« The Direct Marketing Voice Links 4-29-2009 | Home | The Direct Marketing Voice Links 5-1-2009 »
Focus on the Customer. All else falls into place.
By Luis Paez | April 29, 2009
Traditional thought in selling is to generate leads. Once leads have been generated, then you can focus on selling them. Once sold, they turn into customers. As customers, they become a little elusive – especially those who haven’t purchased in a long time. Recently, I have heard perspectives that describe a different type of approach toward leads.
The difficult, strange initial concept is to forget about leads altogether.
Consider this: What if anyone who called in from a direct mail campaign was your customer? What if any person who came into contact with your company – from the UPS guy to your corporate suppliers – was your customer? For a moment, what would happen if you simply considered all the people that come into contact with your business to be a customer. Suddenly, you are very focused on how you’re interacting with all of them. Leads cease to be leads – they are just customers who have not made a purchase yet. Suppliers are closely related partners who may purchase your service in the future – suppliers can be customers too (in fact, you may get some reduced pricing if they are).
The point is that too often we treat our “leads” as strangers. They should be brought into the fold immediately and made to feel as if they are a part of your business’ community. Once they feel a part of this community, it’s a short step for them to find an opportunity to buy something. This is perhaps best achieved by an initial “premium” marketing investment (welcome pack or personalized marketing) that serves to educate leads/customers about your company’s culture. If they want to engage right away with a purchase, great! If not, they’ll better understand who you are, and you can continue the discussion long term with regular (monthly, semi-monthly) emails.
Long term, however, the trick is to keep this community thriving. Connect customers with contacts who could become their customers. Have events relevant to your business’ community. Send Christmas cards. You get the point – the more you can make the experience about them – the more you’ll receive in long term revenue. For some examples, check out how Threadless creates a great experience for their Gen-Y community. I hope to find more instances of bloggers thinking less about “lead generation” and more about “community nurturing”.