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Yesterday I got a surprise in the mail. A movie gift card as a thank you, from a business associate who I had sent a customer to. A small gesture – but a very powerful one! It made a huge impression on me. Chances are very high that I’ll do more business with him. It wasn’t the fact that I got something for free that made the impact. It was the randomness of the gift and that he took the time to make the gesture. It made me feel my efforts were appreciated.

Rarely in this society do we say thank you to people who do business with us. As a small business owner, your biggest asset is your existing customer base. Research has shown that it costs seven times more to find new customers than to keep the existing ones. So why not shower your clients with kindness? Show them you appreciate their business? That’s the best way to build loyal customers and keep them coming back. You need to stay in touch so they don’t forget you.

And I [Find out more ...]

I recently met with an owner of a 10 year old business; this person is a sales genius, having grown sales to nearly $2 million. He’s built strong customer relationships, has an excellent reputation in the community and has no problem finding new business. All of this is great, except for one thing. In spite of the fact that sales have grown at a very healthy rate, profits haven’t.

His challenge is the same as so many other entrepreneurs. He’s got a great product; he gives great customer service and he knows many of his customers on a personal basis. He has a system for invoicing, so the bills go out on time. But a percentage of customers are not paying on time – some of them, not for a long time.

He’s making two serious mistakes. First, he doesn’t want to upset his customer relationships by bugging them about paying. He figures if he does a great job, people will pay. Some of those outstanding invoices have been unpaid for 3 to 6 months. That is a lot of his money [Find out more ...]