add more and more value to the program.

Money moves for value. Have your conscious mind ask your subconscious the question, “How can I provide more value to my customers?” Then go on with your day. What you’ll find is that your subconscious mind starts dripping ideas into your head. You’ll start thinking up possibilities. (Whenever you can, ask yourself mindset questions out loud.) Be knowledgeable. Find a mentor. Read. Overcome challenges, find solutions, and gain a winning mindset.

Nine. Deal with discomfort. Sometimes we have discomfort. We have frustration. We deal with fears—the fear of failure, fear of success. You need to be able to deal with those discomforts.

Fear holds many people back from achieving. You’ve got to tackle it. Nothing is better for conquering fear than taking action. Just keep taking the little steps, one at a time. Eventually you will get to where you want to be.

One of the many great benefits of social media marketing, particularly for entrepreneurs and small business owners, is that it allows them to play and compete on the same playing field as huge companies. You see, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a home based business or a multi-national corporation, everyone has access to the same 140 character Tweets on Twitter and everyone has the same ability to attract new clients with engaging blog posts! Read more of this informative article by clicking here!

Don’t Be Afraid To Be You (and Chill out on Biz Stuff!)

Whether writing on your blog, Facebook, or even Twitter, give your readers more of you! Be authentic and be real, let your personality shone through. Nobody will come back to your blog or read your posts if all you do is write about ‘company stuff’ and they especially won’t comeback if you’re perceived as always trying to sell something. Chill out, give your reader some information that is fun, useful and entertaining and they’ll likely come back for more! Read more of this informative article by clicking here!

Newsletters Help Keep Customers Longer and Spending More!

No matter what business you are in, your current customers hold the best prospect for future growth. According to research from Bain and Company, getting business from your current customers costs about a fifth of what it costs to acquire a new customer. Read more of this informative article by clicking here!

As you may have surmised, this is one content rich newsletter. If you’re not getting it in your email every Tuesday morning, you can subscribe for free at www.JimsNewsletter.com.